Viking Village History

Our Historical Legacy

In the 1920's, '30's and well into the WWll years lobstering was one of the principal fisheries at Independent Dock. This was done from small skiffs with only one man and the roughly 325 pots tended by each boat were pulled manually. The area that currently is the Viking Village parking lot was filled with thousands of wooden lobster and sea bass pots to be scraped and tarred. Tarring was hard, dirty and mostly unpaid work. The fishermens' wives saved bacon grease which turned out to be the most effective method of cleaning up after a day of pot tarring. During the day when the men were tarring the pots, it was a job of the women and kids to bring thermos of coffee and sandwiches for lunch and afternoon "mug-up".

As the pot fishery declined, many of the fishermen turned to trolling for bluefish and gillnet fishing. The nets were cotton twine and if not dried after every day's use, they would rot. Consequently net racks with drying nets were everywhere throughout  the dock property and even in the area that today is the village of High Bar Harbor.