Timeline
of Maine History
Origins
| -23,000 |
The most recent
glacial episode in Maine began about 25,000 years ago, when the Laurentide
ice sheet overspread New England. |
| -19,000 |
Climatic warming
forced the Laurentide ice sheet to start receding. |
| -11,800 |
Ice sheet recedes
from the continental shelf east of Long Island and reaches the present
position of the Maine coast. |
| -10,000 |
Last glacier recedes to northern Maine. |
|
-9,000
|
Ocean, that invaded inland after the
glacier, recedes to near current coast.
Dense forests cover the state.
First Native Americans move into Maine
from south or west. |
| -8,000 |
Glacier completely gone from Maine. |
| -3,500 |
Birch bark canoe has been developed. |
| -1,000 |
Maine's Native Americans adopted the use of pottery (beginning the
Ceramic Period for archaeologists). |
| 986 |
Biorn (or Bjarn), a Norseman, first European to
visit America, lands at Cape Cod* |
| 1000 |
In southwestern Maine, corn, bean, and
squash agriculture has been added to an existing hunting and gathering
base.
Lief Erikson and Norsemen, investigating Biorn's story, spend the winter near
the present site of Fall River, Massachusetts, and name the place Vinland.* |
|
1003
|
Leif Erikson explores the Maine coast. |
|
1008
|
A Norse couple spend three years in Vinland.
Their son, Snorri Thorfinnson, was the first white person born on the American
continent.* |
|
1121
|
Bishop Eirik (Erik, Erick) visits Vinland as a
missionary. |
*Dunnack, Henry E. The Maine Book.
Augusta, Maine. 1920. (He was Librarian of the Maine State Library.)
|