The recent Sebago Lake water level dispute has rich historical roots. Since
the first colonists settled inland along the Presumpscot River , the conflicts
for control of the river from Sebago Lake to Casco Bay have affected our
local history. A series of armed encounters between two industrial giants
disputing control of Sebago Lake waters erupted at the Basin Dam during
January of 1877. The Basin Dam situated at Wescott's Falls, the natural
outlet of Sebago Lake, was first constructed in 1830 by the Cumberland and
Oxford Canal Company to provide for better navigation in the basin and divert
water to the canal. The basin resembled a wide and shallow river bed from
White's Bridge to Wescott's Falls. Ownership and water rights of the 1830
Basin Dam had never been clearly defined before 1877.
On rare occasions when the lake level dropped to record lows due to extreme
drought, the Oriental Powder Company curtailed the duration of flows. If
the lake level dropped below the flood gates at the Basin Dam , the Powder
Company would cease operating from a lack of water power. Reducing flows
was a gamble for the Powder Company. If rains soon arrived, raising the
lake then the reduction in flows and subsequent production decrease was
unnecessary . If the drought continued several more months, then operations
could continue avoiding financial losses from the failure to fulfill the
powder contracts. Mill owners down river in Westbrook required a greater
daily volume of water flow. Reductions in the flow durations devastated
their production. A drought in 1876 set the stage for a classic confrontation
over water rights.
On January 14 , 1877, four men under the employee of W. E. Langley, manager
of the Cumberland Mills owned by Samuel Warren, drove a carriage to the
Basin Dam. They requested the dam keepers, Mr. Goff and Mr. Plummer , to
raise the gates. to provide relief from a lack of water in Westbrook. Goff
and Plummer refused saying they complied only with orders from the Oriental
Powder Company. Mr. Langley returned to Westbrook angry over wasted efforts.
He returned the following day with his four men who seized the dam and hoisted
the gates. Newspapers referred to this Westbrook band as the Congin Company.
On Tuesday, January 16th, Mr. Goff with 5 or 6 men extricated by force the
Congin Company from the dam and shut the gates. While the Oriental Powder
Company guard went to dinner, the Congin Company received reinforcements
of about 20 men. A few remaining Powder Company guards retreated in the
face of overwhelming numbers. The Congin party sent several of their band
for more recruits. The remainder of men unfolded a tent on the fishway for
a temporary home. They brought lumber to the dam and constructed a small
house over the flood gates and equipped it with a wood stove for cooking
and warmth.
The Oriental Powder Company, having lost the battle, retreated to the courts.
Honorable W.W. Thomas Jr. of Portland applied for an injunction to restrain
Cumberland Mills from interfering with the management of the flood gates.
Sebago Lake was approximately at 258.9 feet mean sea level when the battle
began on January 15, 1877. The Oriental Powder Company claimed the lake
dropped to 258.32 feet by the end of January. At approximately 258.0 feet
msl water will not flow from Sebago Lake so it was a desperate time. If
the water flow ceased, all the major mills along the Presumpscot River would
shut down.
Westbrook interests were also furious that the Oriental Powder Company had
also detained flow from Long Pond. The Powder company had usurped control
of the Songo dam controlling Long Pond when the Canal Company folded in
1870. Honorable T. B. Reed representing Cumberland Mills asked Judge Virgin
in the first week of February 1877 if a measure could be taken to keep the
level of Sebago Lake up. He claimed, according to a 1877 newspaper article,
that the Oriental Powder Company shut the gates at Long Pond. The newspaper
further reported ,"Cumberland Mills is planning to take action to open
the gates at Songo Lock ". In the second week of February a force of
5 men under the direction of the Cumberland Mills tore off the planks at
the Songo Locks dam to let on water from Long Pond. The Dyer heirs with
an interest in navigation sent 12 men to replace the planks and guard the
locks. In the face of 12 men, two men from Cumberland Mills again tore off
the planks and cast them into the Songo. Again the Dyer guard replaced the
planks. On February 16th, five men employed by Cumberland Mills for the
3rd time destroyed the plank dam.
A Bridgton News account of this little battle is as follows: "Of the
12 guards stationed there in behalf of the Dyer heirs under command of Captain
Jordan B. Mitchell only three remained and instead of showing fight and
endeavoring to hold the fort retired within their entrenchments beside the
lock. They dispatched Calvin Paul to D. H. Cole esquire for legal assistance."
