Blizzard Blows Historic Building Into Canada, Maine Wants It Back

Winter Storm Grayson hammered the Northeast with heavy snow and high winds in early January. The winds were so strong that they ripped part of a historic building from its foundation in Maine and blew it onto an island in Canada. 

According to the Bangor Daily News, a brine shed from McCurdy’s Smokehouse in Lubec was blown 100 yards into the Lubec Narrows and then floated to Campobello Island in Canada. The shed was one of five buildings that made up the historic McCurdy’s Smokehouse, "which was the last traditional smoked-herring facility in the United States when it closed in 1991."

WLBZ-TV reports that a local non-profit, Lubec Landmarks, was ready to salvage the damaged shed, but ran into legal setbacks with Canadian authorities. They refuse to let the contractors hired by Lubec Landmarks onto the site to begin salvaging the remains of the shed. They say that scavengers have claimed the shed as their own. 

While authorities wrangle over who has rights to the shed, those scavengers have already started dismantling the building. That worries Lubec Landmarks president Rachel Rubeor:

The bureaucratic nonsense is hampering us big time. Let’s face it. It’s not like we’re terrorists or anything

Local authorities have been unable to do much, so Rubeor reached out to Senator Angus King, writing a letter asking for assistance:

It seems everyone is eager to help but can’t move because of these rules. It is only exacerbated now by the influx of vandals who with chainsaws want to cannibalize our building.

Rubeor hopes to see the issue resolved quickly, so Lubec Landmarks can salvage as much as possible and work to rebuild the historic shed. 


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