EARLY HISTORY OF MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MAINE: LEGEND OF THE PORCUPINES

A DAY IN LAFAYETTE PARK
Bar Harbor Times
by Mary Carol Searls
June 18, 1919

(Note; the entire piece could not be copied due to sections of the article were unreadable - I have instead copied sections of the article).

LEGEND OF THE PORCUPINES
"Have you noticed the numerous blueberry bushes that find subsistence in every crack and crevice? What a sea of color! Observe how the various golden and red tints of the hardwood trees are blended with the greens of the softwood trees as only the Master Artist can mingle them. We can see the harbor now. Yes, there are many islands. The one to the North is Bar Island, connected to this island at low tide by a bar. The four off the northeast shore are the Porcupines. I really don't know why they are called that, but there is a legend about them. I'll tell it to you.
Many many years ago a giant made his home on this mountain. He had four tame Porcupines. One day while the giant was hunting they ran down to the shore to play. Now Mr. giant had told them to stay at home and he was very angry when he saw them down at the shore. He called them but they were too busy playing to hear. Than he began roaring and throwing boulders. One of those great boulders may be seen on the shore today. The frightened Porcupines ran out into the harbor where a kind fairy saved them from the wrath of the giant by turning them into stone.
That's the legend but I think that they were named by some artists who wandered this way in 1850 or so. These artists did much to make Mount Desert the famous resort it is today.

MY DAUGHTER ADMIRING THE VIEW OF THE PORCUPINES
PHOTO TAKEN FROM DORR MOUNTAIN
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

FIRST STRUCTURES ON GREEN MOUNTAIN
"More than fifty years ago a small hotel was built on that foundation. At that time there was a good road and a railroad up here. Yes, and there was a quaint steamer with a big wheel in the stern that brought the eager tourists across Eagle lake to the foot of the mountain where the puff engine waited to push them up the steep ascent. Not more than twenty years ago the Green Mountain House, as it was called, was torn down. I don't think there is a trace of the railroad now but we can find out. That small pile just to the west was the first Green Mountain House, built about 1849, for a government surveying station, than later used as a tea room."

THE GREAT SPIRIT
On this mountain top the Indians built their signal fires; and here worshiped the Great Spirit as they saw him revealed by nature, in the island dotted ocean, the mighty mountains and the gentle lakes. It is apparent from shell deposits that the Indians of the surrounding country used this island, Pemetic as they called it, in a hunting and feasting ground. When Champlain sailed this way in 1604 he found Indians of the Pentecost valley here hunting and fishing. Champlain's visit was short but the name he gave this island has endured and will endure, 'Isles des Mont Desert' hence Mount Desert. Twelve years later some Jesuit Priests settled near an Indian Village at Somes Sound, off there to the West. These Jesuits were the first white men to settle on this island, but they were soon driven from their peaceful home by the English.

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN CARRIAGE ROAD
"We must take the trail homeward now. This old road dates back to the time when the Indians were our only visitors, and down this same trail the early settler dragged the giant pines to be used in making ships. Later when the hotel was built it was made into a carriage road. The road, as you see, has not been used for years. The government plans to build a motor road here. And as you look at the Autumn tinted landscape dotted with lakes and harbors, and at the distant hills and ocean; and as you picture again the superb view seen from the summit, you may easily believe that it will become the great scenic feature of the Park."