Augusta

Capital of Maine, and administrative headquarters of Kennebec County, southwest Maine; population (2000 est) 18,600. It is located on the Kennebec River, 40 km/25 mi northeast of Lewiston and 80 km/50 mi northeast of Portland. It is a trade centre for surrounding farms and resorts, and has some light industry including the manufacture of computer equipment and paper products. Tourism is also important to the local economy. The town was incorporated as Harrington in February 1797. It was renamed Augusta in June 1797 and incorporated as a city in 1849.

History The area was first explored by the English in 1607. Augusta was then founded as a trading post in 1628 by settlers from Plymouth on an Abnaki site called Cushnoc. The first permanent settlement, Fort Western, was established in 1754. Augusta was the county town from 1799 and state capital from 1827. Industrialization followed the damming of the Kennebec River in 1837.

Features Features include Fort Western, the oldest surviving wooden fort in the USA, from which Benedict Arnold set out to capture Québec in 1775. It is now a historical monument and museum, and is one of 40 entries for Augusta on the national register of historic places. The capitol (1829), also on the national register, was designed by Charles Bulfinch. The University of Maine (1862) established a campus at Augusta in 1965.

Augusta

City in east-central Georgia, USA, 260 km/161 mi east of Atlanta on the Savannah River, near the South Carolina border; seat of Richmond County; population Augusta-Richmond County (2000) 195,200. It is a manufacturing city and a terminal for river barges; industries include textiles and building materials. Augusta is also a golfing resort and the site of the annual Masters golf tournament. Established as a fur-trading post in 1736, Augusta was the scene of several battles during the American Revolution, and served as Georgia's capital 1786–95.

The city is important for its medical services and as a centre for a number of neighbouring government and army installations, including Fort Gordon. Augusta was the boyhood home of President Woodrow Wilson; it is the seat of several colleges: the Medical College of Georgia (1828), Paine College (1882), and Augusta College (1925).

Augusta

Coastal town in the southwest of Western Australia, 320 km/199 mi south of Perth; population (1996) 1,100. The third oldest settlement in Western Australia, it was first settled in 1830 by a military detachment, but did not begin to expand until the 1880s, when the local timber industry started to flourish. The town stands on the slopes of the Hardy Inlet, overlooking the Blackwood River and the Southern Ocean, and is surrounded by eucalyptus forests. Current industries include timber, beef, sheep and dairy farming, and fishing. Tourism is also important.

Augusta has a series of limestone caves, among them Jewel Cave, 8 km/5 mi north of the township. Near the entrance is a 5.9 m/19 ft straw stalagmite (so called because of its yellow colour), the longest recorded in any limestone cavern open to tourists.