Ardra Tarbell

Ardra Tarbell and Sylvia Cough at Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park, date unknown.

Courtesy of the National Park Service/Acadia National Park

Quick Facts

Significance:

Administrative Officer for George B. Dorr

Place of Birth:

Oakfield, Maine

Date of Birth:

April 25, 1905

Place of Death:

Bar Harbor, Maine

Date of Death:

January 14, 2000

Ardra Tarbell worked at Acadia National Park for 39 years. Born and raised in Oakfield, Maine in Aroostook county, she graduated from Merrill High School and taught one term at a local school before enrolling in Houlton Business College. On April 25, 1930, her 25th birthday, Ms. Tarbell began her first day of work at the recently re-named Acadia National Park, reporting directly to Superintendent George B. Dorr.

For the next 14 years until Dorr’s death, Ms. Tarbell worked tirelessly alongside the Superintendent to support the maintenance and growth of Acadia National Park. Throughout her career, she was continuously promoted: from Clerk, to Chief Clerk, to the Administrative Officer for Acadia. By the time Ms. Tarbell retired in 1969, she had supported Acadia through some of its most complex periods in history: the Great Depression, World War II, and the Great Fire of 1947.

Ms. Tarbell’s mark on this park may be easy to miss. Yet, her service is similar to many who have and continue to work behind the scenes supporting Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island’s most precious resources, in uncertain times.

She is pictured at Sieur de Monts Spring to the left of her close friend, neighbor and colleague, Bar Harbor native Sylvia Cough. Ms. Cough worked as the secretary to Acadia National Park’s second Superintendent Benjamin L. Hadley until 1953.

• Ardra Tarbell Interview

  
  

  Ardra Tarbell is interviewed in two parts by an unknown person, presumed to be an NPS staff.

  Credit / Author:

  Acadia National Park

  Date created:

  10/14/2020