by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

“I started doing it in the 70s.” said Bucket Davis. “Used to be alewife stands all up and down the river, there was all kinds of smoke shacks. I think I’m about the only one left in the state that still smokes.” 

The town of East Machias owns the smokehouse along the banks of its namesake river, and it’s there that Davis leads local students in the Downeast springtime tradition of smoking alewives. Davis also serves as an East Machias Selectman.