Industry Along the Piscataqua River - Introduction

Image courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

The Piscataqua River,  located at the maritime border between New Hampshire and Maine, has been a focus for economic activity in New England since the earliest recorded human history in the area.  The river was used for centuries by the Abenaki people as a trade and migration route and later became a central transportation corridor for European settlers. 

The salt marshes along the banks of the river, and in Great Bay,  provided a familiar building material for early settlers and an important food source for their livestock.  In addition, the Piscataqua region's river system reached deep into New Hampshire, allowing easier transportation of New England's giant White Pine trees, which were sent to England and made into ship masts and bowsprits.  The tidal river also provided power for colonial saw mills that converted raw trees into lumber for use at home and for export.  The deep waters of the Piscataqua also supported a vibrant shipbuilding industry.

Today,  the Piscataqua continues to be an essential source of economic vitality for the region.  The river, along with the deep-water Portsmouth Harbor, is a strategic transportation resource for northern New England, carrying shipments of oil, gas, coal, chemicals, and minerals from near and distant ports.  The industries along the river are also an important source of employment in the region.

Below is a listing of some of the businesses and industrial sites located on the banks of the Piscataqua River in Kittery, Portsmouth, and Newington.  I'll provide more details on these in future posts.

Site/Business Name	Description
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard	Maintenance and repair of nuclear submarines and other vessels
NH State Pier	General shipping, container service, and warehousing
Granite State Minerals Inc.	Distributor of road salt and other bulk materials
National Gypsum	Gypsum wallboard manufacturing
Boise Cascade	Regional distribution center for building materials
Irving Oil Terminal	Energy products storage and distribution facility
Schiller Station	170 megawatt coal and biomass power plant
Newington Station	400 megawatt oil and natural gas power plant
Tyco Undersea Cable	Undersea communications cable manufacturing
Little Bay Lobster Company	Harvester and distributor of North Atlantic lobster
Georgia Pacific Gypsum	Gypsum wallboard manufacturing
Westinghouse Electric Inc.	Nuclear power plant components manufacturing
Newington Energy Facility	600 megawatt natural gas and oil fired power plant
Sprague Energy	Energy and chemical products storage and distribution facility

Finally, the map below shows the locations of the marine terminals on Portsmouth Harbor and along the Piscataqua.  A few of the sites listed above are not show on the map below because they do not have a marine terminal.