Wabanaki Native Americans were the area's original inhabitants, hunting, gathering, and traveling along the Allagash and St. John rivers. In the 1780s, the Upper St. John Valley began to be settled by French-Canadians and Acadians, and by 1831 about 2,500 settlers were established there, including some Americans from southern Maine and New Brunswickers of Scots-Irish origin. Today, most people in the region trace their origins to Quebec and Acadia and take pride in their cultural heritage. Following ancient Native American travel routes, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail passes through communities founded by European settlers and surrounding landscapes that support agricultural and forest-based economies, traversing 10,000 years of human settlement from subsistence and exploration through wars, industrial development, and conservation.