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Recent History of
Sears Island
 In 1978, Maine
Department of Transportation (MDOT) proposed a cargo terminal on the island. In
1984, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Cargo Port project for its
Clean Water Act (CWA) permit review. The Corps refused.
The Sierra Club then requested a
preliminary injunction of the project, filing court claim that the Corps
violated the CWA and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by not requiring
an EIS. The causeway to the island was begun in 1985 without proper permits.
After years of challenges by the
Sierra Club, EPA, and others, the EPA, Conservation Law Foundation and the
Sierra Club signed a consent decree settling the Sears Island wetland
enforcement case, requiring restoration. The state bought the island to be
overseen by the MDOT. In 1997 Governor King called the cargo port project to a
halt over concern for the cost to the state and in recognition of the negative
environmental impacts.
Early History of
Sears Island
What is now known as Sears Island was left behind when the last glacier
retreated 12,000 years ago. Indians living in the Penobscot Bay region
frequented the island. The island was first called Wassumkeag, “bright sand
beach”. Many English and French explorers came to the bay in the sixteenth
century
Captain John Smith wrote about the region praising its, “…rocky isles so
furnished with good Woods, Springs, Fruits, Fish and Fowle.” The American
Revolution brought squatters to Sears Island. The first, Job Pendleton arrived
sometime before 1775. An American ship “Defense” was sunk in the harbor next to
the island, and the squatters fled rather than face the enemy soldiers. Peace
returned, and six families were settled on the island by 1790. In 1813, the
island became a dairy farm owned by the Sears family. In 1905, The Bangor &
Aroostook Railway bought the island for a tourist destination, which failed with
the rising popularity of cars.
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