Sardine Factories, Prospect Harbor Me. 221.

Sardine Factories, Prospect Harbor Me. 221.

Sardine Factories, Prospect Harbor Me. Sardine Factories (Cannery), Lobster Traps, Ferry, Sailboat, Rowboats, motorboats The southern shore of Prospect Harbor has been the site of a seafood processing facility since 1865, when a cannery began packaging for the emerging lobster industry. Sardine canning in Prospect Harbor dates back to 1890, but it wasn't until Cal Stinson, who had worked in the Prospect cannery as a boy, bought the cannery and rebuilt it in 1927 that Prospect Harbor would become famous. His cannery, shown here, shortly after it opened, burned in 1969 and was finally closed in April 2010. The harbor location allowed vessels to unload the catch and until late in the 1900s to drain off the cannery's waste products. At this location a succession of factory buildings have been built, burned, abandoned, or relocated according to changes in the economics or the fisheries. The first lobster factories phased out as the fishing industry shifted in the 1880s, prohibiting short lobsters and marketing more fresh product. Factories were then rebuilt to handle the emerging industry for canning sardines. The two factories in this photo thrived at the height of the canning industry; the one on the right was built in 1881 and that on the left moved in from South Gouldsboro in 1886. The factory on the left, purchased and enlarged in the 1920s by the entrepreneur Calvin Stinson, survived under several owners and a fire to become the last sardine factory in the U.S. It closed in April 2010. Since then the factory site has been reopened for a renovated lobster packaging process, again providing local employment as it has for almost 150 years. No carriers are alongside. A couple of tired looking sloops swing at moorings along with one or two gasoline engine powered fishing boats.