Five hundred years before Columbus “discovered” America, Leif Ericson and a crew of 30 Viking sailors are believed to have explored the Maine coast and may have landed and tried to establish a settlement here.

Who first discovered Maine?

The first European settlement in Maine was established by Frenchmen Pierre du Guast and Samuel de Champlain on St. Croix Island in 1604. They founded a colony called Acadia which included part of Maine and modern day Quebec, Canada.

What was the first colony in Maine?

The Popham Colony of 1607 The Popham Colony was the first organized attempt by the English to establish a colony on the shores of what we now know as New England. It was planted at the mouth of the Kennebec River in the summer of 1607 and lasted for little over a year until it was abandoned in the fall of 1608.