Steamboat Wharf & Ottawa Landing
The Casco Bay Line pier that served the Ottawa House
Position — A landing served the hotel; the modern landing sits on or beside the historical footprint. The exact crib line is unconfirmed.
No photograph of this place is held in the archive. Nothing is shown here rather than an approximation.
The stone-and-timber pier on the west shore that connected the Ottawa House era to Portland. Casco Bay Line steamers unloaded guests, trunks, mail, and provisions here; the same landing later served the fort's supply runs. Traces of the original crib work are still visible at low tide.
- Squared granite blocks and iron fastenings mark the base of the original pier crib.
- A graded cart track climbs east from the landing toward the Ottawa House terrace.
- The cove is deep enough at mid-tide for a shallow-draft steamer to lie alongside.
A resort landing is a two-part machine: a stone crib in the water sized for a specific vessel, and a graded road ashore sized for luggage carts. Read the road grade and the block spacing together — they date the pier as clearly as any document.
- 1.Do the surviving crib blocks match the pier shown in the 1880s Casco Bay Line advertisements?
- 2.Where did the cart track meet the Ottawa House terrace before the fort era regraded the slope?
Distances are straight-line from recorded coordinates. Island roads curve, so allow more time than the estimate.