Only a small portion of this midden remains today as much of it was processed into chicken feed from 1886 to 1891 by the Massachusetts-based Damariscotta Shell and Fertilizer company, eroded by rising sea levels, or looted.

The Late Wisconsinan Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) covered Maine's landscape 35,000 years ago, extending far into the ocean.

At the start of the deglaciation, sea level was much higher inland;[5] the landscape at the time would have resembled modern-day northern Alaska.

[5][7] Over the last few thousands of years, the sea level has slowly risen,[8] creating Maine’s large littoral zones recognizable to humans today.

[10] However, there is not much archaeological evidence to suggest this, and it’s more likely that there were ethnic boundaries between groups of people and that transhumance was not occurring, meaning that populations were staying coastal or inland year-round.

[10] The Damariscotta River had been used by humans as early as 5,000 years ago based on archaeological evidence of midden sites along the banks.

[12][14] This has led geologists to the understanding that at some point in time, there was a great deal of change occurring on the banks of the Damariscotta River that influenced the creation of such substantial middens.

Though oysters do still exist buried underneath silt near the middens,[12] significant oyster populations no longer exist within the river due to four possible reasons: 1) predator introduction,[13][14] 2) suffocation from the dust of the sawmill upshore,[11][14] 3) increasingly saline environments,[11] and 4) lower water temperatures.

The thousands of other middens can offer equally compelling evidence of early-Maine habitation, geology, biology, and many more important disciplines.

For example, one midden site has helped scientists piece together that at one point, there was a great deal of swordfish being caught within the Gulf of Maine despite being a deep-sea fish that could prove difficult to catch with dugouts.