When Americans took to the road in their automobiles for vacations in the 1920s, overnight camps sprang up. They offered a place to pitch a tent and park the car, and some had a few cabins for rent. The camps were often combined with a filling station and sometimes a small store that sold candy, cold drinks, and postcards.

Springdale Camps was located on the east side of Route 1A, the road to Bangor. It had about 8 tent sites, Socony gas pumps, a store, lunch counter, and small dance hall. The signs near the road lured the traveler with “Beans Baked in the Ground,” a Maine tradition; “Clams,” undoubtedly freshly dug; and Frojoy Ice Cream, a popular brand throughout Maine.

Stockton Springs once had several overnight camps and hotels for auto tourists, who could visit the lighthouse at Cape Jellison. The hotels also accommodated travelers who came by steamboat to Cape Jellison or Sandy Point or by the Bangor & Aroostock Railroad. Most of Stockton Springs businesses closed when the Route 1 bypass was built in the late 1950s.

Catalog Number LB2007.1.102600