Day 3 of the 7 days on the Historical Coasts Eastport Maine

The City of Eastport is a series of islands in Washington County, Maine. It has a tiny population so is the smallest in the state in those terms. Nevertheless, it has many attractions for visitors to from mustard factory to statues

Eastport is the deepest natural harbor on the eastern seaboard of the USA. It never freezes over and, for many decades, the main activity was catching and curing fish.  Used to have lots of sardines factories along the waterfront but those have been gone for many years now. 

The easternmost city in the United States (Eastport) is also home to one of the oddest statues in Maine. The 12-foot-tall fiberglass fisherman was originally built as a prop for a Fox reality television contest called Murder in Small Town X by sculptor Jeff Poss. Although funding for the statue was cut from the show’s budget, Poss decided to create the massive, cartoonish figure anyway. While some residents criticized the statue’s exaggerated expression, overly large and regionally inaccurate fish, and stumpy legs, others came to love the bearded workman. In 2004, a committee of citizens formed a fundraising campaign to turn the temporary prop piece into a permanent fixture.

Their reasons were twofold. First, the statue had become a tourist attraction, much like the Paul Bunyan statue in downtown Bangor. The second reason is much more tragic and has to do with the television series filmed in Eastport. The winner of the series, a firefighter from New York named Angel Juarbe, died just weeks after the show aired. Juarbe was one of the first responders during the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Today, the fisherman statue stands as a memorial of sorts for Juarbe, while serving as a reminder of the region’s main historical industry.

Today was a walk around this small town.  Statues, restaurants, and Whoopie Pies. We finally found them at the IGA and 1.5 miles up a steady hill