page_title: Bar Harbor, Maine
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bar Harbor, Maine / History
caption_attribution_description: English: I took photo with Canon camera of Abbe Museum, a division of the Smithsonian, in Bar Harbor, ME.
context_page_description: Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population is 5,235. Bar Harbor is a popular tourist destination in the Down East region of Maine and home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laboratory. Until a catastrophic fire in 1947, the town was a noted summer colony for the wealthy. Bar Harbor is home to the largest parts of Acadia National Park, including Cadillac Mountain, the highest point within twenty-five miles of the coastline of the Eastern United States. The town is served by the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport, which provides year-round direct flights to Boston, Massachusetts.
context_section_description: The town of Bar Harbor was founded on the northeast shore of Mount Desert Island, which the Wabanaki Indians knew as Pemetic, meaning "range of mountains" or "mountains seen at a distance." The Wabanaki seasonally fished, hunted and gathered berries, clams, and other shellfish in the area seasonally. They spoke of Bar Harbor as Man-es-ayd'ik ("clam-gathering place") or Ah-bays'auk ("clambake place"), leaving great piles of shells as evidence of this abundance. In early September 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain ran aground on a rock ledge believed to be Egg Rock, just off Otter Cliffs, and when he came ashore to repair his boat he met local natives.  Champlain named the island Isles des Monts Deserts, meaning "island of barren mountains"—now called Mount Desert Island, the largest in Maine.
  In 1761, Abraham Somes established the first European village on Mount Desert Island, naming it Somesville. Somes Sound was named after him, the only naturally occurring fjard on the East Coast of the United States. Bar Harbor itself was first settled by Europeans in 1763 by Israel Higgins and John Thomas and incorporated on February 23, 1796 as Eden, after Sir Richard Eden, an English statesman.
  Early industries included fishing, lumbering and shipbuilding.  With the best soil on Mount Desert Island, it also developed agriculture, with a main focus on dairy.  In the 1840s, its rugged maritime scenery attracted the Hudson River School and Luminism artists Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, William Hart and Fitz Henry Lane. Inspired by their paintings, journalists, sportsmen and "rusticators" followed.  Agamont House, the first hotel in Eden, was established in 1855 by Tobias Roberts.  Birch Point, the first summer estate, was built in 1868 by Alpheus Hardy.
  By 1880, there were 30 hotels, including the Mira Monte Inn, a historic landmark that would later survive a massive fire in 1947. Tourists were arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island. The rich and famous tried to outdo each other with entertaining and estates, often hiring landscape gardener and landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, a resident at local Reef Point Estate, to design their gardens.  A glimpse of their lifestyles was available from the Shore Path, a walkway skirting waterfront lawns. Yachting, garden parties at the Pot & Kettle Club, and carriage rides up Cadillac Mountain were popular diversions.  Others enjoyed horse-racing at Robin Hood Park-Morrell Park.  President William Howard Taft played golf in 1910 at the Kebo Valley Golf Club. On March 3, 1918, Eden was renamed Bar Harbor, after the sand and gravel bar, visible at low tide, which leads across to Bar Island and forms the rear of the harbor. The name would become synonymous with elite wealth. It was the birthplace of vice-president Nelson Rockefeller on July 8, 1908.
  Bar Harbor was also used for naval practices during World War II. More specifically, Bald Porcupine Island was used to fire live torpedoes. In October 1944, the submarine USS Piper fired 12 live torpedoes at the island. Of the 12 fired, one failed to explode on the first attempt but was later detonated by the 12th torpedo. In 1996, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed all 30 acres of Bald Porcupine Island for unexploded ordnance. Nine were found.
  Many influential people have called Bar Harbor home for at least part of the year. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., son of John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil Co., donated about one-third of the land in Acadia National Park and built the carriage roads that are used for hiking and biking.  J. P. Morgan owned a house that is adjacent to Bar Harbor. Cornelius Vanderbilt built cottages in Bar Harbor. The Astor family owned hotels and cottages in Bar Harbor and the surrounding areas. William Howard Taft used to enjoy games of golf in Bar Harbor. The co-founder and CEO of Burt's Bees, Roxanne Quimby, has a home near Bar Harbor. Martha Stewart has also been known to frequent Mount Desert Island and been seen in Bar Harbor.
caption: The Abbe Museum features the history and culture of Maine's native people, the Wabanaki.
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