I spent several weeks from mid-May to late June 1976 on Deer Isle, just a short distance from the end of the causeway from Little Deer Isle and off to the left of the main road to Stonington. I was part of a base metals exploration crew and we were quartered in a little rental house overlooking Eggemoggin Reach and the suspension bridge. Each Tuesday(?) one to three schooners on cruises out of Camden would anchor up for the evening right in front of us on their first or second day out of port on a multi-day cruise. A lobsterman owned the rental house and lived in his own house next door. We'd help him offload his pots from the boat onto his F250 and he'd toss a few lobster our way as thanks. We bought bags of clams for next to nothing from the lobster pier over on Little Deer Isle. We cut geochemical and geophysical survey line grids through slash, forest, and swamp from 00:dark:30 until late afternoon, drove the pickups and old style Broncos back over the suspension bridge, and spend the evening overlooking the Reach drinking beer and steaming lobster and clams. The mining company we were working for was paying us the princely sum of $650/month plus full expense reimbursement for rent and food as we searched for Kuroko-type sulfide copper-lead-zinc orebodies like the one at Harborside and over by Blue Hill. A sixpack of Bud cost $1.75-to $1.90. We 19-21 year-old geology students/hippies thought we were in heaven, and come to find out, we pretty much were.
Oh, and I definitely paid a lifetime of blood donation dues to the blackflies. Next time I visit, it'll be before or after fly season.
Foy
