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Prologue

Saved to future generations as it has been to us, in the wild primeval beauty of the nature it exhibits, of ancient rocks and still more ancient sea, with infinite detail of life and landscape interest between, the spirit and mind of man will surely find in it in the years and centuries to come an inspiration and a means of growth as essential to them ever and anon as are fresh air and sunshine to the body.
– George B. Dorr, First Superintendent, Acadia National Park

A place of immense beauty like Acadia National Park tends to bring out the profound. It’s true, natural beauty of this magnitude hits you on a gut level.

Experience it and you will know. It’s a place you fall in love with immediately. And as many will attest, when you love something, you want to protect it. You want to hold it in the highest regard with the utmost respect. Love enables an attachment—and where there is love, there is goodwill, positivity and benevolence.

When you allow the wonders of Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park, to overcome you, this is what you will feel. So many who have been here certainly know the passion it elicits. First, it was the Wabanaki people who called the island home for thousands of years (and many still do).

Then Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer whose ship docked at the island in 1604, felt the allure of the place—so much so he coined the name “île des Monts Déserts.” Then, in the early 1900s, there was Charles Eliot, John D. Rockefeller and George Dorr; without their involvement it would be safe to say the park simply would not be what it is today.

Generations of families, explorers, travelers and tourists have felt the Acadia attachment. It is something that has allowed this beautiful, pristine place to endure for over a century.

It is both sacred and historic.
Clearly it’s no coincidence that Acadia is the French word for…

Heaven on Earth

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