Established in 1854 and situated along the rocky coast of Penobscot Bay, Rockland was home to shipyards, fishing, lumber mills and lime quarrying. Today, Rockland is building  its economy by leveraging its picturesque waterfront location and the imaginative talents of its year-round residents.

While still describing itself as the “Lobster Capital of the World,” Rockland’s leaders  have worked hard to diversify the city in terms of the types of businesses it sustains.  In the process, Rockland has become the municipal embodiment of the principles associated with the “creative economy” as described by author Richard Florida in his book, “The Future of the American Workforce in the Global Creative Economy,” which examines economic development through attracting the creative class or workforce. In Maine, Governor Baldacci has become a proponent of creative economies and has encouraged communities “to capitalize on the synergies between entrepreneurship, education, the arts and quality of life.”

For its longer-term success, Rockland has turned to the one natural resource it has in even greater abundance than lobsters – tourists. With Route 1 running through the center of the city, Rockland has a steady stream of tourists and day-trippers that it can entice to partake of its breathtaking ocean scenery, salty character and quaint business establishments.

This community is home to a summer-long slate of festivals, most notably the North American Blues Festival in July and the Maine Lobster Festival in August, with each event drawing tens of thousands of people who pump millions of dollars into the local economy. Rockland also houses numerous art galleries and museums, the most famous of which is the Farnsworth Art Museum, where the paintings of three generations of Wyeths – perhaps the most celebrated family in American art – can be enjoyed.

Rockland has also managed to secure a piece of Maine’s burgeoning film industry, serving as the film location for such major motion pictures as “The Man Without a Face” (1993) and “In the Bedroom,” a film released in 2001 and nominated for five Oscars.