On March 2, five men Alvinzo and Charles Green, Edward Sampson, George Goodridge,
and Adellant Chute, all employed by Cumberland Mills, were arrested. The
warrant for their arrest stated: "These men with force of arms did
seditiously, riotously, tumultuously and did unlawfully assemble and did
make an assault and other wrongs against Jordan B. Mitchell". Damages
were paid, and the charges were dismissed in May 1877.
In the complaint summons filed by the Oriental Powder Company against Samuel
Warren, the Westbrook Manufacturing Company, the Sebago Wood Board Company
and Charles Fairchild were also named as defendents. The Oriental Powder
Company claimed, "when Langley and his men opened the gates, the water
rushed through so violently raising the river so that the backwater from
a dam down river restricted the mill wheels to scarcely turning and the
lake level had fallen considerably." The Powder Company further claimed
with the continued flow of water and drop in the lake level, all water powered
factories on the Presumpscot would shut down in several weeks.
The court recorded case for the Oriental Powder Company chronologically
began 47 years prior to 1877 in 1830, "when the Cumberland And Oxford
Canal acquired an easement through the land and mill privilege of Nathan
Winslow and the right to maintain the water at the Basin Dam at a height
sufficient to supply and operate the canal. In 1834, when Oliver Whipple
in behalf of the Oriental Powder Company bought the land at Wescott's 's
Falls, he received all of Nathan Winslow's rights to use the water at his
pleasure. All of Oliver Whipple's successors were superintendents of the
Oriental Powder Company. When the canal ceased operation in 1870, the Cumberland
and Oxford Canal Corporation forfeited all their rights to control the flood
gates on the dam. Because of the extinguishment of the easement of the Canal
corporation the sole and exclusive rights to raise and close all the gates
at the Basin Dam became vested in the Oriental Powder Company. The mill
built upon the dam was in the possession of John Lindsey who leased the
dam to Goff and Plummer. Oliver Whipple purchased the Basin Dam for the
Powder Company use at Gambo Falls as did each of his successors. It was
necessary for that purpose as the river is rapid with a sharp descent above
the mills at Gambo Falls and affords no other suitable place for forming
a reservoir for them. The Powder mills had to have possession of the Basin
Dam for maintaining the necessary head of water and regulating the flow
to insure a sufficient supply for the mills at all times. A deficiency in
the supply of water would have subjected them to great and irreparable losses
not only in the stopping and loss of their business but also from disabling
them from fulfilling contracts already entered and subjecting them to damages
".
The Westbrook interests answer to the complaint is missing from the state
archives or was never recorded. However , 1877 newspapers gave accounts
quoting from the answer presented to Judge Virgin. T. B. Reed represented
Samuel Warren and the other defendants with this powerful and able argument:
"their water power was an ancient privilege occupied and improved by
dams for more than 100 years (prior to 1860) and they had a claim to free
uninterrupted use of and flow of the Presumpscot river from Sebago Pond
to mills at Saccarappa until the summer of 1860 ( a drought produced a legal
confrontation similar to the 1877 dispute) . In 1830 the Cumberland and
Oxford Canal did illegally construct a dam at Wescott's Falls which detained
the water of Sebago Pond . Consequently mill owners at Saccarappa constructed
flood gates in the dam so lake water could flow when the lake level dropped
below the height of the dam. The mill owners rights to keep these gates
open when necessary was always recognized by the Cumberland and Oxford Canal
Corporation and owners of the water power at Wescott's dam. The Oriental
Powder Company furnished the water called for in recognition of the mill
owners rights.
In 1857 The Basin dam at Wescott's Falls went out on repair. The Canal Corporation,
John Lindsey, the Oriental Powder Company, the Westbrook Manufacturing Company,
Warren and Company, Bridgham, Clements, and others built a new dam at joint
expense. Proper gates were constructed to supply sufficient water when the
lake level dropped below the dam. The mill owner maintain the Basin dam
is under control of all the mill owners to open whenever they needed water.They
have always had the right to use the Presumpscot river according to its
ordinary flow and this right has always been recognized by all parties at
Wescott's Falls".
During the legal dispute Judge Virgin ordered the gates held open to allow
some outflow. Working for the court, an engineer named John Anderson estimated
the compromise flow at 20,000 cubic feet per minute . An account shedding
light on the outlet flow of the Basin Dam was in the Water Power of Maine
by Walter Wells written in 1869.
Wells writes, "The estimated discharge for the year is 20,400,000,000
cubic feet. The natural uniformity of the stream is assisted by the artificial
control of the delivery of the lake so that for the practical purposes of
manufacturing it is constant throughout the year. The volume employed at
Cumberland Mills is about 50,000 cubic feet per minute".
