A US Navy radio station here at Otter Cliffs served as the most important World War I facility for receiving transatlantic messages – including the first bulletin about the armistice. Alessandro Fabbri, a wealthy island resident and inventor, . . . — — Map (db m106555) HM
George B. Dorr, a gentleman scholar and lover of nature, devoted most of his adult life to the creation, maintenance, and expansion of Acadia National Park. The son of affluent Bostonians, Dorr first visited Mount Desert Island in 1868 and later . . . — — Map (db m106594) HM
Mount Desert Island's coastal waters have always held dangers for boats and ships - rocky shoreline, hidden ledges, and small islands that hide in the fog.
Since 1875, Egg Rock Lighthouse perched on the craggy island before you, has helped . . . — — Map (db m25481) HM
Agamont Park is named after the Agamont House, built by Tobias Roberts in 1857 as Bar Harbor's first hotel. It burned down in 1888. The unusual name was supposedly given by his granddaughter who called this hill on the water "Aqua . . . — — Map (db m78293) HM
A resident and lover of Mount Desert Island who commanded the United States Naval Radio Station upon this site from its establishment on August 28, 1917 until December 12, 1919.
At the end of the World War he was awarded the Navy Cross. His . . . — — Map (db m54436) WM
Two surviving Rodman/Dahlgren Cannon mounted on nearby Egg Rock in 1898 as part of the Coastal Defense Battery at Frenchman’s Bay, Bar Harbor.
This plaque honors those men and women who have fought in the defense of our country. — — Map (db m105401) HM WM
After being privately owned by several families such as the Rodicks and Pineos, the long period of arguments over its development and ideas to build a bridge to Bar Harbor lasted until John D. Rockefeller, Jr. quietly purchased the . . . — — Map (db m105932) HM
Cadillac Mountin is Acadia National Park's highest elevation and most comprehensive viewpoint. It is also the highest point on the United States Atlantic Coast (1,500 feet/466m). If you stood here alone at dawn you might be the first person in the . . . — — Map (db m54448) HM
Like small towns across America, Bar Harbor has endured its share of growing pains and seen many changes to the village streetscape since its permanent settlement by Europeans in 1763. Gone are the early settlers' homes, the old boarding houses, the . . . — — Map (db m184635) HM
The Criterion Theatre opened June 6, 1932 with a vaudeville and picture show. The building was built by George McKay at a cost of $150,000. The original Art Deco interior is one of its most outstanding features. The “flying” . . . — — Map (db m184667) HM
“What wondrous stories a water molecule could tell, of wild peaks visited on stormy nights, of quiet rivulets and raging rivers . . . peaceful fogs . . . glaciers . . . ” David Cavagnaro, Living Water
As you explore Acadia National Park, you will discover private property interspersed with park lands. Many large national parks, like Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, were carved from the public domain as single, vast tracts of land. Acadia, in . . . — — Map (db m54410) HM
Vessels of all types have plied the waters of Frenchman Bay for centuries. Five thousand years ago, indigenous people may have paddled dugout canoes into the bay to reach fishing grounds or hunt sea mammals and swordfish. More recently, Wabanaki . . . — — Map (db m25475) HM
This gated lodge was built in 1932 to keep motor vehicles off of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.’s carriage roads and out of Acadia’s interior. Rockefeller hired New York architect Grosvenor Atterbury to design the building in harmony with the natural . . . — — Map (db m77194) HM
When the ice that covered this land slowly melted, it dropped in its tracks great accumulations of gravel and rocks. Boulders transported and deposited by glaciers are called "erratics." Erratics are rounded and noticeably different in composition . . . — — Map (db m25491) HM
Rounded mountains, a deep lake, and sheer cliffs reveal this valley’s icy past. But long before glaciers sculpted Acadia’s surface, the granite foundation was forged deep in the Earth. Over 500 million years ago, colliding continents created a mass . . . — — Map (db m106544) HM
The Holy Redeemer Catholic Church was built in 1907 at a cost of $44,000 contributed almost entirely by the maids and workmen of the town. The church has its own patron, Saint Katharine Mary Drexel, canonized in 2000 during a . . . — — Map (db m184669) HM
Beneath the ocean’s surface lies a rugged seafloor much like the mountainous terrain around you. Over the last two million years, a series of glaciers scoured and shaped this land. The last of these icy bulldozers left a mound of rocky debris . . . — — Map (db m106584) HM
Frenchman Bay extends seven miles between Mount Desert Island and the Schoodic Peninsula, which lies beyond the Porcupine Islands. For centuries, humans have plied these bountiful waters to fish, trade, and enjoy the scenery. In the long struggle . . . — — Map (db m105628) HM
Since the early 1800s, Otter Creek has been the site of a fishing village with wharfs and fish houses on the waterfront and homes on the hills. Residents caught fish, dried them on racks along the cove, and shipped them to Boston and other cities. . . . — — Map (db m106553) HM
The recovery of the peregrine falcon is one of the great environmental success stories of our time. Although they once nested on the east face of Champlain Mountain above you, by 1964 peregrines had become extinct throughout the eastern United . . . — — Map (db m54409) HM
Sometimes air pollution obscures views like this from Cadillac Mountain and poses a threat to human health, Acadia’s water quality, and vegetation. A large percentage of the pollution comes from out of state. Converging air currents from the South . . . — — Map (db m105914)
Along Acadia National Park's rocky shores, there is only one sand beach. Over 15,000 years ago glacial ice carved out this valley. Melting glaciers and rising sea waters flooded it, creating a protected cove. A headland and a rock shelf offshore . . . — — Map (db m54411) HM
Explore the beach and discover a complex mix of marine life – and former lives – revealed in each handful of sand. As much as 70% of the sand consists of broken shells of mussels, sea urchins, barnacles, and periwinkles – signs of . . . — — Map (db m106590) HM
This spring was truly a magnificent one...wonderfully placed, with the mountains rising steeply up beside it, contrasting with the Great and Little Meadow lands on either side.
George B. Dorr, 1942
Like others before him, George B. . . . — — Map (db m54408) HM
As Acadia’s seasons change, so too does this view. Spring signals tightly wound ferns to unfurl their feathery foliage. Warming weather teases luna moths from their cocoons. As long summer days approach, bright green leaves of the birch trees . . . — — Map (db m105906) HM
Hearing the thunder here is all about timing. The best time to witness the boom and spray is two hours before high tide. If the ocean is calm or the tide is low, you may just hear gurgling. What causes the thunder? Over eons the restless forces of . . . — — Map (db m106582) HM
History
The founders of this parish named their congregation in honor of the Holy Saviour, Jesus, and in recognition of the first Christian mission, St. Sauveur, on the island by French Jesuits in 1613.
The Heartbeat of Life
God . . . — — Map (db m54407) HM
He laid the foundation of the National Park Service defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done. — — Map (db m54441) HM
In October 1947 a series of fires lasting 26 days blazed across more than 25 square miles of Mount Desert Island. The fire seriously threatened Bar harbor, and transformed most of the landscape before you into an apparent wasteland. It consumed 170 . . . — — Map (db m25478) HM
The original Abbe Museum, which still exists at Sieur de Monts Spring, was founded by Dr. Robert Abbe, a surgeon from New York and a Bar Harbor summer resident, who assembled a collection of early Native American artifacts found in . . . — — Map (db m105929) HM
Frenchman Bay, in front of you, and other prominent names commemorate the region’s rich French heritage, “Acadia” stems from “Arcadia,” a term used by Giovanni Verrazano’s expedition to describe the Atlantic coast in 1524. . . . — — Map (db m105626) HM
Formerly the Veazie Cottage < Lower Marker : > This property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior — — Map (db m105933) HM
Established before 1790 holds in many unmarked and unknown graves the remains of those courageous men and women pioneers on the frontier of downeast Maine. Sea captains, fishermen and farmers, shipwrights and hotelmen, selectmen and legislators, . . . — — Map (db m54389) HM
The Village Green was originally the site of the 350-room Grand Hotel. Many stories have been told about the immature Boston boys and the cultured Philadelphia girls who socialized around the “fish pond” at the nearby Rodick House. . . . — — Map (db m105922) HM
Mrs. John S. Kennedy had the YWCA built in 1913 to provide housing for young women who came to town to work in the many summer cottages. It continues to provide housing for women to this day.
The Jesup Memorial Library was built . . . — — Map (db m105925) HM
Here you can witness an ageless battle - the surging power of the ocean vs. the steadfastness of rock. Thunder Hole (just below) is a large, partly submerged crevice with vertical granite walls, one of many such chasms along this shore. When waves . . . — — Map (db m25486) HM
Built as a ranger residence in 1934, the Thunder Hole ranger station later housed the first interpretive displays in the park. Rangers were stationed here to answer visitor questions and present programs about the park.
The Civilian Conservation . . . — — Map (db m54414) HM
On foot, by rail, by road – people have made their way to the summit of Cadillac Mountain for centuries. Noticing the influx of vacationing rusticators in the late 1800s, entrepreneur Frank Clergue devised an ambitious system in which . . . — — Map (db m105903) HM
Sand Beach is a geologic rarity – one of the few cold-water, shell-based sand beaches in the world. Sand beaches are uncommon in Maine, because cold water traps gases that dissolve seashells and most of the coastline consists of hard granite that . . . — — Map (db m106587)
Located in the center of town, this 1.5 acre site was originally home to the Grand Central Hotel, which was torn down in 1899. That same year, the Town of Bar Harbor purchased the land, set it aside as public open space and
leased it to the . . . — — Map (db m184630) HM
You are standing on granite rock formed millions of years ago when a very hot liquid cooled deep below the Earth’s surface. Trapped in a magma chamber more than two miles deep, the 1,652°F (900° C) liquid crystallized into the mineral rich, pink . . . — — Map (db m105918) HM
Long before Europeans arrived, Wabanaki people hunted, fished, gathered berries, and harvested clams on what we now call Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. For generations, Wabanaki craftspeople sold handmade ash and sweet-grass baskets . . . — — Map (db m105696) HM
It is a job like no other. Most weeks, park rangers wear many hats. Some help people learn about wildlife. Others patrol trails, answer questions, and help folks stay safe. Some shine light on American history to build understanding of who we are . . . — — Map (db m106586) HM
house; dwelling; building; in Passamaquoddy and Maliseet The exhibit before you is a handmade, traditional birchbark wigwam originally built by Penobscot artist Barry Dana and his family in August 2011. Like all homes, it requires yearly . . . — — Map (db m105700) HM
