ABOUT
ABOUT
FORT HOPE TRADING CO.
& THE FOUNDER
Fort Western
For many, the 2008 economic crash deeply impacted our sense of economic security. Fort Hope Trading Co.'s founder, Alan Lowberg, has a deep-rooted passion for creating traditional style products and using them as a form of currency and trade with other local artisans.
A historian by nature, the company name Fort Hope Trading Company is based on the 1700’s era of trading posts being called “Forts” to protect commerce. Through reading history books Alan discovered that trading and trade routes were the best forms of commerce ever devised. The Silk Road, which stretched from eastern Asia to western Europe, is the most famous of all trade routes, and wherever trade routes were established empires emerged along them.
Alan grew up lobstering with his father in Rockport, Maine. They built their own wooden lobster traps and he became a very fast nailer. He soon discovered the enjoyment found in working with his hands and making things. At the age of 22, he headed out West to Washington State, Oregon and ultimately Alaska for ten years. He became known as the “fastest net hanger who ever lived”.
After returning to Maine in 1989, he owned a professional interior painting business for 20 years, which led him to paint homes in Maryland, Florida, New York City and Maine. In 2011 a series of events led Alan to work from home. In 2013 Liberty Crate Company was started making wooden crates. The business is now known as Fort Hope Trading Company.
Alan started developing Maine trade routes and launched a test website in December 2014 and is hoping to launch the official website and establishment of trade routes in Maine soon.