View of Damariscotta Mills Me. 96.

View of Damariscotta Mills Me. 96.

"View of Damariscotta Mills Me. 96." Train Leaving Town View of Damariscotta Mills, Me. 96. From the 1920s to 1940s Damariscotta Mills was the business center of Nobleboro. This view shows Bayview Road (formerly Main Street), the tracks of the Knox & Lincoln Railroad, which ran between Woolwich and Rockland, and Great Salt Bay. The steeple of the 1854 Baptist Church is visible on the left. It closed in 1973 when only 6 members remained. The fish plant in the lower left opened in 1892 for processing alewives (river herring). Each spring they migrated from the ocean up the Damariscotta River, through Great Salt Bay, up the fish ladder stream into the mill pond, and then into Damariscotta Lake to spawn. Behind the fish plant alewives swam into pens, where workers used dip nets to scoop them out for salting and pickling or filleting. The seven small shacks between the railroad and road were used to smoke alewives. The fish were a common local food, and thousands of barrels a year were exported to the West Indies and other foreign markets. The plant closed in the late 1960s. Local organizations and towns recently reconstructed the fish ladder to ensure alewives will continue to run.