Total navigable distance was approximately 38 miles (61 km) from Portland to Harrison at the north end of Long Lake.

[4] The flat-bottomed canal boats had blunt bows, square sterns, and a loaded draft of 3 feet (0.91 m).

Cargos included lumber, masts, barrel hoops and staves, boxmaking shook, and firewood from the interior to Portland.

Apples were an important agricultural product of the area; and Oriental Powder Company mills adjacent to the canal in Windham manufactured nearly 25% of the Union gunpowder supply for the American Civil War.

Relicensing of the dams was the subject of the 2006 Supreme Court case S. D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection.