Flashback: Eastport
Eastport Pier (Yes, that is Canada in the distance)
This post was originally published July 20, 2018.
Some travelling is driven by business and not pleasure. My trip to Eastport was just that. When I was working as a research assistant, studying Maine's coastal economies, I was granted the opportunity to visit some of Maine's budding aquaculture centers. Most people don't know it, but Eastport has recently led the way in salmon farming.
I say most people don't know this because Eastport has developed a reputation as a charming artist town---the closest one to the sunrise in the United States. Having to drive through many unnamed townships and miles upon miles of unfettered forests to get to Eastport, it's easy to see why so many artists set up their studios in the area.
Eastport is still transitioning from a self-dependent fishing village to an artist's getaway. The remains of the fishing docks and old sardine canning factories (which Eastport was famous for) still sit by the shoreline. Now, popup statues and niche coffee shops take over the downtown. My coworkers and I stopped into Dastardly Dick's Wicked Good Coffee, which was filled every morning by the same locals.
Flashback a couple hundred years and Eastport was filled with pirates. The Embargo Act passed in 1807, forbidding all American ships from trading in foreign ports. The fishermen of Eastport would be effectively screwed, considering that Canada was in view of their harbor, and their biggest trading partner. Commoners turned into smugglers, sending their goods to Moose Island legally where they were aided by the British in distributing the goods to the provinces. Eastport sailed through the changes, and when the Embargo Act was repealed in 1809, Eastport was thriving, their trading economy had never been better.
Pirates are still a hot topic, and every year, the town hosts a Pirate Festival. Although it's mostly geared towards children, it's still on my Travel To Do list.
I loved Eastport. The walk along the waterfront was quaint, and the people were as nice as could be. My coworkers and I were one out of two parties sitting in a local restaurant for lunch. We munched on all sorts of seafood, including the locally fished salmon that the cook got from the fishermen that morning. The waitress/owner of the restaurant mistakenly got one of our orders wrong and said that we shouldn't have to pay for that meal. My coworker waved it off. I remember her saying: "It's not a problem. It was delicious. Please do charge us. The company's paying for it." That's the nice thing about business travel, I could eat as expensively as I wanted and not worry about it. The waitress/owner did give us a free piece of cake to ease her conscience.
We ran into dastardly Dick himself later that day. He was walking his dog and helpfully gave us directions to the nearest aquaculture farm, so we could take pictures. I didn't really know what aquaculture farms looked like, but I certainly wasn't expecting them to look like they did. Salmon farms are bigger than say oyster farms, but salmon are bigger than oysters, so I guess that's to be expected. Pens floated in the middle of the bay, as boats went back and forth between them.
These pens are an attempt to rebuild the once booming maritime industry. While art installations and galleries now fill the town, the roads were built by the hands and money of fishermen. We sat in the library for hours, reading about Eastport's history, watching as our electronic clocks changed to Nova Scotia time, and gazing out the windows at passing pleasure boats. What Eastport will look like in 50 to 100 years is unclear, but its past tells me that its residents will persevere no matter what happens.