About one eighth of the Presumpscot River flow or 6,000 cubic feet emanates
from tributary sources other than the Basin dam. During times of normal
precipatation the Basin dam outflow averaged 40,000 to 45,000 cubic feet
per minute. This was the ordinary and uniform flow that several historical
documents refer to.
The bill of equity against S.D. Warren was dismissed before early summer
of 1877. No mention of any agreements between the Oriental Powder Company
and the Westbrook interests has yet been found in the historical records.
The conflicting parties involved represented some of the shrewdest and most
educated business minds in southern Maine. No clear legal answer existed
in this counterproductive fight over water rights. Both sides needed an
increased storage capacity of water in Sebago Lake. They decided to construct
a higher dam to store the water wasted almost every spring. Walter Wells
mentions this waste in his 1869 book. Wells quotes W.H. Jackson, the Oriental
Powder Company superintendent, " I have run at Wescott's Falls where
the lake's waters enter the river for 32 days through four gates four feet
square and one six feet square under a ten foot head with a flow four feet
deep over the dam eighty feet long and even then have not succeeded in preventing
the water from rising six to nine inches above the four foot head on the
dam, which is all the dam will safely carry."
Two historical papers reflected the results of agreements between the opposing
parties. One was a deed stating Samuel Warren paid John Lindsey $20,000
in behalf of the Presumpscot Water and Power Company for the dam, mill and
property at Wescott's Falls. The second document was a state charter granted
February 15,1878 by the Maine legislature to the Presumpscot Water and Power
Company to raise and improve the Basin Dam at Wescott's Falls by five feet..
The $20,000 investment by Samuel Warren plus the expense of raising the
dam by five feet was a great bargain. In 1907 one foot storage of Sebago
Lake water according to John Warren was worth $50,000 per year to the factories
along the Presumpscot. At full pond the new dam added $250,000 annually
in storage. This added storage gave Westbrook factories the benefit of receiving
a constant uniform flow for longer durations of time. The new dam fulfilled
its goal of never allowing the lake's outlet to cease flowing in times of
drought.
An important passage of the Presumpscot Water and Power Company state charter
(Section 3, Chapter 64 of Legislative Acts) begins , "said corporation
is authorized, to maintain, keep up, repair and extend the present dam to
a height of five feet and shall be maintained for the purpose of raising
a head of water for the use of factories, for supplying the city of Portland
with water for the purpose of storing up water in Sebago Lake in order to
increase and regulate but not unnecessarily to obstruct the flow of water
on the Presumpscot river for the benefit of all the water powers and mill
privileges on said river ".
Obstructing the flow at the Basin dam by the Oriental Powder Company led
to a violent disagreement where good men prepared to harm another. The words
"but not unnecessarily obstruct," were added to forever end water
flow disagreements on the Presumpscot river.
The term "to increase and regulate the flow," defined the function
and existence of the higher Basin dam. In later years the Basin Dam at Wescott's
Falls was renamed Eel Weir. Other water rights battles have followed throughout
the last 110 years.All these events are key to understanding the environmental
history of Sebago Lake and the Presumpscot River; however, none were as
intriguing and mysteriously cloaked in historical secrecy as the Basin Dam
War of 1877.
When the Cumberland and Oxford Canal was completed in 1830, Sebago Lake
and its tributaries served as a valuable highway from Harrison to the ocean.
A timber industry ruled the region. Mills in Westbrook depended upon adequate
water levels in Sebago Lake so that an armada of 60 foot canal boats loaded
with raw materials could navigate the basin and rivers entering Sebago Lake
and make their way down the canal to Westbrook and on to the ocean. An expansive
agricultural industry followed where the land had been clearcut of a great
virgin forest.
From its heyday in the 1840's, the timber industry continually declined
as good trees became scarce or grew far from the rivers needed to transport
them. In times of canal boats serving as the principle bearer of people
and goods, steamships in the 1870's began transporting goods and people
from the new railroad line at Sebago Lake Station to all landings on the
way to Harrison. After 1870 when the railroads opened new frontiers, agricultural
methods changed across the nation. Many small farmers taking advantage of
the new opportunities left the state of Maine.
