Captain Enoch Snow, Maine Clambaker

The character Enoch Snow in Carousel was named for a real sea captain from Scarborough known for his clambakes.

After moving his family to Wells and later, Scarborough, in the 1840s, Enoch began harvesting clams to use as bait for commercial cod fishing. At that time, locals enjoyed the white-shelled clams cooked on the shore over seaweed on heated rocks, as the Indians had taught them in the 1600s.

After the Civil War, the Boston and Maine Railroad came to Pine Point. As a result, clambakes became a tourist attraction. The railroad also enabled clammers to easily distribute their products outside of Pine Point, leading Enoch to become a clammer instead of a sea captain.

This was the same family that founded F. H. Snow's Canning Company in 1920. When the 1956 film version of Carousel was released, stars Shirley Jones, Gordon MacRae and Robert Rounseville attended a clambake with Enoch's great-grandson in Scarborough.