Lumber Docks Bangor Maine

Bangor, Maine was the lumber capital of the world by the 1870s. Aided by tugs or a favorable tide and southwest winds, American schooners and deepwater foreign vessels navigated the twenty-four-mile lower Penobscot River to the Bangor basin and docks. Here mills processed the pine and fir trees floated down from the vast forests of northern Maine. Millions of board feet of lumber went into ships and rail cars for shipment to all parts of America and overseas. In this painting, a British baroque and a coastal schooner await cargo after an early snowfall, while a deep-laden coaster heads down the Penobscot.