Popham Beach

Village in Phippsburg town, southwestern Maine, USA, at the tip of a peninsula between the mouth of the Kennebec River and the Atlantic Ocean, 19 km/12 mi south of Bath; population (1990) 1,800. In 1607 it was the site of the Popham Colony, the first attempted English settlement in the northeast. Many died in the severe winter of 1607–08, and the colony dispersed, but not before launching the Virginia, the first American-built English vessel. The remains of Fort Popham, a Civil War military post, stand next to the beach. Putative 11th-century Nordic runes have also been found in the village area.

Seguin Island, 5 km/3 mi to the southeast, is the site of one of Maine's most prominent lighthouses (1795, rebuilt 1887); the beacon stands 55 m/180 ft above water.