These are pictures of murals that are painted on the walls in the hall at Narragansett School. Christopher Denison, McKowen and Priestley painted them in 1981.

Use the links at the top of these pages to visit all six panels of this long mural.

These large paintings, running east to west, are intended to present brief pictorial history of selected places and events from Gorham's past. Care has been taken to be as accurate as possible although these are not intended to present a complete history of the area. Rather, the murals should stimulate interest and encourage further investigation in other sources of information such as McLellan's History of Gorham, available at the public library. Due to spatial considerations, the places and events are not grouped in precise geographic or chronological orientation.

Full description of the Murals is available in PDF format

View full length of Mural One

(Zoom in and scroll to see full length of the mural)

Scenes from Mural One

This mural is about lndians that lived in Gorham before the white settlers came. The tribes that lived in this area are the Micmac, Penobscot, Ossipee, Pickwocket, and Androscoggin. These lndians moved around a lot. The Micmac teepees were usually made of hides and were decorated with symbols. For example, the double crescent which is like two backward threes, back to back, stands for peace and unity or getting along together.

From the mural we learned these things about Indians. The boys used bows and arrows for hunting and they used horns for calling moose. Some Indians had a tradition of planting a bush in a box when a boy was born. The boy grew up around the bush and then when he moved away, his parent could tell how healthy he was by how healthy the bush was.

We learned about Indian food, too. The lndians fished for food using a spear with three points. They kept their meat and fish from spoiling by smoking it. The women made flour by grinding corn.

People think that some Indians had dogs for protection and hunting.