It all started in 2015 when Brendan Parsons successfully retrofitted an Oscar Meyer’s hotdog cart and introduced the first oyster food cart to the State of Maine. Since the shucking began on the corner of Commercial and Pearl Street in Portland, BP’s Oysters has expanded to include two Portland-based food carts, a Newcastle restaurant, a Damariscotta farm, and an oyster distribution company.

The east side of the Damariscotta River once contained an enormous shell heap named Whaleback because of its shape. Much of this midden was removed in the late 1880s to supply a factory built here to process the oyster shells into chicken feed. As a result, only a small portion of Whaleback remains today. Managed in cooperation with the Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust, the area around the midden is now a State Historic Site that includes a small hiking trail and beautiful views of the river. A series of interpretive panels helps inform visitors about the history of the area.