Museum, Others Raising Money to Save Big Jim

The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport is leading a project to restore “Big Jim,” the 40-foot-tall Maine fisherman who has stood for decades in front of the former Stinson Cannery in Prospect Habor.

In partnership with Bold Coast Seafood and the Gouldsboro Historical Society, the Museum plans to restore the roadside icon so that the story of Maine’s sardine industry and the generations who worked in it will never be forgotten.

Big Jim was first installed in 1959 along Route 1 in Kittery to welcome visitors to Sardineland and Vacationland. Holding a sardine can, the plywood figure was part of a creative campaign by the Maine Sardine Council to celebrate and promote the state’s sardine industry.

His image quickly became more than just advertising — it became a tribute to the hardworking men and women whose labor powered Maine’s coastal economy for over a century.

In the late 1960s, Big Jim was moved to Prospect Harbor, remade in aluminum, and stationed outside the Stinson Cannery. The plant was the last operating sardine cannery in the United States when it closed in 2010.

The property changed hands, becoming a lobster buying and processing facility and Big Jim was changed to show a lobster trap rather than a sardine can. Today he still stands watch but time and weather have lead to the need for restoration.

The Penobscot Marine Museum plans to:

• Raise $30,000 to fund restoration

• Remove Big Jim by crane and transport him from Prospect Harbor to Belfast

• Strip, prime, and repair his 12 aluminum panels

• Repaint Big Jim in his original design with help from mural artists at the WOW Collective in Belfast

• Install Big Jim at the Museum on Route 1 in Searsport next spring as part of the second year of the Sardineland exhibit

• Return Big Jim home to Bold Coast Seafood in Prospect Harbor in the fall to resume his post overlooking the harbor.

  
  

To learn more or donate to the restoration fund, visit https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/big-jim.