Bangor, Maine
city in and county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States
Bangor ( BANG-gor) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's third-most populous city, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Bangor is known as the "Queen City".
Modern Bangor was established in the mid-19th century with the lumber and shipbuilding industries. Due to the city's location on the Penobscot River, logs could be floated downstream from the Maine North Woods and processed at the city's water-powered sawmills, then shipped from Bangor's port to the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles (48 km) downstream, and from there to any port in the world. Evidence of this is still visible in the lumber barons' elaborate Greek Revival and Victorian mansions and the 31-foot-high (9.4 m) statue of Paul Bunyan. Today, Bangor's economy is based on services and retail, healthcare, and education.
Bangor has a port of entry at Bangor International Airport, also home to the Bangor Air National Guard Base. Historically Bangor was an important stopover on the Great Circle Air Route between the U.S. East Coast and Europe.
Name and pronunciation
Founded as Kenduskeag Plantation in 1791, Bangor was incorporated as a town in 1834.
The public source identifies “Bangor, Maine” as city in and county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bangor, Maine and city.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bangor, Maine”, the useful work is to connect “city in and county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q327012. VIAF identifies the subject as 149772225. The Library of Congress control number is n80008258. Authority coordinates are 44.803, -68.767. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1791 and 1834.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bangor, Maine”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bangor, Maine primary sources, Bangor, Maine archive and Bangor research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bangor, Maine”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bangor, Maine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.