From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
A.A.C. Co. Wharf and Tower, Searsport, Maine, after Cyclone, May 22, 1921.3 ( Photo by Cook)
The image shows one of the American Agricultural Chemical Company's wharves and towers as it looked following a tornado. (In the distance is a second such wharf.) According to "Around Our Town Town," published by the Searsport Historical Society in 1967, the American Agricultural Chemical Company built a large fertilizer plant and pier in 1907, following the completion of the railroad the previous year. The location is not identified. The article suggests that two years later, the facility was taken over by the Hubbard Fertilizer Company (later the Armour Co.). The plant was demolished in 1960. The May 26, 1921 issue of The Republican Journal of Belfast reported " Searsport was visited Sunday afternoon by a genuine cyclone, the like of which was never known in this locality..." Many other Searsport structures were devastated by the cyclone as it moved in a sweeping arc from the northwest. As the storm moved out to sea, it did extensive damage to the docks at Mack's Point, which was estimated to run into the thousands of dollars, a substantial amount of money at that time. Amazingly, there were no fatalities and only a few serious injuries during the cyclone.
