Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1918-07-23
Where Mountains Meet Ocean.
BILL TO cREATE THE MOUNT DESERT
NATIONAL PARK.

The bill before Congress to create the
Mount Desert National Park upon
Mount Desert Island, Maine, will call
special attention this summer to one of
the most distinguished scenic places In
the country. Already IL Is . national
reservation, President Wilson having
proclaimed it the Sieur de Monts Ma
tional Monument two years ago. The
movement to promote It to national
parkhood marks the appreciation of
New England and the country generally
resulting from the public attention de-
voted to this spot In consequence Of the
Presidents act. Sieur de Monts 10 the
only spot on the Atlantic coast where
sea and mountain meet. Also It 10
typical In the best sense of the msgniH-
cence of the deoiduous forests of the
East; these are not elsewhere represent
cd in the national scenic group. Mount
Desert will be the only national park
east OF the Mississippi.
Many thousands of persons who do
not identify this splendid group Of sea-
girt mountains under the present title Of
Sieur de Monts will place it at once, I'M
der the title proposed for the national
park, as the granite heights which rise
behind Bar Harbor and the other resorts
of Mount Desert Island. The rounded
summits of more than Q dozen low
mountains and the beautiful lakes which
nestle at their feet are enclosed In the
reservation. Nowhere else may the
pleasures of seashore and rook-bound
coast be combined with those Of q wild
mountainous wilderness.
For many years these mountains have
lured summer visitors into their fast
nessess. Their splendid forests of oak
pine. hemlock, chestnut, beech, maple,
and other we'll known trees Of the APP
palachian Range, tho perfection Of their
native shrubs, the luxuriance Of their
wild flowers, the charm of their Wild
valleys and lakes, and the stirring views
of island. dotted sea from their slopes
and SUBMITS bring visitors back again
summer after summer. All of these
mountains were In private possession;
summer estates we're shutting out large
areas from public use. That IL Why .
group Of public-spirited men undertook
. dozen years ago to acquire tho noun
tsins and present them to the Nation.
Some gave their estates, others gave
money to buy holdings which could not
be got by gift. The Mount Desert Ma
tional Park, when Congress thus oreates
It, will stand also for the fine generosity
and public spirit Of New England.
This summers visitors will be interest-
cd In the extreme ago Of the mountains.
They are granite OF the Arohean age.
They stood there, doubtless far loftier
and perhaps serrsted, before the now
loftier Rockies and the Sierra Nevada
even emerged from the prehistoric sea.
These summits have been rounded In
the intervening many million Of years
by the frosts and the rains and the giant
Ice sheets which deacended time and
again from the north. The record OF
glaciers may DO read still upon their
slopes.
The mountains are entirely surround.
Cd BY fine automobile roads along the
shore which connect the seaside resorts.
But In many places the clIfs spring
straight from the ocean, whose waves
lash and corrods their granite feet. A
greater variety OF sensations may be had
from this combination Of sea and
mountain than II offered by any western
national park, however large and ma
iootiC.