Around 10,000 BC Native Americans occupy the seacoast of both Maine and New Hampshire. They lived on the coast primarily and then moved inland for protection from the storms during the harsh winters.

The seacoast region also was the first area of both states to be permanently settled by Europeans in the early 17th century.  There were many conflicts between the French, English, and Native Americans during this progression.

 Rye’s Little Harbor at Odiorne Point was the spot of the first settlement in New Hampshire in the early 1600s and the end of the first successful trans-Atlantic international telegraph line (1874).    

 Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth, created four centuries of life 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries for settlers from 1630. Today, Portsmouth has restored this community to one of the most visited tourist attractions.

North Hampton separated from Hampton in 1742. Part of North Hampton, Little Boar's Head, was a popular seaside summer resort area in the 19th century.

Hampton, then Winnacunnet, once included Seabrook, Kensington, Danville, Kingston, East Kingston, Sandown, North Hampton and Hampton Falls. Hampton also was the only town in New Hampshire to bring women to trial for witchcraft.

Exeter was founded in 1638  Exeter and served as the capital of the new state during the period of the American Revolution.  Exeter-born sculptor, Daniel Chester French, designed the statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln memorial.

Stratham, known as Squamscott, traces its roots back to Edward Hilton ( Hilton’s Point) The settlers befriended the Indians, treating them with respect, and the Native Americans helped them through the harsh winters.

Greenland, originally part of Strawbery Banke, had its first “permanent” resident with Samuel Haines.  He was a freed servant, living in a house that stood near what is now the 18th hole of the Portsmouth Country Club.

Dover is the oldest continuous settlement in New Hampshire. For a while, Dover was an independent colony named Northam.  It once included Durham, Lee, Madbury, Somersworth, Rollinsford, and parts of Newmarket, Newington, and Greenland.

In 1624 the plantation was originally called then, Agamenticus, the Abenaki term for the York River. The name is from the Abnaki meaning “small river other side of the island” or “on the other side of the river” The legend of St. Aspinquid, the Mi'kmaq sachem, lives on Mt. Agamenticus.

The oldest incorporated village is Kittery, which was done only two days earlier than York. It was first developed as a center for shipbuilding harvesting Maine’s white pine trees for timber and ship masts.

York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652). York was incorporated on November 22, 1652.  The Old York Gaol was established as a prison, now the oldest English public building in the United States and the first royal prison in Maine.

The third-oldest town, Wells, only Maine town not conquered during the various French and Indian wars from 1650 to 1730. Ogunquit and Wells were one until 1980.

In Kennebunk, about 1,000 years ago PaleoIndian hunters traveled seasonally from throughout the Northeast to trap and kill bison and caribou.

Eliot is the home of many historic sites including Maine's first Quaker Meetinghouse built in 1776.