David Farnham, president of the Falmouth Historical Society, shared what he has learned about the Native People who farmed, fished, hunted, and thrived by Casco Bay, Maine, before the arrival of English settlers around 1630. Click here for a 64-minute video of his presentation on February 11, 2025 at the Thomas Memorial Libary in Cape Elizabeth.

Recent research has shown much of what they had been told about the original inhabitants was wrong. While we knew that there had been Wabanaki Native people in Casco Bay, we didn’t know that they were Aucocisco until local Native people provided the correct history.

Farnham described what we know about early explorers such as Pierre Dugua, John Smith and Christopher Levett. He noted that Professor Emerson Baker, an archaeologist at Salem State University ,had learned that the Almouchiquois and the Aucocisco were separate bands who lived along the coast.

The Aucocisco were wiped out due to the Tarratine Wars, the Great Dying, and colonial encroachment. War, followed by famine and epidemics, resulted in the last remaining Aucocisco being absorbed into other tribes.