Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site is a publicly owned historic property operated by the state of Maine near Pemaquid Beach in Bristol, Maine. The site includes the reconstructed Fort William Henry, archaeological remains of 17th- and 18th-century village buildings and fortifications, and a museum with artifacts found on the site including musket balls, coins, pottery, and early hardware.

Pemaquid was a major regional flashpoint in the late 17th-century and early 18th-century conflicts between English and French settlers, and between English settlers and the local Native population. The site has been of historical and archaeological interest since the late 19th century and has been a state park since 1903. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 (as "Pemaquid Restoration and Museum") and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 (as "Pemaquid Archeological Site").

Description

Colonial Pemaquid is set on a small north-facing peninsula on the south side of the mouth of the Pemaquid River, north of Pemaquid Point, a spit of land in mid-coast Maine. The site is mostly level or gently sloping terrain that has been covered in grass. The site is accessed via a drive from the south, which provides access to parking areas above the main historic settlement area. There is a 20th-century building housing a visitor center and small museum, an 18th-century house that has been repurposed for use as an archaeological laboratory and storage space, and the reconstructed bastion of Fort William Henry at the northwestern tip of the peninsula.

An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record. Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use.

Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a "site" can vary widely, depending on the period studied and the theoretical approach of the archaeologist.

It is almost invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must also define the limits of human activity around the settlement. Any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage (or the benefit) of having its sites defined by the limits of the intended development. Even in this case however, in describing and interpreting the site, the archaeologist will have to look outside the boundaries of the building site.