View source for Saco Bay

{{Short description|Bay off of Maine, US}}
{{For|the bay in Mozambique|Inhaca Island}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
[[File:Old Orchard Beach and Saco Bay aerial photograph.jpg|thumb|350x350px|Aerial photograph of Saco Bay]]
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}

'''Saco Bay''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɑː|k|oʊ}} {{respell|SAH|koh}}) is a small curved [[embayment]] of the [[Gulf of Maine]] on the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coast of [[Maine]] in the United States.

Saco Bay is approximately {{convert|10|mi|km|abbr=on}} wide, running from the Fletcher Neck (the [[Biddeford Pool]] peninsula) and the mouth of the [[Saco River]] in [[York County, Maine|York County]] north to the [[Scarborough River]] and [[Prout's Neck, Maine|Prouts Neck]] in [[Scarborough, Maine|Scarborough]], [[Cumberland County, Maine]],<ref>{{cite web |author1=Slovinsky, Peter A. |author2=Dickson, Stephen M. |name-list-style=amp |title=Variation of Beach Morphology along the Saco Bay Littoral Cell: an Analysis of Recent Trends and Management Alternatives |work=Maine Geological Survey |publisher=Department of Conservation, State of Maine |date=2005 |url=http://www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/marine/saco-bay/contents.htm |access-date=July 1, 2006}}</ref> approximately {{convert|13|mi|km|abbr=on}} southwest of [[Portland, Maine|Portland]]. The shoreline of the bay makes the largest sand beach and [[salt marsh]] system in Maine and contains the longest unbroken stretch of beach in the state.

==Ecosystem==
Construction of a railroad causeway in the 19th century led to the closure of the Little River Inlet. This tidal re-entrant had formed the county line between York and Cumberland counties and the town line between Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach. Prior to its closure, the [[Pine Point Beach|Pine Point region of Scarborough]] was a [[barrier island]], the only one in Maine.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Allen |last1=Roger |first2=Janine |last2=Reardon |first3=Tracy |last3=White |first4=Mr. and Mrs. Dennis |last4=Toomey |title=East Grand Beach |work=State of Maine Beach Profiling Project |publisher=University of Maine Department of Earth Sciences |date=January 2001 |url=http://www.geology.um.maine.edu/beach/east_grand.htm |access-date=July 1, 2006}}</ref> Behind Pine Point is the state run wildlife management area for [[Scarborough Marsh]]. The marsh is 15% of the state's total [[tidal marsh]] area and the largest contiguous marsh in Maine. The state owns and manages a {{convert|3100|acre|km2|adj=on}} reserve, of which {{convert|2700|acre|km2}} is salt marsh, about {{convert|200|acre|km2}} is upland habitats, with the remainder being other types of wetlands. The marsh is an excellent site for birding as 72% of the water dependent birds that can be found in Maine can be found at the marsh. The marsh is located within {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} of two nationally significant seabird nesting islands. The marsh has been designated essential habitat for endangered [[piping plover]]s and [[least tern]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Scarborough Marsh – A Resource to Treasure! |publisher=Friends of Scarborough Marsh |url=http://www.scarboroughcrossroads.org/marsh/marsh.shtml |access-date=July 1, 2006}}</ref> The Maine Audubon Society maintains a center at the marsh from which visitors can do hikes or rent a canoe and paddle through the marsh.<ref>{{cite web |title=Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center |publisher=Maine Audubon |url=http://www.maineaudubon.org/explore/centers/marsh2.shtml |access-date=July 1, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630030344/http://www.maineaudubon.org/explore/centers/marsh2.shtml |archive-date=June 30, 2006 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

The U.S. [[National Marine Fisheries Service]] has designated Saco Bay as "essential fish habitat" for at least fifteen types of fish, including [[Atlantic salmon]], [[hake]], [[halibut]], [[herring]], and [[scallop]]s. Stratton Island in the bay is a wildlife sanctuary owned and run by the [[National Audubon Society]] where multiple species of [[tern]]s nest. [[Arctic tern|Arctic]], [[common tern|common]], and [[roseate tern|roseate]] terns have been regulars, and in 2005 they were joined for the first time by nesting least terns.<ref>{{cite web |last=Garrity, Paul |title=Least Terns Nest on Stratton Island |work=Mainebirding.net |date=July 31, 2005 |url=http://www.mainebirding.net/news/stories/16.htm |access-date=July 1, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060105214008/http://www.mainebirding.net/news/stories/16.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=January 5, 2006}}</ref>

==Sand movement and erosion==
The [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] (USACOE) initially thought that the beach sand was coming from an underwater glacial deposit. Thus when in 1866 they were called in to protect the navigable channel of the Saco river, they built rock [[jetties]] on both sides of the mouth of the Saco river to protect the channel from sand. The north jetty was extended in 1897, 1930 and 1938, and raised at various dates through 1969. The primary source of sediment for the beaches is the Saco river. [[Longshore drift]] is dominantly to the north along the shore. About 1960 another jetty was built on the south (Pine Point) side of the mouth of the Scarborough River to protect it from sand. It was not until 1992 that the USACOE acknowledged that there is no source of sand nourishment in the area. Thus, erosion is worst at Camp Ellis in [[Saco, Maine|Saco]] at the south end of the system where the Saco jetty prevents sand from coming ashore naturally while Pine Point is growing both from the sand coming out of the Saco river and from sand eroding from Camp Ellis and other parts of the bay to its south.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Kelley, Joseph T. |author2=Anderson, Walter A. |name-list-style=amp |title=The Maine Shore and the Army Corps: A Tale of Two Harbors, Wells and Saco, Maine |journal=Maine Policy Review |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=20–35 |date=Fall 2000 |url=http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1293&context=mpr |issn=1064-2587 |access-date=July 2, 2006 }}</ref>

