Page Title

Bass Harbor

Bass Harbor, Maine, famous for its Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, is a quaint fishing
village located on Mt. Desert Island and just south of Acadia National Park. While Bar
Harbor and the Park Loop Road are located on the busier, more populated side of Mt.
Desert Island, Bass Harbor, along with other small villages, is located on the western,
“quiet” side of the island. The quiet side of the island offers many picturesque scenes that
people associate with Maine – small harbors filled with working lobster boats, lobster traps
and coastal vistas.

Brief History of Mount Desert Island/Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park

In 1604, Samuel de Champlain sighted Mount Desert Island, the largest rock-based island
on the Atlantic Coast, and named it L’isle de Mont Deserts (Island of Barren Mountains).
There was a short-lived French Settlement of Jesuits in 1613, and for many years, the area
was part of the French province Acadia, from which the park derives its name.

In Maine, there were two key destination points in the 1840's: Bar Harbor and the Isles of
Shoals, located off the coast of Kittery. Maine's earliest summer visitors were those with
available leisure time and included educators, writers, artists, and clergy. Thomas Cole,
founder of the Hudson River School of painters, is considered one of the first resorters on
Mt. Desert Island, arriving in 1844, with other members of the school following. The
scenery of Mt. Desert Island provided ample inspiration to the landscape painters'
dramatic style.

Elsewhere along the coast, early visitors rented rooms from local families, who were
usually fishermen or farmers. As the practice grew in popularity, Mainers often added
rooms to accommodate these summer boarders. Within a short time, new boarding houses
and hotels were constructed as the old were outgrown. Visitors returned to the same hotels
every summer, developing a certain loyalty and taking comfort in the relative predictability
of their summer vacations These earliest visitors were satisfied with such simple pursuits as
hiking to scenic places, lounging near the shore and picnicking.

By the turn o the century, Bar Harbor had become the summer playground for the
wealthy. JP Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer and John D. Rockefeller all had “cottages” on the
island.

Starting in 1913, the Rockefeller family began building a network of "carriage roads" on
Mount Desert Island to provide automobile-free pathways for horses and carriages. Now,
nearly a century later, those 45 miles of broken stone byways are treasured not only by
horseback riders but by hikers and bicyclists seeking the simple pleasures of a summer day
in Maine.

Those carriage paths really set the mood for Mount Desert Island and Acadia National
Park, a small jewel in the National Park System that encompasses much of the island.
Residents like John D. Rockefeller Jr., fearing commercial encroachments, bought up vast
tracts of land. In 1919, they donated them to the federal government for the first national
park in the East. Along with another 115 or so miles of hiking trails that open to
spectacular views of sea, outer islands, and woodlands, more ponds and lakes than beaches,
and a shoreline best explored by kayak (Frenchman Bay is a favorite), this is an island
where nature, Downeast-style, is the main summer attraction.

With more than four million visitors annually, Acadia National Park ranks second only to
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as the country’s most visited national park.
Many are rusticators – the kind of people whom local publisher Frank Matter describes as
"more bohemian than sophisticated." After all, he says, 'the old Bar Harbor was the
bohemian resort for the wealthy". Although elements of high-living and luxury creep in this
far Down East, Acadia National Park gives the island a sense of rugged individualism in
sync with nature.

When Bar Harbor swarms with tourists, the rusticators seek refuge in the park and the
other harbor towns – Seal, Northeast, Southwest and Bass Harbor – on what the locals call
the "Quiet Side" of the island.

What To Do While Visiting Mount Desert Island

Sightseeing:

For an easy introduction to the natural wonders of Acadia National Park, take a scenic
drive of the first order, the Park Loop Road. Pick up a map at the park’s visitors’ center in
Hull Cove near Bar Harbor, then set your cruise control on slow for a leisurely 27-mile
drive on the road that takes in some of the park’s highlights, including panoramic views
from the Champlain Mountain Overlook, water play at Sand Beach (with summer ocean
water temps in the 50s, "swimming" here is usually a brief dip), tide pools and booming
surf at Otter Point, and a 3.5-mile detour that climbs to the summit of Cadillac Mountain,
the highest point on the eastern seaboard. Stop by the Jordan Pond House taste their
delicious popovers while enjoying the views of Jordan Pond and "The Bubbles".

Museums:

Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor): Maine’s American Indian heritage, cultures, history and
archeology. Focuses on the Wabanaki people.

George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History (Bar Harbor):
Mounted mammals and birds in lifelike scenes. Also, exhibits of maritime Maine.

Oceanarium (Southwest Harbor): Ships chandlery, live coastal sea animals, touch tank,
exhibits about whales, tides, sea water, fishing gear and the weather.

Oceanarium (Bar Harbor):
The Maine lobster museum, a lobster hatchery and trap making demonstrations.

Seal Cove Auto Museum: (Seal Cove): More than 100 antique automobiles.

The Wendell Gilley Museum: (Southwest Harbor)
More than 200 bird models by the master woodcarver.

Hiking:

More than 115 miles of hiking trails reach every mountain summit
(more than 15 peaks) and valley. Maps are available.
Carriage trails for hiking also available in Acadia National Park.

Theatre:

Acadia Repertory Theatre is located in Somesville and performs
shows from July to early to September.