Sowadabscook River, Maine
Penobscot county. This stream falls into the Penobscot at Hampden, 5 miles below Bangor. Within 3 miles of its mouth it falls 120 feet, furnishing many valuable mill privileges. The main branch, which rises in Stetson, unites with the Harvey stream from Levant, and the Kinsley stream from Etna, both affording excellent mill sites, near the village of Carmel. Below these, the Sowadabscook is deep and sluggish, from 15 to 25 yards in width, flowing through extensive meadows, and the Great and Little ponds in Hermon, with very little descent, to the head of the falls in Hampden. Near the east line of Carmel, this stream comes within about 20 rods of the Little Kenduskeag, a stream which flows through the N.E. part of Carmel, from Levant to Bangor; and the two streams are united by a branch from 20 to 30 feet wide and 3 feet deep, called the Cross. The Kenduskeag is so rapid that it rises and falls much quicker than the Sowadabscook. When the streams are rising, the current in the Cross sets towards the Sowadabscook, and when falling, towards the Kenduskeag.
The country watered by the Sowadabscook is generally rather level and free from hills, though there are many swells of very fine farming land. In the towns of Hermon and Hampden is a large tract, very little elevated above the level of the stream, and liable to be overflowed by freshets. It is too low for settlement and is chiefly covered with wood. The improvement of this land requires too great an outlay of capital for a new country, but it will probably at some time be among the most valuable in the country for mowing.
There are on this stream, in Hampden, five superior saw mills, a grist and paper mill, and the privileges are excelled by few in New England. Upon the Kenduskeag are 9 mills below the Cross, many of them superior double mills. The pine timber has been cut off upon the waters of this stream to such an extent, as to give a high value to that which remains, and to the hemlock timber, of which there are great quantities of fine quality.
