About Belfast Maine (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,381. It is the county seat of Waldo CountyGR6. Located on Penobscot Bay, the community is named for Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Belfast was for the first hundred years of its organized history a ship building center, sending hundreds of three, four, and five masted schooners into the world and making the fortune of many New England shipping and whaling families. Its location on the western shore of idyllic Penobscot Bay is far enough from the open ocean to be sheltered but close enough to make for an ideal shipbuilding location. Bangor, Maine, the North American lumber capital for most of the later 1800s, was less than a day's run up the Penobscot River, and Boston, Massachusetts was a little over a day's run south. The death of wooden cargo sailing vessels around the turn of the 20th century coincided with the advent of modern refrigeration, allowing the plentiful local seafood (mainly lobsters) to take the place of schooners and lumber as the region's primary export. Lobsters, scallops, sardines, herring, and mackerel made their way to the markets in Boston, New York City, and farther afield. Along the way, Belfast and the surrounding communities became a favored summer destination in Maine's mid-coast region.
After World War II, Belfast's economy was driven by its poultry industry. The annual summer Broiler Festival became a popular celebration of the summer season for locals and summer people alike. The collapse of the broiler industry in the mid-1970s during a national economic downturn was devastating to Belfast and the surrounding communities. Even today, the long narrow concrete footprints of decades-gone chicken houses can be found in overgrown fields throughout the county. The demolition in the early 1980s of the defunct chicken-feed silos at the foot of Main Street that had once fed millions of chickens marked a turning point for the community as the old order faded away. Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, there was a sizeable migration out of Belfast in search of better employment opportunities, which led to a depressed real estate market. This favorable buying market attracted an influx of young artists and college grads from all over the country. In 1977, a few years before the demise of the broiler chicken industry, the Belfast Co-op was formed and still thrives to this day. It quickly became a meeting place for the community where ideas could be exchanged and refined, creating the basis for the community that exists and thrives to this day. The Co-op was a haven for the new influx of young college grads, artists and idealists that flocked to Belfast, and came to call it home.
Since the pollution caused by the poultry industry has faded into memory, Belfast has returned to its earlier grandeur and has become an attractive vacation destination on the Maine coast, offering charming shops and restaurants, as well as the natural beauty of the harbor for travelers to enjoy. Local farms and fisheries continue to thrive today, keeping local traditions alive while actively participating in the ecological stewardship of Maine's lands and waters - as well as the protecting the future of its farming and fishing industries.
In the early 1990s, credit card giant MBNA established a large facility in Belfast. MBNA was instrumental in establishing the Hutchinson Center of the University of Maine, an outpost of the University of Maine System, less than a mile from the main MBNA campus. The explosion of jobs provided by MBNA has increased Belfast's population significantly. (MBNA was recently acquired by Bank of America.) The former Stinson plant has become the site of a major waterfront development with condo, retail shops and marina slated to begin construction in late 2005. So Belfast is once again beginning the redefining process.
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