Editing Bangor, Maine (section)

===Industrialization: lumbering, shipping, and manufacturing===
[[File:Sterns Sawmill, below Bangor, ME.jpg|thumb|Sterns Sawmill, below Bangor]]
[[File:Maine - Bangor - NARA - 23940707 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Aerial view of Bangor, 1936]]
The [[Penobscot River]] [[drainage basin]] above Bangor was unattractive to settlement for farming, but well suited to [[lumbering]]. Winter snow allowed logs to be dragged from the woods by horse-teams. Carried to the Penobscot or its tributaries, [[log driving]] in the [[snowmelt]] brought them to waterfall-powered [[sawmill]]s upriver from Bangor. The sawed lumber was then shipped from the city's docks, Bangor being at the head-of-tide (between the rapids and the ocean) to points anywhere in the world. [[Shipbuilding]] was also developed.<ref name='Wood'/> Bangor capitalists also owned most of the forests. The main markets for Bangor lumber were the East Coast cities. Much was also shipped to the [[Caribbean]] and to California during the [[Gold Rush]], via [[Cape Horn]], before sawmills could be established in the west. Bangorians later helped transplant the Maine culture of lumbering to the [[Pacific Northwest]], and participated directly in the Gold Rush. [[Bangor, Washington]]; [[Bangor, California]]; and Little Bangor, Nevada, are legacies of this contact.<ref name='Wood'>Richard George Wood, ''A History of Lumbering in Maine'', 1820–61 (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1971)</ref>

By 1860, Bangor was the world's largest lumber port, with 150 sawmills operating along the river. The city shipped over 150&nbsp;million boardfeet of lumber a year, much of it in Bangor-built and Bangor-owned ships. In the year 1860, 3,300 lumbering ships passed by the docks.<ref name=cvb-heritage/>

Many of the [[lumber baron]]s built elaborate [[Greek Revival]] and [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] houses that still stand in the [[Broadway Historic District (Bangor, Maine)|Broadway Historic District]]. Bangor has many substantial old churches, and shade trees. The city was so beautiful it was called "The Queen City of the East". The shorter ''Queen City'' appellation is still used by some local clubs, organizations, events and businesses.<ref name="City of Bangor Maine">{{cite web|url=http://www.bangormaine.gov|title=Maine's Queen City Since 1834|access-date=December 18, 2012}}</ref>

In addition to shipping lumber, 19th-century Bangor was the leading producer of [[moccasins]], shipping over 100,000 pairs a year by the 1880s.<ref>''Barnstable Patriot'', October 21, 1884, p. 1</ref> Exports also included bricks, leather, and even ice (which was cut and stored in winter, then shipped to Boston, and even China, the West Indies and South America).<ref name=cvb-heritage/>

Bangor had certain disadvantages compared to other East Coast ports, including its rival [[Portland, Maine]]. Being on a northern river, its port froze during the winter, and it could not take the largest ocean-going ships. The comparative lack of settlement in the forested hinterland also gave it a comparatively small home market.<ref>David Demeritt, "Boards, Barrels, and Boxshooks: The Economics of Downeast Lumber in 19th Century Cuba" ''Forest and Conservation History'', v. 35, no. 3 (July 1991), p. 112</ref>

In 1844 the first ocean-going iron-hulled [[steamship]] in the U.S. was named ''The Bangor''. She was built by the [[Harlan and Hollingsworth]] firm of [[Wilmington, Delaware]] in 1844, and was intended to take passengers between Bangor and Boston. On her second voyage, however, in 1845, she burned to the waterline off [[Castine, Maine|Castine]]. She was rebuilt at [[Bath, Maine|Bath]], returned briefly to her earlier route, but was soon purchased by the U.S. government for use in the [[Mexican–American War]].<ref>Edward Mitchell Blanding, "Bangor, Maine", ''New England Magazine'', v. XVI, no. 1 (Mar. 1897), p. 235</ref>