The Downeast Goldmine: A Story of Fishing and Drug Smuggling in Coastal Maine In-Person / Online

The Mount Desert Island Historical Society and Northeast Harbor Library welcome Town Hill native Audrey Ryan for a discussion on the modern aspects of the great smuggling tradition on Mount Desert Island. Audrey will explore marijuana and hashish smuggling in the 70s and 80s on the Maine coast including the intersection of drug smuggling and fishing. The presentation includes a timeline of known smuggling operations through DEA reports and newspaper articles. There is also a personal nature to the talk as Audrey's father was a fisherman at the time and dragged up "sea hash" which was the impetus for her interest in this slice of local history. 

Audrey has been researching and writing The Downeast Goldmine since 2011 spending summers in Maine focused on the project, chasing down elusive fishermen at their boats or in their homes, digging for archive newspaper articles on microfilm in old dusty basement libraries, and traveling to the sites where the drug smuggling occurred almost forty years ago. She is connected to the subject by having been born and raised in Mount Desert Island, Maine with a father who was immersed in the fishing community at the time. Audrey explores the impact of the intersection of fishing and drug smuggling from all perspectives of the fishermen, the authorities, and the smugglers. Her article "Overboard: The Big Catch" was the cover story in the May 7, 2022 Boston Globe Magazine.

Audrey has a Master's degree and PhD in Counseling Psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in English. Currently, Audrey is a psychiatric consultant, professor, and writer. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband and two children.