The channel migrated regularly in response to natural events; as it did so, abandoned sand banks would replenish the sand on both Pine Point Beach to the south and Western and Ferry beaches to the north.

[2] In the early 17th century, Christopher Levett gave the name of the river, or perhaps the marshes it drains, as Owascoag, after the Abenaki Indian name.

The English fishing fleet offshore in 1624 was over 50 vessels, and the shores of the river were settled by fishermen and their families early in the period of English settlement; when the primary road in Maine ran along the coastline for its entire length, a ferry operated across the mouth of the river, running from Pine Point Beach to Ferry Beach.

The stabilized channel gradually fills with sediment, and has needed to be dredged roughly every five years.

Materials from the 2004 dredging were deposited on Western Beach in imitation of the natural sediment flow.