- Allagash River
.
It issues from
Allagash Lake in northern Piscataquis County. It flows generally northeast, passing through a chain of natural mountain lakes. It joins the St. John from the south at Allagash near the international border withNew Brunswick . The relatively unspoiled nature of the river has long made it a popular destination forcanoe trips. In the 1850sHenry David Thoreau made two journeys by canoe along the river, guided byPenobscot s. He later wrote about the experience in his published account of the Maine WoodsIn 1966, the citizens of Maine voted to protect the river by authorizing a $1.5 million bond that would "develop the maximum wilderness character" of the river. Much of the river was subsequently designated as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. In 1970 the waterway became part of theNational Wild and Scenic River program of the U.S. federal government. Although the wild designation of the river is normally applied to free-flowing streams, the designation left in place the wooden Churchill Dam for historic reasons. In the 1990s, with the dam failing, the citizens of Maine authorized a concrete replacement for the dam to preserve the nearby recreational facilities on the river. The rebuilding of the dam was highly criticized byenvironmentalist s. The expansion of recreational access to the river through new roads and docks has remained a controversial topic in recent years.Development in much of the area surrounding the Allagash Wilderness Waterway is restricted by the
Seven Islands Land Company , a private land management company that owns approximately 1 million acres (4000 km²) of forest in northern Maine.The United States government maintains one river flow gage on the Allagash, located near
Allagash, Maine (coord|47|04|14|N|69|04|51|W|) where the rivershed is convert|1479|sqmi|km2. The maximum recorded flow is convert|36900|cuft|m3 per second and the minimum convert|87|cuft|m3 per second. Annual maximum flows occur during the spring snow melt and minimums in the fall. [cite web | author=G.J. Stewart, J.P. Nielsen, J.M. Caldwell, A.R. Cloutier | year=2002| title=Water Resources Data - Maine, Water Year 2001 | format=PDF | work=Water Resources Data - Maine, Water Year 2001 | url=http://me.water.usgs.gov/Maine01adr.pdf | accessdate=2006-05-07]External links
* [http://www.nps.gov/maac/planyourvisit/waterway.htm NPS: Allagash Wilderness Waterway]
*Real time river [http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?01011000 flow] from the USGS.
*National Weather Service [http://newweb.erh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=car forecast] of river levels and flow.References
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