On a sunny May morning, Big Jim’s shiny, yellow oilskin pants were the first to be painted as local artists from the Women on Walls Collective, or WOW, began their head-to-toe makeover of the iconic 40-foot-tall fisherman that once greeted Maine-bound drivers when they crossed over the bridge into Kittery from New Hampshire.
When finished, Big Jim will once again be his rugged-looking self. And after having spent the past few decades as a billboard for various owners of a seafood processing facility in Gouldsboro’s Prospect Harbor, he once again will hold a large sardine can-shaped sign reading “Maine Sardines Welcome You to Vacationland & Sardineland.”
The plan is for Big Jim to spend this summer alongside Route 1 in Searsport, where he’ll be a roadside attraction to draw people to the second and final season of the Penobscot Marine Museum’s “Sardineland” exhibition. When the show closes in October, he will be moved back to what has been his home since 1969 in Gouldsboro, towering over what’s now Bold Coast Seafood.
The statue’s latest adventure, some four years in the planning, comes thanks to PMM’s longtime photo archivist Kevin Johnson, who had the bold idea to borrow Big Jim to draw attention to “Sardineland,” which runs through Oct. 10.
Countless hands helped rejuvenate the handsome fisherman. The project is due to a partnership between PMM, the Gouldsboro Historical Society and Bold Coast Seafood, which acquired and reopened Prospect Harbor’s waterfront facility where Stinson Canning Co. packed sardines and other seafood for 73 years. Stinson’s treasurer, Calvin Stinson Jr., salvaged the iconic billboard, first erected in Kittery by the Maine Sardine Council, and moved it to Prospect Harbor to advertise the company’s Beach Cliff sardine brand. Stinson became the nation’s last sardine cannery to shut its doors in 2010.
“The Big Jim project turned out to be much bigger than I imagined it would be,” Johnson said.
Johnson credited PMM Director Karen Smith and his co-workers for supporting his vision, and he lauds Belmont Boatworks founder and boatbuilder Dan Miller for making it happen. On a bitter-cold March day, Miller drove 140 miles to take down Big Jim and transport the lofty, aluminum figure back to his shipyard 6 miles north of Belfast. The disassembly that day took 10 hours and wrapped up after dark.
Back at the Belmont Boatworks shop, Big Jim’s body parts—a dozen aluminum panels—were blasted clean to prep them for repainting. Miller also freed up a work bay for members of Maine’s WOW Collective to repaint the billboard. When the time comes, he and his crew also will see to the restored sign’s return to Gouldsboro and reassembly next fall.
“It wouldn’t have happened without the commitment and support of Dan Miller and Belmont Boatworks,” said Johnson, who has raised $26,000 for Big Jim’s revival thus far. His goal is $30,000-plus to cover all costs. “The financial and emotional support we received from our sponsors and the hundreds of donors who contributed let us know we were onto something special. It feels good to have seen it through.”
In addition, Johnson praised the Belfast-based WOW Collective’s four mixed-media artists who specialize in public art projects. Their creations can be seen all around Belfast, as well as elsewhere in the state. Trees, flowers, starfish, lobster buoys, and other colorful elements pop out from the mid-coast city’s crosswalks. They enliven the historic downtown and make the act of crossing the street fun for pedestrians and visitors.
In late April, Searsmont and Belmont artists Sam Maheu and Ashley Megquier stood, knelt, and crouched as each painted the aluminum panels that make up the cutout’s oilskin-clad legs.
Megquier likened Big Jim’s popular appeal to Bangor’s axe wielding Paul Bunyan statue, which welcomes people to the Queen City. In fact, Paul Bunyan and Jim were both installed in 1959.
“I remember taking pictures with Paul Bunyan as a kid,” Megquier said, adding that Millinocket’s Pockwockamus Rock mural has a similar fan club. The roadside boulder, whose painted message reminds people to “Keep Maine Beautiful,” features Mount Katahdin, trees, streams, and the region’s wildlife, from bears to moose. “It’s a memorable way to welcome people to Baxter State Park,” she said.
Maheu, an art teacher at Troy A. Howard Middle School in Belfast, also said she felt honored to make Big Jim young again. “It’s so cool to be part of Maine history and Big Jim’s story,” she reflected. “He has gone through so many phases.”
Working nearby, Belfast artists Heidi Reader and Annadeene Fowler took turns using a virtual-reality headset to trace details of Big Jim onto other panels from an 8-by-10-inch paper showing the original figure. The headset enabled them to accurately rough-in the lanky mariner with chalk.
Fowler’s artwork can be seen in many public places. Orange sparks fly from a pink-stringed blue banjo and guitar painted on one of 33 hexagonal panels brightening Belfast’s Waterfall Arts building’s brick wall. She also helped paint the joyous, flower-filled mural adorning Bahner Farm in Belmont.
“They want us to replicate him exactly,” she explained of the Big Jim makeover. “It’s a different skill set. There are still creative choices and decisions to make.”
A photographer and painter, Reader once captured in photos the sequin-clad crowd rocking out to the band Hot Suppers at Belfast’s 2025 Summer Nights concert series. Or you can check out her regal, sharp-eyed rooster keeping a lookout atop the Waterfall Arts building’s wall installation. She said painting Big Jim is another way to hone her painting skills as she pursues a Masters of Fine Arts at Maine Media college in Rockport.
“It has been a joy to bring an early Maine icon back to life,” she said.
Bold Coast President Curt Brown, a lobsterman and marine biologist, says he saw a revitalized Big Jim as a fitting ambassador to symbolize Prospect Harbor’s potential renewal as a seafood-processing hub in coastal Maine.
“We are excited for Big Jim’s makeover,” he said, “and even more excited for him to return to Prospect Harbor in the fall.”
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Letitia Baldwin is a freelance writer who lives in the downeast towns of Gouldsboro and Cranberry Isles. She previously worked as the Arts & Leisure Editor at the Ellsworth American and style editor at the Bangor Daily News.
Stand Up for Big Jim
To follow Big Jim’s ongoing journey and contribute to his refit, visit penobscotmarinemuseum.org. To learn more about the storied billboard’s history, read Letitia Baldwin’s earlier MBH&H feature, which can be found at maineboats.com/content/big-jims-new-lease-life. You can also find more at gouldsborohistory.org. For more about Bold Coast Seafood, go to boldcoastseafood.com.
