September 22nd, 1862 US President Abraham Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, threatening to free all enslaved people in the rebel Southern states if those states fail to rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863

Downeast Trading co. Inc.

We were founded in 1975 by Rick Winslow in Ogunquit, Maine in order to avoid full-time employment. At the time surfing was his first love. The company evolved from a hobby to a job to an obsession. Originally trading in turquoise, coral, heishe beads, silver, and stone, mostly out of the trunk of a Volkswagen bug, Downeast slowly transformed from a wholesaler of semi-precious stones, pearls, and findings, to an importer of Italian jewelry.

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