Smelt camps near Gardiner-Randolph bridge

The Kennebec River actually has open water downstream from the ice jam at Augusta as previously shown. Here you can see the head of the Gardiner ice jam in front of a smelt camp near the Gardiner-Randolph bridge. In a normal winter, you would see flat ice across the full extent of the river here. On the ice, you would see the small houses/camps arranged on the ice along the shore and extending almost out to mid-stream. These are “smelt camps,” a commercial enterprise offering relatively comfortable ice fishing shacks for anyone seeking to fish for smelts. The ice jam, the breaking up of the river ice, and unpredictable rain and melting have ruined this business for now.

As mentioned earlier, Coast Guard cutters (not ice-breakers) managed to get as far north as Richmond before the ice stopped them. Normally they could go as far as Gardiner where the bridge would stop them.