BANGOR – Standing amid the buildings and bustle of downtown Bangor, it’s hard to imagine how it would have appeared to French explorer Samuel de Champlain when he landed on the banks of the Kenduskeag Stream in 1604, near what would become the city’s center.

These days, the parks and walkways are dotted with various landmarks and plaques paying tribute to historic or famous people and places, such as the towering statue of statesman Hannibal Hamlin and the granite block marking the spot near the place on Central Street where the Brady boys were gunned down. It’s possible, though, to pass by the entrance of Norumbega Park on State Street without even noticing the small rock bearing a slightly tarnished plaque indicating that Samuel de Champlain landed near this spot in 1604.

But that was changed, at least for a little while, on Wednesday morning when city officials, joined by about a dozen onlookers and reporters, gathered there underneath gray skies and milder than usual temperatures for a ceremony commemorating the 400th anniversary of Champlain’s historic landing.

“It was probably a day not unlike today in 1604 when French settlers came here from 100 or so miles north on the St. Croix River – actually it was probably a little colder,” history enthusiast and former City Councilor Gerry Palmer told the crowd in his opening remarks.

Standing at a podium adorned with a shield-shaped bouquet of yellow flowers with three fleurs-de-lis, Palmer briefly interrupted the proceedings to ask for a moment of silence in honor of city employee Ronald F. Raymond who died Monday in an accident near the park’s Franklin Street side, just a block from where Wednesday’s ceremony was held.

In his speech, Palmer listed some of Champlain’s accomplishments, which included the naming of Mount Desert Island and the founding of the first North American French settlement at St. Croix Island, both in 1604. Just four years later, he would found Quebec City.

Palmer said that 1604 “is before Jamestown, before the Mayflower. It wasn’t the first European settlement, but it was the first north of Florida. Let’s put it that way.”

And while Wednesday’s event did not coincide with the exact day of Champlain’s visit, the date was chosen because of its relative closeness to the anniversary of the explorer’s death on Christmas Day in 1635, Palmer said.

Bangor Mayor Frank Farrington then read a proclamation declaring the week of Dec. 27 Samuel de Champlain Week. Yvon Labbe, of the University of Maine’s Franco-American Centre, greeted the audience and gave words of thanks in French.

John Harvey, Grand Knight of the Pine Cone Council of the Knights of Columbus, spoke about his organization, which erected the monument at its current spot in 1922. Harvey also spoke on the significance of Champlain’s explorations, noting his role in the spread of Christianity and Western culture in the New World.

At the end of the ceremony, Harvey, Farrington and Labbe dropped the yellow flowered bouquet into the Kenduskeag Stream, where it landed with a thwack against the stream’s frozen surface.