The Pleasant Point Indian Reservation, owned by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, is located on Pleasant Point along the Western Passage of Passamaquoddy Bay in Perry, directly across from New Brunswick, Canada. Perry is about 125 miles east of Bangor and six miles north of Eastport. The Reservation, located approximately two miles southeast of U.S. Route 1 on Route 190, covers about 100 acres of land and is bordered on three sides by Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bays.

A 1,000-foot-long reach of Pleasant Point’s eastern shore, adjacent to an abandoned railroad embankment, was subject to erosion from ocean currents and tidal fluctuations. Large ice fragments, some as big as 30 square feet and 18 inches thick, regularly flow though the Western Passage during the late winter and early spring and scrape along the shorefront, contributing significantly to the erosion process. These natural forces had attacked the shoreline to the point where only 10 feet separated the eroding bank from two homes. In 1986, a storm washed away the porch stairway foundations of these homes, putting them in immediate danger and threatening four other homes on the shoreline. Erosion also threatened property set back from the shoreline, including an elderly housing project, a church, and a sewage treatment facility.

The Corps responded by constructing stone slope protection along 800 feet of the eroded shoreline. The project stabilizes and strengthens the shoreline and reduces the threat of erosion along the Pleasant Point Reservation. A gravel walkway runs along the the top of the stone protection for its entire 800 feet.

Project construction began in October 1986 and was completed in June 1987. The work cost $193,000 and was built under Section 14 of the Corps’ Continuing Authorities Program.