Isle au Haut Unit: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park
Killion J and Marques R. 2018. Isle au Haut Unit: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976100. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Isle au Haut lies about 30 miles southwest of Bar Harbor, Maine and seven miles south of Stonington, Maine, on the southeastern edge of Penobscot Bay. The 5,800-acre island is approximately seven miles long and two miles wide, and the National Park Service (NPS) manages about half of it (2,900 acres) as part of Acadia National Park. The lands of the Isle au Haut Unit encompass most of the central and southern parts of the island, and host around 5,000-7,500 day use visitors and 500-600 campers annually. The northern part of the island is the Town of Isle au Haut, home to about 45 year-round residents and 200 summer residents. Visitors and residents access the island from Stonington via a private, nonprofit passenger-only ferry service. Park facilities include a pier and a small backcountry campground with five lean-tos at Duck Harbor, a ranger station and a fire cache building near town, a gravel road that is part of loop road around the island, a fire road/trail (Western Head Road) to the southern part of the island, and nineteen miles of hiking trails. Much of the park’s rugged and steep terrain is covered in forests of spruce, fir, and pine, but the dense canopy opens around granite outcrops, meadows, and wetlands. Obscured amongst the woodlands are old stone walls, cellar holes, and apple trees associated with former homesteads established in the 1800s, as well as an old community cemetery. There is also a small log cabin that stands alongside a picturesque stream, a reminder of summer resident Ernest Bowditch’s quest to preserve the island’s undeveloped scenery. In 1944 the Bowditch family donated their lands to the federal government to be managed by the National Park Service. Today, residents and visitors come to the park to experience the quiet ambiance and explore the picturesque mountains and shorelines.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Killion, Jeffrey; Marques, Rose
- Date of Issue
- 2018-05-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ACAD , NER
- Keywords
- backcountry campground, boat building, cannery, cemetery, conservation, Duck Harbor, entertainment/recreation, Ernest Bowditch, fire cache, fire control, fishing, homestead, Maine, marine, pier, ranger station, salt works, sheep grazing, shipping, summer resort, sweet grass, transportation