LB2016.15.1517

LB2016.15.1517

The waterfront at Stonington, Maine. One-cent postcard dated August 23, 1950; addressed to someone at Roaring Spring, PA Stonington is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. It is located on the southern portion of the island of Deer Isle. The population was 1,056 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Burnt Cove, Oceanville, Green Head, and Clam City. A picturesque working waterfront and tranquil tourist destination in eastern Penobscot Bay, Stonington has consistently ranked among the top lobster ports in the country and is the largest lobster port in Maine. In 2011, 14,854,989 pounds of lobster were landed by Stonington fishermen, with a value of $46.3 million. Deer Isle Settlement As far back as 6,100 years ago the first inhabitants of Deer Isle were Native Americans known as the Abenaki, speaking a language called Etchemin. One of the first Europeans to explore the area was Estevan Gomez, a Portuguese working for the Spanish Crown. Gomez sailed his ship LA ANUNCIADA up the Eggemoggin Reach, amongst other places along the Maine coast, looking for gold and the Northwest Passage. It was the French, however, who would be the most active in the region. Establishing a fort at Castine and intermarrying with Abenaki natives. A body buried in full French armor was discovered on nearby Campbell Island, south of Oak Point. Green's Landing Settlement Hundred-acre "proprietor lots" were granted to those who first settled the island, accelerating the southward migration with the promise of new land. Within a few decades, the yields of acidic soil of the original proprietor lots began to decline and inhabitants of the island took to the sea. Green's Landing, settled c.?1800, was established by a few pioneering souls on the rocky, windswept southern shore of the island. That sparsely populated village became active in shipbuilding, seafaring, fishing and lobster fishing. Granite A barren settlement, Green's Landing changed little in its first 70 or so years; c.?1870, granite quarrying became a major occupation and little Green's Landing became a boom town. Europeans, mainly from Italy, immigrated to Green's Landing to implement their old-world skills as stonecutters and masons at the numerous in-town granite quarries. As the demand for stone increased, quarrying moved off-shore to the southerly surrounding islands. Crotch Island, the best known island quarry, was one of 33 major island quarries along the Maine coast, providing work for an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people. Stone excavated in the area has been used to build important structures across the country, including the approaches to the Brooklyn Bridge (1880s), Croton Aqueduct (NY, 1880), Holyoke Dam (Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1890s), piers for Manhattan/Brooklyn Bridge (Manhattan, 1905), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, 1907), Rockefeller fountain bowl (Pocantico, New York, 1913), John F. Kennedy Memorial, (Arlington, Virginia, 1966) and the new Yankee Stadium among many others. Some other major quarries in operation at the time were The Settlement Quarry (on Deer Isle), Green Island Quarry, and St. Helena Quarry (both separate island quarries). Boom Town Many of the new immigrants lived in hotels and large boarding houses built for that purpose at Green's Landing-the current Tewksbury Building being one of many still in use. Some of these new migrants were housed in bunkhouses on Crotch Island itself. Prior to building the Deer Isle-Sedwick bridge and causeway in 1939, the settlement's primary link to the outside world was Steamboat Wharf, located west of the main harbor. Once busy with vessels arriving daily from ports such as Rockland and Boston, it was the primary terminus for freight and passengers. Lobstering & Seafaring Sailors on the island became renowned for their maritime skills. Full crews for two America's Cup teams were recruited from Deer Isle for the victorious America's Cup Races of 1895 on The Defender and again in 1899 on Columbia. The Stonington harbor has long been filled with Friendship Sloops among other boat designs, powered by sail only. Lobstermen once used them to haul traps. Most of their trips were to the outer islands (like York Island) near Isle au Haut, fishing during the week and returning to the harbor on weekends. This changed with the advent of gasoline or diesel engines, along with new hull designs, which enabled fishermen to make day trips to fishing grounds in Penobscot Bay.