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Acadia
ACADIA'S COMBINATION OF MOUNTAINS, COAST, AND EASTERN FOREST IS INSPIRING
THE Acadia National Park is a monument to the public spirit of New England. Its beautiful exhibit of seacoast, mountain, and eastern forest was in danger from the fast-encroaching forces of settlement. Inspired and led by George B. Dorr, superintendent of the park since its creation, a few generous people, through a dozen years of ceaseless effort, were able to obtain and offer to the Government five thousand acres of land on Mount Desert Island for park purposes. From this nucleus has grown the present park of considerably more than twice that size. And it has not yet finished growing, for other lands have since been pledged for addition to it. Eventually it is expected that the area of this pioneer eastern park will be four times its original acreage.
Other national parks in the eastern portion of the country are in process of formation in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, on the Blue Ridge of Virginia overlooking the war-famous valley of the Shenandoah, in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky, and in northern Lake Superior where Isle Royale, belonging to the State of Michigan, also has been authorized for national park status. Each of these parks will mean much to the citizens of the eastern portion of the United States, and together with Acadia they will form an important eastern park-to-park travel circuit. To Acadia National Park, however, will belong the honor of having led the way in eastern national-park establishment; and also the distinction of having been the first one created wholly by gift of citizens to the United States, for the use of the people generally.
Truly, a historic region!
MOTOR CAMPING IN ACADIA PARK
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Last Modified: Mon, Oct 31, 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
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