Long before the first hotel rose on the Kineo peninsula, long before Henry Thoreau paddled past its cliffs, Mt. Kineo was already one of the most significant places in the Native American world of the Northeast.

The reason was the mountain itself. Its volcanic rhyolite — a hard, workable stone found nowhere else in such abundance — was prized by Native peoples across eastern North America for thousands of years. Archaeologists have traced Kineo rhyolite to sites as far away as Martha’s Vineyard, Nova Scotia, Vermont, and Ontario. Native peoples traveled here from across the Northeast to work the stone. They camped on these shores, traveled the waterways that converge on Moosehead Lake from every direction, and over time they gave this place a meaning that went well beyond the practical. Kineo became sacred ground.

In this presentation, Dr. Nathan Hamilton — archaeologist, Greenville native, and one of the researchers who helped document the rich Native American presence on Moosehead Lake — traces that story from its origins more than 11,000 years ago through the centuries of Penobscot and Maliseet life that followed. He will explore what the archaeological record tells us about who came here, how they traveled, and what this landscape meant to them.

And he will bring that story forward through the words and life of Henry Perley — Chief Henry Red Eagle — Greenville’s own Native American author, whose writings about Kineo’s legends connect the ancient world of the mountain to living memory.

This presentation is part of our History by the Lake summer speaking series and is offered in collaboration with the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival, celebrating Maine’s North Woods cultural and natural heritage.

About the Speaker: Dr. Nathan Hamilton earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985 and spent over three decades as a professor at the University of Southern Maine, where he developed more than 30 unique courses and mentored countless students. His research focuses on prehistoric maritime adaptations and Maine’s archaeological record. A tireless excavator, meticulous curator, and passionate public educator, Dr. Hamilton has collaborated with institutions including the Osher Map Library, the Peabody Museum, and the Maine State Museum. Though recently retired, he continues to give public presentations and work in the field, sharing his love of Maine’s rich heritage with audiences across the state.

Thursday, July 23, 2026 | 4:00 PM Center for Moosehead History