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.