A 5,000-year-old prehistoric group known as the Red Paint People—later known as the Maritime Archaic—were the first people to live in Bucksport. In addition to stone tools and weaponry, they were believed to be a highly developed indigenous fishing society that buried red paint in their tombs. On Indian Point, where the current mill stands, Professor Charles Willoughby began the first archaeological excavation in the state of Maine, if not the entire United States, in 1891.
