Bar Harbor, Maine, United States

🇺🇸 Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. Bar Harbor is a popular tourist destination in the Down East region of Maine and home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, and MDI Biological Laboratory. Until a catastrophic fire in 1947, the town was a noted summer colony for the wealthy. Bar Harbor is home to the largest parts of Acadia National Park, including Cadillac Mountain, the highest point within twenty-five miles of the coastline of the Eastern United States. The town is served by the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport, which provides year-round direct flights to Boston, Massachusetts.

From the mainland, Bar Harbor is accessible by road via Maine State Route 3, and by ferry from Winter Harbor, Maine, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

History The town of Bar Harbor was founded on the north-east shore of Mount Desert Island, which the Wabanaki Indians knew as Pemetic, meaning "range of mountains" or "mountains seen at a distance". The Wabanaki seasonally fish, hunt and gather berries, clams, and other shellfish in the area. They speak of Bar Harbor as Man-es-ayd'ik ("clam-gathering place") or Ah-bays'auk ("clambake place"), leaving great piles of shells as evidence of this abundance. In early September 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain ran aground on a rock ledge believed to be Egg Rock, just off Otter Cliffs, and when he came ashore to repair his boat he met local natives. Champlain named the island Isles des Monts Deserts, meaning "island of barren mountains"—now called Mount Desert Island, the largest island in Maine.

In 1761, Abraham Somes established the first European village on Mount Desert Island, naming it Somesville. Also named for him is Somes Sound, the only naturally occurring fjard on the East Coast of the United States. Bar Harbor itself was incorporated on February 23, 1796, as Eden, after Sir Richard Eden, an English statesman.

Early industries included fishing, lumbering and shipbuilding. With the best soil on Mount Desert Island, it also developed agriculture, with a main focus on dairy. In the 1840s, its rugged maritime scenery attracted the Hudson River School and Luminism artists Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, William Hart and Fitz Henry Lane. Inspired by their paintings, journalists, sportsmen and "rusticators" followed. Agamont House, the first hotel in Eden, was established in 1855 by Tobias Roberts. Birch Point, the first summer estate, was built in 1868 for Alpheus Harding.

By 1880, there were 30 hotels, including the Mira Monte Inn, a historic landmark that survived a massive fire in 1947. Tourists were arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island. The rich and famous tried to outdo each other with entertaining and estates, often hiring landscape gardener and landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, a resident at local Reef Point Estate, to design their gardens. A glimpse of their lifestyles was available from the Shore Path, a coastal path skirting waterfront lawns. Yachting, garden parties at the Pot & Kettle Club, and carriage rides up Cadillac Mountain were popular diversions. Others enjoyed horse-racing at Robin Hood Park-Morrell Park. President William Howard Taft played golf in 1910 at the Kebo Valley Golf Club. He was the last sitting president to visit the town for a century thereafter, until Barack Obama's arrival in July 2010.

On March 3, 1918, Eden was renamed Bar Harbor, after the sand and gravel bar, visible at low tide, which leads across to Bar Island and forms the rear of the harbor. The name would become synonymous with elite wealth. It was the birthplace of vice-president Nelson Rockefeller.

Bar Harbor was also used for naval practices during World War II. More specifically, Bald Porcupine Island (one of the five Porcupine Islands) was used to fire live torpedoes. In October 1944, the submarine USS Piper fired 12 live torpedoes at the island. Of those fired, one failed to explode on the first attempt but was later detonated by the twelfth torpedo. In 1996, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed all 30 acres of Bald Porcupine Island for unexploded ordnance. Nine were found.

Many influential people have called Bar Harbor home for at least part of the year. John D. Rockefeller Jr., son of John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil Co., donated about one-third of the land in Acadia National Park and built the carriage roads that are used for hiking and biking. J. P. Morgan owned a house that is adjacent to the town. Cornelius Vanderbilt built cottages in Bar Harbor, while the Astor family owned hotels and cottages in Bar Harbor and the surrounding areas. The co-founder and CEO of Burt's Bees, Roxanne Quimby, has a home near Bar Harbor, and Martha Stewart owns property in nearby Seal Harbor and frequents Bar Harbor.

*Mount Desert Island fire * In mid-October 1947, Maine experienced a severe drought, seeing only half of its usual rainfall. On October 17, sparks at a cranberry bog near Town Hill ignited a wildfire that intensified over the next ten days, due to strong winds that began on October 21, and it was not declared out until mid-November. This was one of several wildfires in the state that year. Nearly half the eastern side of Mount Desert Island burned, including 67 "cottages"—nearly one-third of the 222 cottages that stood at the time. (Many were empty or for sale; only 135 were occupied that summer.) Five historic grand hotels were also destroyed. These were Agamont House (Main Street), Hamor House (Main Street at Cottage Street), Belmont Hotel (Mount Desert and Kebo Streets), Malvern Hotel (Kebo Street) and the DeGregoire Hotel (Eden Street at West Street). The Building of Arts civic building, on Kebo Street at Cromwell Harbor Road, also perished.

