Demographics
Bucksport Population Statistics
Facts of Interest
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 56.5 square miles (146.2 km²), of which 51.6 square miles (133.5 km²) is land and 4.9 square miles (12.7 km², or 8.68%) is water.
Located at the head of Penobscot Bay, Bucksport is drained by the Penobscot River. It includes Silver Lake, a recreation, fishing and birdwatching site.
The town is crossed by U. S. Route 1 and State Routes 3, 15 and 46. It borders the towns of Orrington and Holden to the north, Dedham and Orland to the east, and (separated by the Penobscot River) Verona Island to the south, and Prospect, Frankfort and Winterport to the west.
The first inhabitants of Bucksport were a 5,000 year old prehistoric culture known as the Red Paint People, that would later be referred to as the Maritime Archaic. They were thought to be a highly advanced native fishing culture that buried red paint in their graves along with stone tools and weapons.
The first archaeological dig in the State of Maine, if not the entire United States, was initiated by Professor Charles Willoughby in 1891 on Indian Point, on a site long occupied by the paper-making industry.
Notable Natives of Bucksport
Carl Darling Buck, a distinguished American philologist, was born in Bucksport on October 2, 1866. His Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages was called by Calvert Watkins "a treasure house of words, word origins, expressions, and ideas..., a monument to a great American scholar". Many of Buck's books went through multiple editions, and several are still in print.
Frank Fellows, a U.S. Representative from Maine, was born in Bucksport on November 7, 1889. He was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-seventh Congress and to the five succeeding Congresses, and served from January 3, 1941, until his death in Bangor, August 27, 1951. He is interred in Silver Lake Cemetery.
Edward Winslow Hinks, a career United States Army officer, was born in Bucksport on May 30, 1830. He served as a brigadier general during the American Civil War. On December 3, 1867, President Andrew Johnson nominated Hinks for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general in the regular army, to rank from March 2, 1867, for his service at Petersburg. The U.S. Senate confirmed the award on February 14, 1868.
Dora Wiley, an American soprano, was born in Bucksport in 1852 or 1853. She performed in operas and concerts in the United States, England, and Australia during the last three decades of the 19th century. Nicknamed "The Sweet Singer of Maine", her chief successes were in operettas and comic operas. She enjoyed popularity on the New York stage during the 1880s.