The fastest growing industy around Sebago Lake at that time was the summer
tourist industry. Several large hotels were built to house city summer visitors
escaping from the humid climate of northeastern cities. This industry relied
on steamships to ferry passengers from Sebago Lake station, up the Songo
River, and to the hotels and boarding houses of Long Lake. Most roads were
unreliable, making stagecoach travel slow and expensive. If the water levels
at the mouth of the Songo River emptying into Sebago Lake were too low,
the steamships would cease operating and as a direct consequence the summer
tourist industry would suffer. In 1907, a drought inspired the navigation
interests of Sebago and Long Lake to submit a bill to establish a bench
mark for the water level of Sebago Lake at 262.65 feet above mean sea level.
This was the height of the Basin Dam prior to 1878. Honorable Enoch Foster,
representing the steamship and hotel interest of Long Lake, gave a spirited
and animated speech portraying accurately the emotions of the debate.
In his closing , Enoch stated, "In 1905 it was impossible to navigate
the river at all. They say that Providence lowered the water but we will
ask then if Providence raised the gates at the foot of the lake. In this
case I am for the underdog as usual. I say it is time that we called a halt
if it comes to this that a corporation or trust- call it what you will-
can say that it has great interests at Saccarappa or Westbrook, all others
should be subservient thereto. We say these corporations have no more rights
than the humblest citizen. We come here to be protected. We are not going
to stand this abuse any longer, unless this committee backed by a majority
vote of the Legislature says that you have no rights- and I don't think
it will."
Mr. Bradley, representing the mill owners of Westbrook said, according to
a Portland Press article, " that while the other side charged his clients
with drawing the water down illegally, they did not rest their claim upon
their common law right to navigate the lake at its natural level. Instead,
they ask the Presumpscot Water and Power Company to maintain the water at
a level five feet above the natural level. They base their claims on the
charter of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, but we rest our claim on our
common law right to have the water come down to us. They never had any right
except to use the water for canals and they have no right to raise the water
or hold the water."
In 1877, lawyers for Cumberland Mills owned by Samuel Warren argued for
the right to the uninterrupted uniform flow of the Presumpscot River. The
Presumpscot Power and Water Company, bankrolled by Samuel Warren, lobbied
for and were granted a state charter to raise the Basin Dam five feet in
order to "increase and regulate but not to unnecessarily obstruct the
flow" of the Presumpscot river. No mention is made by the charter regarding
raising the lake for the purpose of aiding navigation. The original Basin
Dam in 1830 had been built solely for improving navigation.
John Warren , the son of Samuel Warren, was the major stockholder of the
Presumpscot Water and Power Company as well as an owner of Cumberland Mills.
He had received much criticism for the low lake levels of Sebago Lake in
1905 and 1906.
He responded by writing a lenghty rebuttal to the accusations made by the
navigation interests . His letter was transcribed from the Westbrook Globe
Star February 28, 1907.
" There seems to be an impression on the part of many people that the
Presumpscot Water and Power Company as owner of the dam at the outlet of
Sebago Lake, now have the right and power to lower the level of Sebago Lake
below that which existed in a state of nature, that they have in the past
drawn the water below the natural level, and they have used the water in
a wasteful manner. To remove any such impression, I wish to state:
First. That the water power owners have neither the legal right nor the
physical ability to lower the natural level of Sebago Lake.
Second: That they have never attempted to draw the water of the lake below
its natural level and that all their operations relate to the stored water
above that level.
Third: That they have not used the water wastefully.
Lake Sebago is a natural, not an artificial lake, and is held in by natural
barriers which have never been interfered with. The owners of the dam at
the outlet can hold back the water, but it is not within their powers to
draw the water below what it would have been in a state of nature, and as
a matter of fact, never have and probably never will be able to draw it
down to the levels that were obtained under natural conditions.
Again, Lake Sebago is not simply a resevoir, but receives constantly the
inflow from the contributing streams and spring, and the natural outlet
is not so definite as the rim of a cup or the rollway of a dam, but is instead,
a rocky channel with sloping sides which lessens in width as well as depth
as the water draws down, thus reducing the outflow until an equilibrium
was established and the level of the lake remained fairly constant, until
a change in inflow occurred.
In a state of nature, with no dam at the outlet the floods resulting from
melting snows and spring rains would rapidly flow off, so that the lake
would assume a fairlly constant level by the early summer of each year.
In a long dry summer the water would draw to a lower level and if on the
contrary, frequent rains occurred, the level would be somewhat higher, but
a fairly constant level would exist at about three feet below the point
at which navigation interest now wish to establish a bench mark, thus requiring
the water power owners by means of their dam to hold the water three feet
higher at all times than it would have been in a state of nature.
