Maliseet heritage, French fur traders and a stolen Scottish brooch — all three cultures collide in a new novel by Aroostook writer Barry Wright.
A student of archaeology and a former history teacher, Wright has long been consumed by curiosity about who roamed northern Maine in the centuries before recorded history began.
The notion stayed with him throughout his teaching career. For decades he pondered creating a fictional story about the settlement of the greater Presque Isle region, from the native peoples to settlers from across the Atlantic. Now, 40 years later, he has published his first novel: “Presqu’ile: An Origin Story.”
The book takes place in the late 1500s and early 1600s, blending actual history into the story of a Maliseet man named Still Water and the French and Scottish settlers who came to what is now Aroostook County.
“It’s prehistoric Presque Isle, basically. We don’t really know what happened for sure, but this is a way it could have happened,” Wright said. “I chose that window of time because it was when the Maliseet were unaffected.”
The story explores how the Europeans moved through the area and affected the native cultures, he said.
Wright and his wife, Kimberley, live in Mapleton. Both had long careers in the SAD 1 school system. He retired in 2018 after 30 years, and she just retired after 39 years. Retirement gave Wright time — and clarity — for the story taking shape in his mind, he said.
The idea started some 40 years ago while he was studying at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. He was intrigued by how, long before the area was settled, the St. John River was the main route of communication.
He credits David Putnam, then a professor of archaeology and anthropology at the university, for inspiring the novel. Putnam chronicled how he and students found the remains of a wigwam and burned animal bones they dated back to 1,000 years ago, Wright said.
He was fascinated. Throughout his career, he continued researching the area’s history, from geology to trade to tribal peoples.
Presque Isle was founded in 1828, but what happened before it was settled is a bit of a mystery, Wright said. He learned that the northern and central Aroostook area was originally Maliseet land, extending from what is now Quebec through much of northern Maine to the Bay of Fundy. The Mi’kmaq were a neighboring tribe.
Native people called the St. John River the Wolastuq, which means “beautiful river,” and the Aroostook waterway was called the Mooseic — or “river of moose” — because of the large number of moose that lived nearby.
“The river is one of the characters of the book,” Wright said. “It’s a living thing. It has a spirit and it has an ability to communicate with the spirits of people.”
As the native people went about their lives on the river, French and Scottish settlers traveled to the Moosiec with a desire to repurpose much of the land. It is against the cooperation, and clash, of those cultures that Wright sets “Presqu’ile.”
The title itself reflects Presque Isle’s origins, he said: the name comes from the French “presque,” or “almost,” and “ile,” meaning “island.” Nearly surrounded by the Aroostook River and Presque Isle Stream, the city is almost an island.
Still Water, the novel’s main character, is a constant throughout the story, although other characters are featured, Wright said. Among them is a fur trader from France named Jean LeClerc, newly arrived in the territory, whom Still Water agrees to help.
Meanwhile, a Scottish Highland family named MacDougall and a priest at a nearby priory contemplate a new life, now that the English have assumed rule over Scotland. Having stolen back a brooch once worn by Robert the Bruce, Maggie MacDougall joins her family on a ship bound for Nova Scotia.
Fights, questions of faith, an epidemic and retribution round out the story.
Wright has included maps of the Wolastuq and Moosiec rivers, ancestral Maliseet lands and a portage route from Quebec to northern Maine. The preface sets the stage, he said.
The book was released in May by Maine Authors Publishing of Thomaston. Copies are available at Neighborhood Books or the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle, through the publisher or from the author himself.
It may have taken him 40 years, off and on, but the end result is well worth it, Wright said.
Some might compare writing to doing a crossword or jigsaw puzzle: once you’ve started, you’re determined to finish. It was like an itch that needed scratching, a story he felt compelled to tell, he said.
Wright isn’t sure what he’ll write next. He has some ideas, but nothing definite, and is waiting to catch his breath a bit.
One thing hasn’t changed through the whole process, though: he believes exploring history can give people a greater understanding of where they live.
But besides that, he wants readers to find something else in “Presqu’ile”: an appreciation for life and for nature.
One of the benefits of living in Maine, particularly in Aroostook County, is that people can travel only a short distance and be in the country or in the woods, he said. Outdoors, there is simplicity, and a respite from the frenetic pulse of everyday life.
“A lot of people, one of the reasons they live in northern Maine is they like to get into the woods,” Wright said. “There’s something I find very enriching or healing about going into the woods. It takes you away from the everyday cares of life and gets you to simplify.”