Over 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of Acadia National Park were destroyed. The town's business district was spared, including Mount Desert Street, where several former summer homes within a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places operate as inns.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 63.11 square miles (163.45 km²), of which 42.24 square miles (109.40 km²) is land and 20.87 square miles (54.05 km²) is water. Bar Harbor is situated on Frenchman Bay, with multiple smaller islands just offshore. Twice a day, at low tide, a sand bar (Bar Harbor's namesake) is exposed, linking the town to Bar Island.

Demographics As of the census of 2010, there were 5,235 people, 2,427 households, and 1,275 families residing in the town. The population density was 123.9 inhabitants per square mile (47.8/km²). There were 3,495 housing units at an average density of 82.7 per square mile (31.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.7% White, 0.8% African American, 0.2% Native American, 2.8% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.1% of the population.

There were 2,427 households, of which 22.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 6.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.5% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.70.

The median age in the town was 45.3 years. 17.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 10% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 22.4% were from 25 to 44; 32.3% were from 45 to 64; and 18.1% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 46.3% male and 53.7% female.

Education Conners Emerson School, founded in 1962, is located in Bar Harbor, serving students of grades K through 8.

Mount Desert Island High School serves the four towns of Mount Desert Island, plus the outlying islands of Swans Island and the town of Cranberry Isles. The school also serves students from towns such as Trenton, Hancock, Lamoine and Mariaville on the mainland.

The College of the Atlantic is located in Bar Harbor, on Route 3.

Transport Bar Harbor's main access road, from the north or south, is State Route 3, which is the coastal Eden Street taken from the Trenton Bridge. Upon entering the town limits from the north, Route 3 turns east onto Mount Desert Street, before turning south onto Main Street at Bar Harbor's Village Green. It then circumnavigates the eastern portion of Mount Desert Island. Two other streets link Route 3 to Main Street: West Street (the first visitors from the north see) and Cottage Street. Another principal road, Eagle Lake Road, leads west, from its intersection with Eden Street, Mount Desert Street and Kebo Street, into the national park.

The town is served by the Hancock County–Bar Harbor Airport, which provides year-round nonstop flights to Boston, Massachusetts.

Bar Harbor is the western terminus for The CAT, a high-speed summer ferry service across the Gulf of Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, operated by Bay Ferries. The 3.5-hour route returned to service in 2022 after previously operating from 1955 to 2009.

Downeast Windjammer Cruise Lines operates regular summer ferry service across Frenchman Bay between Bar Harbor and Winter Harbor.

Economy: Tourist Industry The population of Bar Harbor, and Mount Desert Island generally, increases dramatically from May through October with "seasonal" residents and tourists. Many come for Acadia National Park, with its hiking trails and carriage roads, providing opportunities for biking, bird watching, and mountain climbing, with Cadillac Mountain being the highest point on the Atlantic seaboard.

Maritime tours are available, on a wide variety of boats, introducing visitors to puffins, whales, seals, seabirds, lighthouses, even lobsters, illustrating the working waterfront side of Bar Harbor.

The town has many historic houses, including large "cottages" along the shore, often converted to other uses today. To protect its housing supply for residents, citizens voted in 2021 to cap the number of vacation rentals in Bar Harbor.

In 2012, the American Planning Association named the Village Green one of their top ten Great Places in America for Public Spaces.

Cruise ships visit Bar Harbor from May through October (most in September and October), with 154 ship visits and more than 222,000 passengers in 2018. The forecast for 2019 was 176 ship visits and more than 254,000 passengers. In November 2022, concerned about crowding and overtourism, the citizens of Bar Harbor voted for a citizens' initiative to cap cruise ship disembarkations to 1,000 per day.

Bar Harbor also hosts many long-distance cyclists, as it is the eastern terminus of the Adventure Cycling Association's Northern Tier Bicycle Route (Anacortes, Washington, is the western terminus), and the northern terminus of its Atlantic Coast Bicycle Route (Key West, Florida, is the southern terminus).

Mount Desert Island Ice Cream, ranked among the best ice cream shops in the country, made the news in 2010 when President Obama and his family made a surprise visit for a treat. Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium, with its lobster-flavored ice cream and lobster statue, is a popular stop.