National Park Service: Highways in Harmony (Acadia)

Acadia Roads and Bridges
Acadia National Park, Maine

		ACADIA TIMELINE OF DEVELOPMENTS

2-3 million years ago		Glaciers descend from Canada and cover Mount Desert Island, carving the mountains and lakes of Acadia National Park.
B.C.		Indigenous people live year round on the island which they call Pemetic, the sloping land.
A.D. 1604		French explorer Samuel Champlain "discovers" Pemetic and renames it Mount Desert Island, after its barren peaks.
1761		European colonists settle year round on Mount Desert Island and began to develop transporation routes.
1776		Year-round residents vote to construct the island's first public road, running from Cromwell Harbor to Hulls Cove.
1844		Thomas Cole, leader of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, visits. He and other painters soon popularize the scenic attractions of Acadia.
1850s		The Brewer family constructs a buckboard wagon toll-road along part of the old Wabanaki foot path to the summit of Cadillac Mountain.
1880s		Heyday of the "Cottager" era on Mount Desert Island. Steam-powered cog railway constructed to summit of Cadillac (Green) Mountain.
1903-15		Controversy erupts over the introduction of autos to the island. A movement led mainly by summer residents bans cars in 1909. 1915 state law permits autos in all towns on the island.
1911		John D. Rockefeller, Jr. begins constructing first carriage road on his Seal Harbor estate.
1916		National Park Service created. George B. Dorr succees in establishing Sieur de Monts National Monument.
1919		Sieur de Monts National Monumenet is expanded and redesignated as Lafayette National Park.
1922		Park superintendent Dorr and Rockefeller begin constructing first motor road in Acadia NP, the Mountain Road from Eagle Lake to Jordan Pond Tea House.
1924		Carriage road pits Rockefeller against wealthy island cottagers who wish to restrict its extension. Interior Secretary Hubert Work allows construction to proceed.
1929		Lafayette National Park renamed Acadia National Park.
1932		Cadillac Mountain Road completed by the Bureau of Public Roads, providing motorists access to highest summit on island.
1939		Day Mountain Road, last of the Rockefeller carriage roads, is completed.
1952		Paradise Hill motor road completed by Bureau of Public Roads, providing direct access to the Park Loop Road bypassing Bar Harbor.
1958		Final segment of the Park Loop Road completed under National Park Service "Mission 66" program.
1990s		NPS and Friends of Acadia undertake multi-year rehabilitation of the park carriage road system. Federal Lands Highway Program rehabs motor road segments.
1994-95		Historic American Engineering Record, NPS, documents park roads.

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