Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park is a national park of the United States located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park includes about half of Mount Desert Island, part of Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, and portions of sixteen smaller outlying islands.
The park contains the tallest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the United States, exposed granite domes, glacial erratics, U-shaped valleys, and cobble beaches. Its mountains, lakes, streams, wetlands, forests, meadows, and coastlines contribute to a diversity of plants and animals. Woven into this landscape is a historic carriage road system financed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. In total, it encompasses as of 2017.
Acadia has a rich human history, dating back more than 10,000 years ago with the Wabanaki people. The 17th century brought fur traders and other European explorers, while the 19th century saw an influx of summer visitors, then wealthy families. Many conservation-minded citizens, among them George B. Dorr, worked to establish this first U.S. national park east of the Mississippi River and the only one in the Northeastern United States. Acadia was initially designated Sieur de Monts National Monument by proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, then renamed and redesignated Lafayette National Park in 1919. The park was renamed Acadia National Park in 1929.
Recreational activities from spring through autumn include car and bus touring along the Park Loop Road; hiking, bicycling, and horseback riding on carriage roads ; fishing; rock climbing; kayaking and canoeing on lakes and ponds; swimming at Sand Beach and Echo Lake; sea kayaking and guided boat tours on the ocean; and various ranger-led programs. Winter activities include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, and ice fishing. Two campgrounds are located on Mount Desert Island, another campground is on the Schoodic Peninsula, and five lean-to sites are on Isle au Haut. The main visitor center is at Hulls Cove, northwest of Bar Harbor. Park visitation has been steadily increasing in Acadia over the past decade, with 2021 seeing a record count of 4.07 million visitors. In 2023 the park saw 3,879,890 recreational visitors.
Geography
The park includes mountains, an ocean coastline, woodlands, lakes, and ponds. In addition to nearly half of Mount Desert Island, the park designation also preserves a portion of the Schoodic Peninsula on the mainland, as well as the majority of Isle au Haut and Baker Island, all of Bar Island, three of the four Porcupine Islands, the Thrumcap, part of Bear Island, and Thompson Island in Mount Desert Narrows, as well as several other islands and islets. Bar Island, which can be visited on foot over a sandbar around low tide, and the Porcupine Islands are in Frenchman Bay by Bar Harbor. About of carriage roads were designed and financed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. on Mount Desert Island, of which continue to be maintained inside the park.Acadia National Park encompasses a total of as of 2017. At least on Mount Desert Island are included in the park, along with on Isle au Haut, about on smaller islands, and on the Schoodic Peninsula., the permanent park boundary, as established by act of Congress in 1986, included of privately owned land under conservation easements managed by the National Park Service, which plans to acquire the land at some point.
Features
The mountains of Acadia National Park overlook the Atlantic ocean, island lakes, and pine forests. Twenty-six significant mountains rise in the park, ranging from at Flying Mountain's summit to at Cadillac Mountain's summit. Cadillac Mountain, named after the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, is on the eastern side of the island. Cadillac is the tallest mountain along the eastern coastline of the United States. The summit of Cadillac is the first place in the United States where one may watch the sunrise from October 7 through March 6, due to its eastern location and height.The Park Loop Road leads to many scenic viewpoints along the coast, through forests and to the top of Cadillac Mountain. The road traverses the eastern side of Mount Desert Island in a one-way, clockwise direction from Bar Harbor to Seal Harbor, passing features such as the Tarn, Champlain Mountain, the Beehive, Sand Beach, Gorham Mountain, Thunder Hole, Otter Cliff, Otter Cove, Seal Harbor, Jordan Pond, Pemetic Mountain, the Bubbles, Bubble Rock, Bubble Pond, Eagle Lake, and the side road to the summit of Cadillac Mountain. Some of the island's west side features include Echo Lake and beach, Acadia Mountain, Beech Mountain, Long Pond, and Seal Cove Pond. Bass Harbor Head Light is situated atop a cliff on the southernmost tip of the west side of the island. Baker Island Light and Bear Island Light are the other two lighthouses managed by Acadia.
Somes Sound is a long fjard formed during a glacial period that nearly divides the island in half. The sound is deep at its deepest point, and is bordered by Norumbega Mountain to the east, and Acadia Mountain and Saint Sauveur Mountain to the west. The towns of Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor face one another across the inlet to Somes Sound.
History
Native people
have inhabited the area called Acadia for at least 12,000 years, including the coastal areas of Maine, Canada, and adjacent islands. The Wabanaki Confederacy consists of five related Algonquian nations—the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki and Penobscot. Some of the nations call Mount Desert Island Pemetic, which has remained at the center of the Wabanaki traditional ancestral homeland and territory of traditional stewardship responsibility to the present day. The etymology of the park's name begins with the Mi'kmaq term akadie which was rendered as l'Acadie by French explorers, and translated into English as Acadia.The Wabanaki traveled to the island in birch bark canoes to hunt, fish, gather berries, harvest clams and basket-making resources like sweetgrass, and to trade with other Wabanakis. They camped near places like Somes Sound.
In the early 17th century, Asticou was the chieftain of the greater Mount Desert Island area, one district of an intertribal confederacy known as Mawooshen led by the grandchief Bashaba. Castine was the grandchief's favored rendezvous site for the Wabanaki tribes. The site is located just west of Mount Desert Island at the mouth of the Bagaduce River in eastern Penobscot Bay. From 1615, Castine developed into a major fur trading post where French, English, and Dutch traders all fought for control. Sealskins, moose hides, and furs were traded by the Wabanakis for European commodities. By the early 1620s, warfare and introduced diseases, including smallpox, cholera and influenza, had decimated the tribes from Mount Desert Island southward to Cape Cod, leaving about 10 percent of the original population.
File:Acadia National Park, Baker Island toward Mount Desert Island.jpg|thumb|Mount Desert Island from Baker Island
The border established between the United States and Canada after the American Revolution split the Wabanaki homelands. The confederacy was dissolved around 1870 due to pressure from the American and Canadian governments, though the tribal nations continued to interact in their traditional ways. In the nineteenth century, Wabanakis sold handmade ash and birch bark baskets to travelers. The Wabanaki performed dances for summer tourists and residents at Sieur de Monts and the town of Bar Harbor. Wabanaki guides led canoe trips around Frenchman Bay and the Cranberry Islands.
For two years, 1970–71, the nations operated a Wabanaki educational center called T.R.I.B.E. on the west side of Eagle Lake. American Indian land claims in Maine were legally settled in 1980 and 1991. The annual Bar Harbor Native American Festival began in 1989, jointly sponsored by the tribes and the Abbe Museum. The Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance was formed in 1993, assisting in the coordination of the annual festival with the museum.
Currently, each tribe has a reservation and government headquarters located within their territories throughout Maine. Some Wabanakis live on Mount Desert Island, while others visit for board meetings at the Abbe Museum, to advise on and perform in exhibitions, for craft demonstrations, and to gather sweetgrass and sell handmade baskets at the annual festival.
Exploration
The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed along the coast of Mount Desert Island during an expedition for the French Crown in 1524. He was followed by Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese explorer for the Spanish Crown in 1525. French explorer Jean Alfonse arrived in 1542. Alfonse entered Penobscot Bay and recorded details about the fur trade. Portuguese navigator Simon Ferdinando guided an English expedition in 1580.A few hundred people were living on Mount Desert Island when Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1604. Two Wabanakis led Champlain to Mount Desert Island, which he named Isle des Monts Deserts due to its barren peaks; he named Isle au Haut due to its height.
While he was sailing down the coast on 5 September 1604, Champlain wrote: