Above the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine

With this book you can put your canoe in a nearby river or pond and travel prehistoric routes to campgrounds thousands of years old. Discover the birchbark canoe with the Indians of the Northeast.

“Puts the true ancestral landscape into perspective.”

—James Eric Francis, Sr., Penobscot Tribal Historian

David Cook takes the reader on a birchbark canoe journey through the landscape in the context of Northeastern geological development and Indian prehistoric culture. On rivers, lakes, over carries, and through coastal routes, we follow the archaeological and historical record, informed by accounts of early explorers. First attempted in the early twentieth century, the publication of these ancient canoe routes, in daily use for millennia, is finally accomplished and in its third edition, with translations of Indian place names, a thorough index, notes and bibliography, and a foreword by Penobscot tribal historian, James Eric Francis, Sr. The eminent anthropologist David Sanger, PhD, provides an introduction.

Above the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine by David S. Cook, 32 black and white maps, photos & illustrations, 168 pp Quality Paperback, 5.5″x8.5″, ISBN-13: 978-1-882190-69-0; ISBN-10: 1-882190-69-6 US $12.95