When I was researching Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself I discovered lots of information that was new to me and I did my best to incorporate all of the pertinent and interesting facts into the book. Imagine my surprise when flipping through an old issue of Smithsonian (February 2004), I spotted an article titled, “Maine’s Lost Colony”. I’d never heard of it!

It turns out, in 1607 – the same year that Jamestown was founded – a settlement called Popham was established where the Kennebec River enters the Atlantic Ocean in what is now Maine. By December of that year, food was scarce and half the colonists returned to England. The remaining colonists erected several buildings but ultimately sailed home the following autumn. There were 100 men and boys that worked to create this settlement, and yet few people know of this.

When an archaeologist found an old map and did a test excavation in 1994, he and his team found a posthole that they believed was evidence of the Popham colony. He and his crew now spend time every year working on excavating the site. You can read the entire article on the Smithsonian site, here.

Very interesting stuff!