Kennebec River

Kennebec River
Wyman Lake on the Kennebec River in Somerset County, Maine
Country	United States
Basin
Main source	Moosehead Lake 1,024 feet (312 m)
River mouth	Gulf of Maine, North Atlantic Ocean
Basin size	5,869 sq mi (15,200 km2)
Physical characteristics
Length	170 miles (270 km)
Discharge	Average rate: 9,111 cu ft/s (258.0 m3/s) at its entrance to Merrymeeting Bay

The Kennebec River is a 170-mile-long (270 km)river entirely within the U.S. state of Maine.

It rises in Moosehead Lake in west-central Maine. The East and West Outlets join at Indian Pond and the river then flows southward from Harris Station Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in the state. It is joined at The Forks by the Dead River, also called the West Branch, then continues southward past the cities of Madison, Skowhegan, Waterville, and the state capital Augusta. At Richmond, it flows into Merrymeeting Bay, a 16-mile-long (26 km) freshwater tidal bay into which also flow the Androscoggin River and five smaller rivers. The Kennebec then runs past the shipbuilding center of Bath, then to the Gulf of Maine in the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean tides affect the river height as far north as Waterville. Tributaries of the Kennebec River include the Carrabassett River, Sandy River, and Sebasticook River.

The name "Kennebec" comes from the Eastern Abenaki /kínipekʷ/, meaning "large body of still water, large bay".

Segments of the East Coast Greenway run along the Kennebec.

The Abenaki village of Norridgewock was located on the Kennebec in the 1600s.