Along a short paved trail behind the Nature Center, a wayside exhibit features a panel angled atop a rectangular stone base.
The exhibit's title, "Wabanaki Traditions" appears over a tranquil view of four unoccupied birch bark canoes floating on calm water near the rocky shore.
Text reads: "Long before Europeans arrived, Wabanaki people hunted, fished, gathered berries, and harvested clams on what we now call Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. For generations, Wabanaki craftspeople sold handmade ash and sweet-grass baskets to wealthy tourists and guided summer residents in birch bark canoes around Frenchman Bay. As their ancestors did for thousands of years, Wabanaki people today continue their unique and enduring relationship with this land through tribal gatherings and cultural traditions."
A trio of photographs shows an Abbe Museum exhibit of Wabanaki artifacts from 12,000 years ago to today, Dr. Robert Abbe who started the collection of stone tools, and one of Dr. Abbe's sketches depicting plans for the museum, which opened in 1928.
More photos appear along the bottom of the exhibit: -The Burnurwurbskek singers, a Penobscot men's drum group, sit on chairs around a large drum. -David Moses Bridges, Passamaquoddy, demonstrates how to build a traditional birch bark canoe. -Wabanaki women of all ages wear fringed dresses as they dance at the annual Native American Festival and Basketmakers Market in Bar Harbor.
Near the exhibit, a gazebo with a domed roof and arched doorways - called the Spring Canopy - sits on one side of the trail. On the trail's other side, a birch bark wigwam stands at the edge of a clearing. Penobscot artist Barry Dana and his family constructed the dome-shaped frame in August 2011. It was rebuilt in 2015 by David Moses Bridges.
A signpost points to the Robert Abbe Museum of Stone Age Antiquities farther along the trail.
