Chebeague Island is located in Casco Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Maine. It was originally used as a fishing ground by Abenaki Native Americans. Also known as Great Chebeague (pronounced "sha-big") Island, today it is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. It is located northeast of Portland, Maine. Chebeague Island is the largest island in Casco Bay that is not connected to the mainland by a bridge. The largest island is Sebascodegan, or "Great Island," which is part of the Town of Harpswell and connected to the mainland by a bridge. Chebeague Island is one of the twelve major islands of the Calendar Islands, a term that originated in 1700 with the report by the English military engineer Wolfgang William Römer, who claimed there were "as many islands as there are days in the year." As a corrective, the Maine State Historian Robert M. York stated there are "little more than two hundred islands" in Casco Bay. Chebeague Island was a part of the Town of Cumberland until July 1, 2007, when it seceded and became the Town of Chebeague Island. The Town of Chebeague Island includes seventeen islands and their adjacent waters. These include the islands of Bangs, Bates, Hope, Ministerial, Sand, Stave, Stockman, and the tiny Upper Green Islands. At the 2020 census, the town's year-round population of 396. The population is said to more than triple in the summer months. Chebeague Island is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. History According to island lore, the name "Chebeague" evolved from Chebiscodego, the name used by members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, a First Nations and Native American confederation of five principal nations: the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, and Penobscot. The most accepted definition of the word Chebeague is "Island of Many Springs." Other sources state that Chebeague comes from the Abenaki words T’Cabie or Chebidisco, meaning cold spring, or Jabeque or Gaboag, meaning separated, which recognizes the connectedness of Great Chebeague Island and Little Chebeague Island. Great Chebeague Island was also known for a time as Recompense Island. The early Native American presence on the island was not year-round. During the summer months, Native Americans arrived by canoe to fish and gather shellfish for the winter months. Early settlers included Zachariah Chandler, who bought 650 acres in 1746. Other early settlers were Ambrose Hamilton and Deborah Soule Hamilton, who had fourteen children