For more than 10,000 years, Native Americans used the Chaudière and Kennebec Rivers as their gateways to the St. Lawrence River to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.

Beginning early in the seventeenth century, the Kennebec river served as the border between the French and the English who each claimed their part of Northeast America. France and England were competing for control of this natural corridor, and for an alliance with the Abénakis Indians living in the territory. In 1763, the Paris Treaty put an end to the dispute.

In 1775, during the American Revolution, a force of 1,000 American volunteer soldiers used the corridor in an attempt to reach Québec to attack the British garrison there.

Around 1810, farmers in Maine established a trail along the two rivers that was known as the “Kennebec Road” or “Old Canada Road” in the hopes of developing new markets for their products. Later, more than one million French Canadians and Irish immigrants traveled this route to Maine, to work on farms, in logging camps and in shoe and textile factories.

Today, highways 173 (Québec) and 201 (Maine) are used for international commerce and by a large number of visitors from both Québec and Maine.