Working The Bay:

		Penobscot Bay's Geography and Resources				An Extractive Economy and an Industrial Economy
		Work in the Colonial Era				Nineteenth Century Industries: Lime
		Nineteenth Century Industries: Lumber				Nineteenth Century Industries: Granite
		Nineteenth Century Industries: Bricks and Ice				Nineteenth Century Industries: Fishing and Agriculture
		Nineteenth Century Industries: Shipbuilding				Other Nineteenth Century Industries and Working Life
		Shipping				Changes in Industries and the Rise of Tourism

Introduction

Penobscot Bay and River create an economic region defined by water and by proximity to the ocean. In the past, residents of the Bay’s fringe relied on water as a road to the world, even though by the beginning of the twentieth century, railroads and roads had begun to take the place of water transportation. Even today, cargoes shipped to Searsport, Maine’s second largest seaport, help meet our energy and industrial needs.

Penobscot Bay Chart 1880

For 400 years, the Penobscot Bay area’s geography and natural resources provided the basis for its economic growth, industrial progress, and community development.  Shipping and shipbuilding industries would not have developed without the resources in and around the Bay and the Bay’s protected harbors. Natural resources encouraged the growth of local industries, which then encouraged a strong marine transportation industry, the cornerstone of our maritime history.

Penobscot Bay’s industries were strongest in the nineteenth century. Bangor was considered the Lumber Capital of the World. Rockland had a virtual monopoly on providing lime, for plaster and mortar, to New York City. Penobscot quarries provided granite for buildings in the large cities of the East Coast and the Midwest. Maine occasionally topped Massachusetts in catching the most fish of any state. These and other industries are part of our story of “Working the Bay.”