Historical Timeline
Ten thousand years, read as a single strand. Each entry is tagged with its evidence category.
- 10,000+ years ago[HC]
Wabanaki homeland
The Casco Bay islands are part of the Wabanaki homeland. Repeated seasonal use of sheltered coves leaves cultural landscapes still legible today.
Layer 01 · Before Cushing Island → - 1529[C]
First charted as Tierra de Estevan Gomez
Diego Ribero's 1529 chart is the earliest known map to locate what became Cushing Island, drawn from the voyages of the Portuguese pilot Estevan Gomez in Spanish service. Sargent reproduces the chart as the frontispiece of his 1886 sketch.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1607[C]
Popham colonists reach the coast
The failed Popham settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec reports back to England with 'exaggerated descriptions of the hardships of the winter life upon the coast' — souring further attempts at settlement for a decade.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1623[C]
Christopher Levett winters in Casco Bay
Levett is granted 6,000 acres and leaves a ten-man garrison — including Thomas Alger, Edmond Baker, and Nicholas Rouse — one of the earliest English settlement attempts in Maine, before sailing to England for support that never comes.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1628[C]
Levett named Governor of New England
Levett is appointed by royal commission and authorized to raise contributions in York, England, to found an episcopal capital on his Casco Bay grant. He dies before he can return.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - c. 1632[L]
Dixie Bull haunts Casco Bay
New England's first documented pirate operates in Casco Bay. Local tradition — not primary sources — places him along Cushing's western shore.
Layer 05 · Legends & Lost Cushing → - c. 1637[C]
Cleeves acquires the island
George Cleeves, ousted from Spurwink, takes title through Levett's successors. The 1636 Gorges grant of the Neck implicitly acknowledges Cleeves's prior possession of the island.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - c. 1650[L]
Mitton's 'Triton' in the Bay
Michael Mitton — Cleeves's son-in-law and the island's third English owner — tells John Josselyn about chopping off the hand of a merman while fowling around the island by canoe. Sargent identifies the 'small Island' of Josselyn's account as Cushing itself.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1667[C]
James Andrews inherits the island
The island passes with Sarah Mitton to her husband James Andrews. He garrisons Levett's old fortified house and the island is successively renamed Portland Island, Andrews Island, and Fort Island.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1676–1690[C]
Wars destroy the first settlement
King Philip's War (from Aug. 1676) and the fall of Fort Loyal (May 1690) devastate Falmouth. Levett's fortified house on the island is destroyed. Andrews abandons Falmouth and dies at Boston in 1704.
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1698[HC]
Rouse descendant acquires the island
The fifth owner of the island is 'doubtless' a son or grandson of Nicholas Rouse — one of Levett's original 1623 garrison — 'induced to the acquisition of it by his ancestor's description of its fertility and rare natural attractions.'
Layer 02 · Levett's Island → - 1858[C]
Lemuel Cushing consolidates the island; the Ottawa House era begins
Lemuel Cushing brings the island into single ownership and develops it as a summer destination. The date the first Ottawa House opened is not settled: this site's earlier working date is 1858, while SAH Archipedia dates the Italianate hotel to 1862. Both agree the hotel was aimed at English-Canadian visitors reaching Portland by the Grand Trunk Railroad.
Layer 03 · The Summer Island → - 1883[C]
The Cushing's Island Company and a planned summer colony
Francis Cushing forms the Cushing's Island Company and engages Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot to plan a summer colony. John Calvin Stevens designs cottages on the island; a Stevens drawing for a Cushing Island house survives (MMN #6029).
Layer 03 · The Summer Island → - 1885[C]
Longfellow's manuscript plan
A. W. Longfellow's plan of the island (MMN #23340) maps Bayberry Ridge, Rock Terrace, the Meadows, Lobster Cove, Spring Cove, and White Head — the earliest detailed island plan preserved in the archive.
Layer 03 · The Summer Island → - 1886[C]
Sargent publishes the Historical Sketch
Portland lawyer Wm. M. Sargent issues 'An Historical Sketch, Guide Book, and Prospectus of Cushing's Island,' with paintings by Harrison Bird Brown and John Calvin Stevens's cottage plates. It remains the primary source underlying this history.
Layer 03 · The Summer Island → - 1888[C]
The first hotel gone, the second built — and the island mapped
The first Ottawa House had burned; a second Ottawa House was built in 1888. The same year Ilsley & Cummings issue two sheets (MMN #23340, #23341) marking lots already sold and reserving the southern shore for the coming U.S. Government installation. A catalogue record for a c. 1900 photograph (MMN #12157) describes the second hotel as accommodating about 300 guests, with nightly dancing in a large ballroom and a bathing pavilion at Willow Beach.
Layer 03 · The Summer Island → - 1898[C]
Fort Levett construction begins
The U.S. Army began acquiring land on the island in the 1890s for a modern coastal-defense post. Fort Levett grew into a major post of the Harbor Defenses of Portland, eventually carrying Batteries Foote, Bowdoin, Kendrick, Ferguson and Daniels, and later AMTB 962 (Coast Defense Study Group).
Layer 04 · Fortress Cushing → - 1917[C]
The second Ottawa House burns
The second hotel burned in 1917 and was not rebuilt, ending the resort era. The year and the outcome are documented; a contemporary newspaper account of the fire itself has not yet been verified, so no scene-level detail is given here.
Layer 03 · The Summer Island → - 1917–1918[C]
WWI defense, Battery Foote & the District Wireless Station
Battery Foote — two 12-inch guns on Model 1917A2 barbette carriages — was funded during the First World War; construction began in 1917 and was substantially complete by the end of 1919, with the guns mounted in 1920. A small District Wireless Station is photographed on the island (MMN #102431), looking across to Munjoy Hill.
Layer 04 · Fortress Cushing → - 1941–1945[C]
WWII modernization: Battery Foote casemated
Fort Levett was modernized for the Second World War. Battery Foote's open gun positions were enclosed in concrete casemates and its support spaces altered for the new configuration — the same ground rebuilt around a changed threat. A period 6-inch rifle survives in MMN #105419.
Layer 04 · Fortress Cushing → - Today[C]
Ongoing stewardship
Cushing Island is a private community that continues to steward the landscape across all of its layered histories.
Layer 06 · The Island Today →