Now it is apparent that it has not been within the power of the owners of
the dam to impair navigation, and that all their action has been in the
way of improving it ; that this improvement has not cost the navigation
interests anything, and it is only that they may share there largely in
that which has cost them nothing and has cost the mill owners very large
sums, that they bring their present bill.
The statement has been made ( which has been accentuated by some of the
testimony brought in favor of the bench mark ) that the water power owners
use the water in a wasteful manner. Now, plainly, it is not for their interest
to do this, but rather to use it conservatively, with a view of promoting
as nearly as possible a uniform flow throughout the year. This storage in
Lake Sebago has cost the water power owners a large sum and is of real value
and it is but natural that they should wish to utilize it in the fullest
extent. On the other hand they are not oblivious to the interests of navigation
upon the lake or the interests of those who live upon its shores and have
never drawn down the water needlessly and have maintained as high and constant
a water level as they could consistently during the summer months.
Lake Sebago, however, like all other lakes, has no source of supply other
than the rainfall, and if the rainfall is scant or if the rainfall comes
largely in the summer time when the melting snows or spring(s) are dried
up by the March winds, the supply of water is not adequate to bring it back,
to a good level they suffer from lack of water as well as the parties navigating
the lake.
The simple fact that the ponds of the water power owners along the river
are full of water does not indicate an ample flow in the river, as anyone
who has thought on the subject will readily see, for, however small the
flow, it is manifestly desirable to keep the ponds full and get the benefit
of whatever flow thereis.
No attempt ought to be made to induce the Legislature to take away the rights
of the water power owners acquired under authority of the Legislature and
at great cost. on the theory that any wrong has been done to the navigation
interests by reason of the action of the water power owners. What the water
power owners have done at Lake Sebago has resulted in benefit to the navigation
interests, not in damage. The navigation interests ought not now to attempt
to furthur improve their position at the expense of the water power owners.
The water power of Maine is presumably its most valuable asset, and should
be reasonably protected, as on it depends the existence of our manufacturing
interests, on which so large a percentage of our people depend for their
support."
-- J.E. Warren
Cumberland Mills February 25, 1907
When John Warren wrote that it was the intention of the Presumpscot Water
and Power Company to promote a nearly uniform flow as possible, he failed
to mention that any unnecessary obstruction of the water at the outlet of
Lake Sebago was a violation of their charter. Navigation of the Songo was
the real issue. No one ever mentioned the geologic principles of a classic
meandering river like the Songo and how deltas form at the mouths of slow
moving rivers as they enter a large body of water. No matter what water
level the lake is maintained at, sand will be deposited at the mouth forming
sand bars.
1907 was a milestone year as the navigation interests never again mounted
any legislative challenge to the mill interests of Westbrook . The bill
before the Legislature died in committee allowing Cumberland Mills and John
Warren to establish their political dominance over the control of Sebago
Lake waters.
The next navigational group to protest low water levels was the Sebago Yacht
Club on March 3, 1957. A level of 262.0 mean sea level was requested as
a minimum for the month of August. The Yacht Club explained, according to
the Portland Press, that such a level would enable pleasure boats to move
in and out of two marinas in Jordans Bay late in August without striking
bottom. This level is 4.63 feet below the full mark of 266.63 feet.
On April 8, 1957, Everett Ingalls, vice president of S.D. Warren Co., admitted
under questioning that it is the obligation of the Sebago Water Improvement
Company, of which the mill and Central Maine Power are stockholders, to
keep the Songo River open to navigation. He said that if the river was dredged,
tolls would have to be raised to meet the cost. Sixty-four years prior John
Warren representing the Presumpscot Water and Power Company, had agreed
to pay the cost of dredging. S.D. Warren Co. had bought out the rights of
the Presumpscot Water and Power Company in the 1940's.
In the April 8,1957, Portland Press Herald article, a noteworthy quotation
by Ingalls made to the Yacht Club was,"There is no legal limit to the
amount of water the mill can draw."
The Warrens were highly educated, shrewd businessmen . They compromised
to solve disagreements. When John Warren ,in 1893, was told by the Fish
Commisioner to repair fishways on the Basin Dam, he didn't argue. He just
ordered it to be done. In 1893, when the Songo River was low and hindering
navigation, John Warren ordered immediate dredging. Sam Warren, by purchasing
the Basin Dam in 1877 in order to solve a dangerous feud with the Oriental
Powder Co. made a $20,000 investment that would earn future owners of S.D.
Warren Company millions of dollars. The Warrens were quick to solve problems
and get on with business. It was no accident the Warrens became industrial
giants.
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