Aroostook

Aroostook, river, northeastern Maine and western New Brunswick, Canada, 225 km (140 mi) long. It rises in Piscataquis County, Maine, and flows northeast before joining the St. John River just beyond the Canadian border. The river drains a fertile potato-growing region in Maine. The lower basin of the Aroostook was a disputed area in the Aroostook War (1838-39), a bloodless controversy between the United States and Britain over a part of the boundary between the northeastern United States and present-day Canada. The controversy was resolved in 1842 by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.