Prospect Harbor grew around the sea when poor roads made ocean travel and trade the easier route, drawing captains from Boston to Maine despite swift currents and rocky shores. Although the harbor was not settled until the 1790s, a 1728 navigational chart called it Watering Cove for its fresh water supply. Its early exports included lumber, barrel staves, and ice, later followed by locally canned lobster and sardines. Fishing became central after 1862, when Mr. Hilton set the first lobster trap there, and by 1904 concern had already arisen over lobster scarcity and rising prices. The village once supported three churches and three grocers who delivered on different days, and by 1799 the U.S. Mail ran weekly from Scoodic by way of Machias to Gouldsboro over 85 miles. By 1900 the first telephone had been installed to serve the growing fishing industry, and over the decades increasingly large canneries were built there, including a factory shown in a 1920s photograph that was destroyed by fire in 1968. Generations of men and women made their living bringing the ocean’s harvest to tables far beyond the harbor.