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The “Modern Era” runs from the start of World War II through the present day. It has been an era of “hopes-dashed” as Eastport has striven to find a new identity.  On the other hand, for the Passamaquoddy people, solid progress was shown in recognizing their rights.

Over the past 84 years: 1) the sardine industry failed; 2) all major manufacturers left the area;  3) the effort to dam Passamaquoddy Bay did not succeed; and 4) an attempt to make Eastport into an oil refinery town collapsed. And if that were not enough, there were other plans to bring liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities to Passamaquoddy Bay (these efforts, thankfully, also failed). 

And yet, after all of these failed initiatives, Eastport has survived, and Passamaquoddy Bay has maintained its glorious natural beauty.

The fact that Eastport has survived this challenging “new identity dilemma” is a real testament to the veracity and integrity of the people of the Greater Eastport area – a people who have persisted despite steady unemployment, ongoing financial challenges, and limited local medical resources.

Eastport had only one major inflection point during this “Modern Era”: the Pittston fiasco.    

1968 was the year that Eastport had been waiting for. It was the year that Eastport’s “next big thing” arrived – a chance to bring thousands of jobs to the city – new wealth, and new opportunities.  Or was that the case?  On March 22, 1968, the Eastport City Council entered a confidential agreement with the Metropolitan Petroleum Company (a division of the Pittston Company) for an option to purchase 254 acres of land near and including the municipal airport on which it would place an oil refinery. On that day, Eastport set out on a path to become one of the largest oil refiners on America's east coast.

To put the Pittston story in context, the national agenda at the time of the Pittston proposal needs to be considered. In the 1970s, the United States was highly sensitive to its reliance on imported oil. As a result of U.S. support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) called for an embargo against supporters of Israel (and the U.S. was one of those countries).  This embargo caused an energy crisis in the United States – and, as a reaction, the U.S. determined that it would need to become energy self-sufficient. The U.S. needed new oil processing facilities – and it was believed that having the proposed Pittston oil refinery at Eastport would help the U.S. become more self-reliant. After 15 years of seeking regulatory approvals and dealing with court challenges, Pittston was finally ready to build its refinery. But a challenge by Eastport citizens succeeded in getting the county court at Machias to rule the agreement between Metropolitan Petroleum (the parent company of Pittston) and the City of Eastport was null and void. A subsequent Maine Supreme Court confirmed this ruling. The Pittston refinery was ultimately defeated in November of 1982. 

In 1975, the B.H. Wilson Sardine Factory closed (leaving Eastport with one sardine factory – the Holmes plant).

February 2, 1976, brought Eastport the "Groundhog Day Gale," a cyclone with 59 mph winds, which created coastal flooding from Eastport down to Brunswick, Maine (near Portland). The Eastport waterfront was severely damaged. The Wadsworth Chandlery and other businesses were knocked off their piers and swept into the harbor. The waterfront would thus change significantly.

During this same period, however, as Eastport has struggled to find its new identity, the Passamaquoddy people made substantial progress in government representation and social equity. The Passamaquoddy inflection points during this period include surviving a governmental “child adoption” program (another, thinly disguised assimilation program); continued welfare mismanagement by the Bureau of Indian Affairs; obtaining the right to vote; and the Passamaquoddy (along with the other Maine Indigenous People) won a landmark court decision that helped restore former Indigenous lands and improved Indigenous financial situations. The Passamaquoddy People also made significant advances in self-governance and health care. 

Starting in the 1960s, and through the 1970s, the Passamaquoddy (and other Maine tribes) pursued lost land and financial damages inflicted by Maine's violation of the "Non-Intercourse Act of 1790."  In 1980, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and representatives of the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Houlton branch of the Maliseet finally approved the Maine Indian Land Claims Act that provided monetary damages and land restoration.  As part of this agreement, the federal government put $81.5 million on the table as settlement money (the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes receive $26.8 million each – and $12.5 million each in trust fund money). $54.5 million of that settlement money was earmarked to purchase 300,000 acres of land – the remaining $27 million was put in a trust to be held by the Department of the Interior.