By Paul Sylvain

Sardines. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. But either way, for many people in small coastal towns like Machiasport, sardine canneries provided a much-needed source of income to families living nearby them.

According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, there were as many as 89 sardine canneries, employing upwards of 8,000 people in Maine in the early 1900s. NOAA Fisheries, meanwhile, reports that by the mid-1950s, that number had dwindled to around 75 Maine sardine canneries.