Piscataquis County
Also known as Piscataquis County, Maine, Piscataquis County, ME
county in Maine, United States
Key facts
- Country
- United States
- State
- Maine
- Founded
- March 23, 1838
- Named after
- Piscataquis River
- Seat
- Dover-Foxcroft
- Largest town
- Dover-Foxcroft
- Total
- 4,378 sq mi (11,340 km )
- Land
- 3,961 sq mi (10,260 km )
- Water
- 417 sq mi (1,080 km ) 9.5%
- Estimate 2025
- 17,409
- Density
- 4.24/sq mi (1.64/km )
- Time zone
- UTC−5 ( Eastern )
- Summer dst
Article
Piscataquis County (/pɪˈskætəkwɪs/ pih-SKAT-ə-kwiss) is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of the 2020 census, its population was 16,800, making it Maine's least-populous county. Its county seat is Dover-Foxcroft. The county was incorporated on March 23, 1838, taken from the western part of Penobscot County and the eastern part of Somerset County. It is named for an Abenaki word meaning "branch of the river" or "at the river branch."
Originally, the county extended north to the Canada–US border, but in 1844 its northern portion was annexed by Aroostook County. In terms of land area, Piscataquis is one of the largest U.S. counties east of the Mississippi River. It is also one of two counties in the Northeast (and seven counties east of the Mississippi River) that meet Frederick Jackson Turner's requirements for "frontier" country – that is, having fewer than six inhabitants per square mile, the other being Hamilton County, New York.
Gallery (2)
On the map
2 mapped locations