[2] It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as Saco Valley Shopping Center.

This was territory of the Abenaki tribe whose fortified village was located up the Sokokis Trail at Pequawket (now Fryeburg).

There was a settlement at the mouth of the Saco river, with homes and permanent cultivation, at the time of contact with Europeans in the early 1600s.

[4] In July 1607, 500 warriors led by sakmow (Grand Chief) of the Mi'kmaq First Nations Henri Membertou attacked the village at present-day Saco, killing 20 of their braves, including two of their leaders, Onmechin and Marchin, leading to conflict that lasted until 1615.

Saco lay in contested territory between New England and New France, which recruited the Indians as allies.

[9] But in 1724, a Massachusetts militia destroyed Norridgewock, an Abenaki stronghold on the Kennebec River organizing raids on English settlements.

[7] In 1762, the northeastern bank of Biddeford separated as the District of Pepperrellborough, named for Sir William Pepperrell, hero of the Battle of Louisburg and late proprietor of the town.

[6][11] Saco became a center for lumbering, with log drives down the river from Little Falls Plantation (now Dayton, Lyman, Hollis and part of Limington).

The Saco Manufacturing Company established a cotton mill in 1826, and a canal was dug through rock to provide water power.

But the New England textile industry faded in the 20th century, and the York Manufacturing Company would close in 1958.

The prosperous mill town era, however, left behind much fine architecture in the Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian styles.

In early 2007 a small wind turbine was erected near the water treatment plant at the foot of Front street.

Another larger wind turbine was erected on the top of York Hill in December 2007, and was expected to generate power for the new train station for Amtrak's Downeaster, although this was torn down in 2018 as the wind turbine never came close to generating the amount of energy promised.

Saco borders the city of Biddeford, as well as the towns of Scarborough, Buxton, Dayton and Old Orchard Beach.

Saco contains a wide variety of landforms, including beaches, fields, forests, bogs, and urban areas.

The beachfront Camp Ellis section of the city has been eroding since the Army Corps of Engineers built a jetty in the 1860s at the mouth of the Saco River that stopped sediment from feeding the Camp Ellis beaches.

[17] This is an archive of documents related to erosion issues in the Camp Ellis section of Saco.

[21] On November 7, 2023, Saco Elected former city councilor Jodi MacPhail as its first female Mayor.

[22] Mayor MacPhail was sworn in at a historic inauguration ceremony held on December 4, 2023, at Saco City Hall.

The site consists of four distinct disposal areas, the fourth of which is a recently closed landfill that accepted household waste and tannery sludge containing chromium and other heavy metals, as well as volatile organic compounds.