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    Flat Rock Pool on the Dennys River

    Photograph
    Two views of Flat Rock Pool in the Dennys River, below the Route 86 Bridge, taken about one hundred years apart, reproduced from "Salmon on the Dennys, 1786-1988", by Ed Bartlett and Ray Robinson.

    Salmon fishermen dubbed this section of the Dennys River "Hell's Vestibule". Named after the flat rock on which naturalist John James Audubon observed the demolition of a temporary dam across the river in the late summer of 1832, unleashing a wall of water to lift and free the logs piled up in the rocky gorge below, and described in his essay "The Force of the Waters." Ray Robinson noted that this is the least fished portion of the river, although anglers have occasionally succeeded here.

    Photos for MapJohn P. Sheahan CollectionHallowell Collection at the Tides Institute

    Rocky Gorge on the Dennys River
    Audubon's Dam site on the Dennys River

    Flat Rock Falls on the Dennys River, c. 1885; Photograph by Dr. John P. Sheahan of Edmunds, courtesy of The Tides Institute, Eastport, Maine
    Flat Rock Pool in the late twentieth century; Reproduced from Dennys River above Flat Rock Falls, with a view of the Route 86 bridge. The Dennys River below Flat Rock Falls