Blackwoods Campground: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park

Foulds, Elliot

Blackwoods Campground is one of two campgrounds located in Acadia National Park, Maine. Acadia was the first national park established east of the Mississippi River and today encompasses over 50,000 acres across Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, and other smaller islands. The campground covers 198 acres on the eastern half of the island, just west of the Village of Otter Creek. Blackwoods was built according to the principles and practices of rustic park landscape design implemented by the National Park Service (NPS) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s and 1940s, which harmonized manmade development with natural topography and the surrounding landscape. Blackwoods Campground is close to the popular attractions of the eastern side of the island, and is more heavily used than the park’s Seawall Campground. Blackwoods Campground consists of two camping loops (Loop A and Loop B) organized around a central Camp Court, an oval one-way drive that serves as a hub between the camping loops. A three-quarter mile entrance road leads to the Entrance Station and on to the Camp Court from which Campsite Loop A lies to the south and Loop B to the west. Camping is assigned to numbered campsites that are identified with painted numerals at the edges of the paved camp roads. Loop A was built in 1938-1950 and features a typical one-way perimeter loop road, from which a series of lateral roads leads to campsites. The first 35 campsites at Loop A are link-type sites constructed in a central cluster. After World War II, spur-type campsites were constructed. Loop A currently features 160 sites, reduced from a peak of 192 in 1971. The loop is served by six comfort stations, five of which are of the standard design constructed by the CCC. Many of the prototypical steel fireplace rings used historically at Blackwoods are extant, as are the campground’s water taps. Only a limited number of historic site furnishings such as signs, gates, and stone and log barriers remain, but those few, along with replacements-in-kind, contribute to the rustic character of the site. The Ocean Path, constructed in 1938, connects Loop A to the cliffs overlooking Otter Cove. Loop B was developed in 1956-1959 with funding from the Mission 66 program that aimed to improve visitor facilities and park infrastructure throughout the NPS. Loop B features 154 spur-type campsites and is organized similar to Loop A, with a one-way perimeter loop road inset with a series of roughly parallel lateral roads and five comfort stations. Tucked between the two loops is an amphitheater, originally built in 1950 and upgraded in 1977, which hosts evening interpretive programs. A spruce/fir coniferous forest is the dominant vegetative type at the Blackwoods Campground. Characterized as “even-aged,” it provides a more continuous crown closure, but allows less light to reach the forest floor, resulting in less diversity of species. Sub-dominant species include a variety of mixed hardwoods as well as birch and aspen. The forest cover is characterized as mature, with 75 to 100 percent crown closure. Undisturbed areas of the forest soil are covered with a ground layer of mosses and ferns. A variety of northern temperate shrub species populate the understory of undisturbed areas.

Blackwoods Campground: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park

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