Much of the inner shore of the bay is within the town of [[Old Orchard Beach, Maine|Old Orchard Beach]], Maine's largest resort beach community.<ref>{{cite web |author=U.S. EPA Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation |title=Vulnerability of Maine Sites to Accelerated Sea-Level Rise |date=September 1995 |url=http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5BUSAD/$File/maine_2.pdf |access-date=July 1, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060519165603/http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5BUSAD/$File/maine_2.pdf |archive-date=May 19, 2006}}</ref> The geology of the larger Gulf of Maine means that warm waters coming up the Atlantic Coast are kept far offshore, while the inshore waters are flowing from the north to the south, fed by the [[Labrador Current]] that originates from the glaciers of [[Greenland]], making most Maine coastal waters very cold, especially to the east. The combination of Saco Bay's western location, the inland waters of the Saco river, and the bay's local flow from the south to the north make it the warmest water for swimming in Maine, although summer water temperatures regularly dip into the 50s ([[Fahrenheit]]).<ref>{{cite news |last=Baldwin |first=Letitia |title=C'mon in! The water's f-f-fine |work=The Boston Globe |date=June 25, 2006 |url=http://www.boston.com/travel/articles/2006/06/23/cmon_in_the_waters_f_f_fine/ |access-date=July 1, 2006}}</ref>

==History==
<!--Expand to history if sources found. -->
The bay was mapped in 1605 by the French explorer [[Samuel de Champlain]], who named it the ''Baie de Chouacouët'', also spelled ''Chouacoit''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Champlain's map of Saco Bay and the Saco River, 1605 |url=https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/33847 |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=Maine Memory Network |language=en}}</ref> or ''Chouacoet'' (as recorded in ''[[The Jesuit Relations]]''),<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Vol. I, by Reuben Gold Thwaites. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44669/44669-h/44669-h.htm |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref> which de Champlain said was the name used by the indigenous [[Abenaki]] people of the area.<ref>{{cite DCB |title=Champlain, Samuel de |first=Marcel |last=Trudel |volume=1 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/champlain_samuel_de_1E.html |accessdate=July 2, 2006}}</ref> His chart of the bay and the mouth of the river has been described as one of his best charts.<ref>{{cite web |title=400th Anniversaries of Champlain's Voyages |date=June 14, 2002 |url=http://www.vt-fcgs.org/champ400.html |access-date=July 2, 2006}}, which cites {{cite book |last=Morison |first=Samuel Eliot |title=Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France |url=https://archive.org/details/samueldechamplai00mori |url-access=registration |publisher=Little Brown and Company |year=1972}}</ref>

In 1616, [[Sir Ferdinando Gorges]] sent [[Richard Vines (physician)|Richard Vines]] to settle in [[New England]]. He spent the winter of 1616–1617 on Saco Bay. A pestilence was raging among the Indians, and as Vines was a physician he attended to sick [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] in the area. In 1630 the [[Plymouth Company]] gave Richard Vines and John Oldham each a tract of land on the Saco River, {{convert|4|mi|km|spell=in}} wide on the sea and extending {{convert|8|mi|km|spell=in}} inland.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Benson John |last=Lossing |author-link=Benson John Lossing |encyclopedia=Harper's EncyclopǢdia of United States History: From 458 A.D. to 1905 |volume=VIII |year=1908 |title=Saco Bay, Settlement of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zwqr5ToN-3cC&dq=%22Saco+Bay%22&pg=PA5 |access-date=July 2, 2006 |publisher=Harper & Brothers Publishers |location=New York|isbn=9780598776983 }}</ref><!--the book seems to be available atproject gutenberg, maube link that instead?-->
[[File:Winslow Homer - Saco Bay (1896).jpg|thumb|400x400px|[[Winslow Homer]], ''Saco Bay'', 1896. [[Clark Art Institute]].]]

==Winslow Homer painting==
<!-- The title of this painting is given variously in different sources. The current owner uses Saco Bay. -->
''Saco Bay'' or ''Sunset, Saco Bay'' is a painting by [[Winslow Homer]], showing a view of the bay from Checkley Point on the southwestern side of Prouts Neck. According to Winslow he worked on it for about 10 years, finishing only 3 days before shipping it for exhibition. It was first exhibited in 1897 at the [[Society of American Artists]] in New York City. The painting is now at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.<ref>{{cite web |last=Maurer |first=Susannah |title=Saco Bay |work=Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History |url=http://www.mainebirding.net/news/stories/16.htm |access-date=July 1, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060105214008/http://www.mainebirding.net/news/stories/16.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=January 5, 2006}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
*[http://www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/jun06-2.htm Overhead imagery of Saco Bay]

{{Coord|43|29|37|N|70|22|06|W|scale:250000|display=title}}
{{Gulf of Maine drainage estuaries}}
{{Rivers of Maine}}
{{Rivers of New Hampshire}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Bays of Maine]]
[[Category:Bodies of water of Cumberland County, Maine]]
[[Category:Bodies of water of York County, Maine]]