Bowdoinham, ME

At the 2020 census, Bowdoinham was a Sagadahoc County town of 3,047 people on the western side of Merrymeeting Bay. Six rivers feed the bay, including the Cathance, Abagadasset, Muddy, Eastern, Kennebec, and Androscoggin, so the town's geography is really a tidal freshwater crossroads. The village grew at Cathance Landing after a bridge was built in 1805; by 1818 it had a post office and a busy riverfront.

Bowdoinham's early economy was built on water. Shipyards lined the Cathance, the sloop Merrymeeting launched in 1768, and ice harvested from the Kennebec traveled in sawdust-packed holds to markets beyond Maine. In 1886 the town had 24 ice companies. The Jellerson School, a surviving one-room schoolhouse, and the Merrymeeting Bay Museum keep the landward side of that history in view, while the farmers' market and river access connect it to the present. That water still sets the town's daily scale and calendar. Bowdoinham is a town where a small village, a huge bay, and six rivers keep sharing the same address.