Prospect Harbor
Route 186, Gouldsboro
The eastern gateway to the Schoodic National Scenic Byway is located next to the Gouldsboro Town Office and the Community Center. The gateway facility features interpretive signs, and a child-friendly scale model of the Prospect Harbor Lighthouse. The Byway passes the sardine cannery in Prospect Harbor, the last sardine cannery operating in the US before it closed in 2010. Dozens of sardine packing plants once anchored the coast of Maine. Declines in the native sardine species, Atlantic herring, changes in fishing regulations, and evolving global markets all contributed to the demise of the American sardine industry. The Prospect Harbor cannery re-opened as a lobster processing plant, and the harbor itself continues its role as a popular place to moor lobster and other fishing boats and unload the day’s catch. Prospect Harbor Light, seen from the village but not open for tours, was commissioned by George Washington, proof of this area’s historic importance for marine uses.
207.667.7131 | http://www.schoodicbyway.org/
Year-round. Parking. Restrooms. Interpretive signs.
Fisheries Heritage
From Lobster Smacks to Lobster Pounds (Prospect Harbor is site to one of the state’s first lobster pounds, read more here…)
Sources & Links
Schoodic National Scenic Byway
In Maine, Last Sardine Cannery in the U.S. Is Clattering Out. April 3, 2010. New York Times.
Last Sardine Cannery Closes Down, YouTube Video
NOOA Voices from the Fisheries, Interview with Arlene Hartford about her experiences working at the Prospect Harbor Cannery. (Interviewer Patricia Pinto da Silva).
Interview with Arlene Hartford PDF
How lobster consumed herring, a great little history of the transition from a sardine economy to a lobster economy in Maine, with special focus on Prospect Harbor.