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Published: October 7th 2011
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Hi All --
Early this afternoon Bob and I left his sister Judy’s house and headed to Gettysburg where we are right now. But, since I’ve fallen behind on these blogs, the following photos are from our three-day stay last weekend in Acadia National Park, including a trip to Deer Isle nearby.
We visited Acadia last fall for six days and found it to be irresistible. So we couldn’t resist coming again this year. This visit the weather was calm with not much wind so we don’t get the dramatic photos that we were able to take last year with huge plumes of water as the waves hit the rocks. But it’s an awesome and magnificent place even without the drama.
Following is a description from the official government website of the interesting history of the development of Acadia National Park since around the turn of the century – a struggle between the rich and entitled and “the people” – oh, and conservation.
"For a select handful of Americans, the 1880s and the "Gay Nineties" meant affluence on a scale without precedent. Mount Desert, still remote from the cities of the East, became a retreat for prominent people of the times. The Rockefellers, Morgans, Fords, Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Astors, chose to spend their summers here. Not content with the simple lodgings then available, these families transformed the landscape of Mount Desert Island with elegant estates, euphemistically called "cottages." Luxury, refinement, and ostentatious gatherings replaced buckboard rides, picnics, and day-long hikes of an earlier era. For over 40 years, the wealthy held sway at Mount Desert, but the Great Depression and World War II marked the end of such extravagance. The final blow came in 1947 when a fire of monumental proportions consumed many of the great estates.
Though the affluent of the turn of the century came here to frolic, they had much to do with preserving the landscape that we know today. It was from this social strata that George B. Dorr, a tireless spokesman for conservation, devoted 43 years of his life, energy, and family fortune to preserving the Acadian landscape. In 1901, disturbed by the growing development of the Bar Harbor area and the dangers he foresaw in the newly invented gasoline powered portable sawmill, George Dorr and others established the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations. The corporation, whose sole purpose was to preserve land for the
Route-66-Restaurant x
Interesting restaurant / bar in Bar Harbor. perpetual use of the public, acquired 6,000 acres by 1913. Dorr offered the land to the federal government, and in 1916, President Wilson announced the creation of Sieur de Monts National Monument. Dorr continued to acquire property and renewed his efforts to obtain full national park status for his beloved preserve. In 1919, President Wilson signed the act establishing Lafayette National Park, the first national park east of the Mississippi. Dorr, whose labors constituted "the greatest of one-man shows in the history of land conservation," became the first park superintendent.
In 1929, the park name changed to Acadia. Today the park protects more than 47,000 acres, and the simple pleasures of "ocean, forests, lakes, and mountains" that for over a century and a quarter have been sought and found by millions, are yours to enjoy."
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Beautiful photos.
Enjoyed your blog