Downeast Fisheries Trail
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Bad Little Falls Park

Routes 1 & 92, downtown Machias

Machias is a Wabanaki word that means “bad little falls,” an appropriate name for this place, where the Machias River cuts through the center of town, falling in a churning froth of turbulent current. Despite the cautionary title, the power of the falls attracted the attention of early European settlers, who established sawmills at the falls and along the river. In relation to logging and lumbering, shipbuilding and fishing were minor industries in Machias. Below the falls, the estuary is visited by eagles, osprey, sea and shore birds, seals, and migratory fish, including endangered Atlantic salmon.

207.255.6621 | www.washingtoncountymaine.com/towns/machias.html

Year-round. Limited parking. Picnic area. Interpretive signs.

Bad Little Falls sign
Bad Little Falls sign
The river
Bad Little Falls bridge
Bad Little Falls bridge
Bad Little Falls
Bad Little Falls
Sunset at Bad Little Falls
Machias waterfront, 1915
Machias canning company

Fisheries Heritage
 

The coastal waters of Downeast Maine have sustained people for thousands of years, as evidenced by shell heaps at Clark’s (Birch) Point in Machiasport. Ancestors of today’s Passamaquoddy Tribe of Native Americans also left numerous petroglyphs around the bay, and the Tribe has conserved the most important of these sites. http://www.mcht.org/news/2006/10/3000_year_old_petroglyph_site_1.shtml

 

With fishing vessels concentrated in Jonesport, Bucks Harbor, and other peninsulas with direct ocean access, residents of the comparatively sheltered Machias and East Machias villages focused their efforts on tree-cutting and timber-sawing. Stacks of logs and sawn lumber lined both shores of the Machias River, where now the Downeast Sunrise Trail skirts the edge of the estuary.

 

There were, however, several sardine canneries in the area, including Machiasport Packing and Canning, and the East Machias Canning Company (A.M. Look), the first to pack clams and crabmeat in America. Herring weirs extended from Starboard, and local residents routinely caught halibut, cod, and lobsters.

 

Occasionally one of these fishermen would catch a salmon. As early as 1785, Machias settlers voted to regulate the fishing of alewives and salmon on the Machias River. Atlantic salmon in the Machias and East Machias rivers are protected by the Endangered Species Act and are the focus of restoration efforts.

 

Today’s commercial fisheries are dominated by lobstering and clamming.

 

Events & Activities
 

Machias was the site of the First Naval Battle of the American Revolutionary War, an event observed each June as part of the Margaretta Days Festival. 

 

Downeast Maine produces nearly 85% of the world’s wild blueberries. The annual Wild Blueberry Festival celebrates the blueberry with a Main Street parade, fabulous food, crafts and fine art by regional artists, live music, and family activities. 

 

Much of the upstream watershed, including river banks, lakes, and forests once dominated by the St. Regis Paper Company and blueberry barrens, has been protected by The Nature Conservancy and the State of Maine.

 

 

Sources & Links

 

Harnedy, Jim and Jane. The Machias Bay Region. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001.

 

Whittier, Henry Smith. East Machias 1765-1926. Machias, ME: University of Maine.

 

University of Maine Fisheries Collection has journals from Machias-based fishing vessels, weir applications, and lobstermen’s account books.

 

 

Trail Sites

  • Abbe Museum
  • Bad Little Falls Park
  • Bar Harbor Town Park
  • Bar Harbor Town Pier
  • Beals Heritage Center
  • Bucksport Waterfront
  • Cable Pool Park
  • Carryingplace Cove
  • Cobscook Bay Resource Center
  • Cobscook Bay State Park
  • Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery
  • Deer Isle – Stonington Historical Society
  • Downeast Institute
  • Frazer Point
  • Frenchman Bay Overlook
  • Frenchman Bay Scenic Turnout
  • Gleason Cove Park
  • Gordon’s Wharf
  • Great Harbor Maritime Museum
  • Green Lake National Fish Hatchery
  • Henry Cove
  • Islesford Historical Museum
  • Jonesport Historical Society
  • Long Cove
  • Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (formerly Penobscot East Resource Center)
  • Maine Coast Sardine History Museum
  • McCurdy’s Smokehouse
  • Milbridge Historical Museum
  • Milbridge Town Marina
  • Morong Cove
  • Mount Desert Oceanarium
  • Naskeag Point
  • Otter Cove
  • Penobscot Marine Museum
  • Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory & Fort Knox
  • Peter Gray Hatchery
  • Pleasant River Hatchery
  • Prospect Harbor
  • Quoddy Head State Park
  • Roosevelt-Campobello International Park
  • Shackford Head State Park
  • Somesville Mill Pond
  • Taunton Bay Gateway
  • Tidal Falls
  • Waponahki Museum & Resource Center

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The Downeast Fisheries Trail consists of 45 locations from Penobscot Bay, Maine, to Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, that showcase active and historic fisheries heritage sites, such as fish hatcheries, aquaculture facilities, fishing harbors, clam flats, processing plants, historical societies, community centers, parks, and other related places. The Trail is an effort to raise awareness among residents and visitors of the importance of the region’s maritime heritage and the role of marine resources to the area’s economy. The Trail builds on these local resources to strengthen community life and the experience of visitors.

For a printed map-brochure of the Trail, please call 207.581.1435.

Download the web version of the map-brochure. (6.8 MB)

For more information about the Downeast Fisheries Trail, email or call 207.288.2944 x5834.

Downeast Fisheries Trail Brochure Map - Web Version

Downeast Fisheries Trail Brochure Map - Web Version

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