SIEUR DE MONTS SPRING - SHOW PLACE OF THE EAST

BAR HARBOR TIMES
Oct. 14, 1916
THE WONDERS OF SIEUR DE MONTS
Only National Park in the East

Superb, exclaimed he as we gazed out over the great woods, hundreds of feet below, to the wide expanse of ocean in the distance.
It was superb.  There is something in the grandeur of Mt. Desert's mountains, valleys, rocks, woods and ocean which draws you back and back and back again to look upon them.  Yet this was but one of thousands of supreme spots  of beauty to be found in this newest of national monuments and only national park in all the east.
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  WHY A MONUMENT?
What is the difference between a national monument and a national park?
Practically there is no difference;  national parks are created by an act of Congress;  national monuments are established thru a proclamation by the President.  Both are under the control and supervision of the National Park Commission.  Each alike are national parks.
The proclamation creating the Sieur De Monts National Monument was issued by President Wilson on July 8 of this year, and followed several years of earnest work by George B. Dorr of Boston, a prominent summer resident of Bar Harbor and member of one of the first families which made that place their summer home.  The first step in the work was the formation of the Hancock County Trustees of public reservations, a corporation organized by act of the Maine legislature.  These gradually obtained title to the various parcels of land which now comprise the 5000 acres included in the national park.  Part of this property was gained by purchase and part was (unreadable).
When the land desired had been secured by the trustees, the work of enduing the national government to take it over began.
In this again Mr. Dorr was active and devoted all his energies to the work, going to Washington and staying till President Wilson signed the proclamation creating the monument.  Recently the summer people whose summer homes are on the island, tendered him a reception in trcognition of his labors.

A NIGHT CLIMB UP DRY MOUNTAIN
(Today named Dorr Mountain)
Mountain climbing is not a new sport.  Thousands of men and women have been doing it for years.  Probably the explorer Champlain climbed the peaks of Mt. Desert.  If so he found a different condition from that existing today.  Now there are climbs or paths by which every summit on the island may be scaled, and they are comparatively easy, tho one will find them much more difficult than negotiating the more the path up David's Mountain in Lewiston.  Indeed one can find all the ruggedness he desires in a trip to the mountain tops.
A drizzling rain had prevailed most of the day when the writer reached Bar Harbor to visit the new national monument.  Towards night the rain ceased and the sky gave evidence of clear weather.  It was dusk when Mr. Dorr greeted the Lewiston Journal representatives.  He was delighted that the paper was interested in the park.  He wanted Maine folks to know and understand its great benefits in the state and felt that a story (unreadable).
"It is nearly dark," said he, "but would you like to visit the monument at this time?"
Having been assured that such a trip would give the newspaper man pleasure he led the way to hi9s automobile and we were on our way.
So excellent were the streets and roads of Bar Harbor that only once did we realize, by the slip of the car, that it had been raining.
A ride of two miles and the car stopped.  All was dark.  At the right rose a great dark mass, in front was the same, between the two a glimmer of skyline; to the left and behind was wonderland.  As we became accustomed to the darkness the outlines of an attractive building near the woods at the right were made out.  This, Mr Dorr explained, was the spring house of Sieur de Monts Spring, at the opposite side of the clearing was the bottling house and office of that company.
Into the woods we went, up a short flight of stone steps.  This, explained Mr. Dorr, is the Emery path, built in honor of the Emery family of Mt. Desert Island, one of the noted families of the island.
Up, up, and up we went and than a pause on a flat projecting ledge.  It was night but what a picture!
Below, it seemed almost at our feet, the lights of Bar Harbor, Maine's greatest summer resort, twinkled thru the trees and beyond them stretched the waters of Frenchman's Bay.  Down in the harbor, between Bar Island and Porcupine island were the riding lights of yachts and motor boats swinging in the slight swell of the bay.  In some, lights gleamed through cabin windows, indicating life aboard.  Out beyond the islands one of the big steamers of the Maine Central's Ferry and the harbor was making its way across the bay.  Its outlines were made clear by hundreds of electric lights.  And across the bay sparkled the lights of Sorrento and Mt. Desert Ferry.
Up another series of steps along another lead and than again a halt.  This time the eyes faced nearly due east.  It was a different picture.  The outlines of the breakwater could be detected and than there was an island beyond, over which came the flash of a lighthouse further out to sea.  Framing one side of the picture was Newport Mountain, dark and somber, impressing one with its greatness and rugged strength.
These were night pictures worth the time and effort to see;  pictures which will long be remembered and always with a desire to return to them.

SIEUR DE MONTS TARN
Just beyond this point the Emery path emerged from the Homans path, built in honor of Mrs. Charles Homan of Boston, one of a famous group of brilliant Boston men and women of which Longfellow, Holmes and William Hunt, the artist, formed a part.
This carried us up to within five hundred feet of the summit, past Sieur De Monts crag, where, later a tablet is to be placed, commemorating the great explorers work and telling the purpose of the national monument.  From this point were combined all the distant views gained from other vantage points on the Emery path.
Here the Emery path ended and the Kurt Diedrich climb began.  This was built in memory of a grandson of William Hunt, who died suddenly a few years ago in the full bloom of youth and who loved the wild life of the Maine coast and woods.  Rugged and beautiful was the way from which this climb merges with the Homans path to the Mountain base.
From somewhere down below came the croaking of a frog.  It was followed by others, which, mingling with the rustle of leaves and boughs as the light breeze stirred them, made delightful music.  Than came the opening of the wood on mountain side.  Below dark waters could be distinguished laying between the steep sides of Dry and Newport mountains 'Sieur De Monts tarn' explained Mr. Dorr.  Dec-ending we finally came out upon the banks of the tarn where the waters of its outflow fall in a cascade into a brook below.  Above the dam, stepping stones of granite lead across to the other side, where a well built path leads to the country road and the Beachcroft trail up Newport mountain.  We climbed no more that night.

SHOW PLACE OF THE EAST
Even left as it is the Sirue De Monts National Monument would always remain a place to attract the lovers of nature and the beautiful  but more than this is planned and much is to be done there.
The aim is to make the mountains and all paths of the great park (unreadable) of access to tourists, who visit it, but there is a wider aim to use this first of Eastern National Parks for the benefit of science and the preservation of wild life, both animal and vegetable.  These plans carried to completion, as they surely will be, assure to the future generations one public spot upon the coast of Maine where all may go to study wild life as in a glorious museum filled with living self perpetuating forms, and where its bird visitors may find a haven of refuge in their seasonal flight.
For one of the most notable movements in the general conservation of natural resources, of interest alike to the agriculturist and the nature lover, has been the creation of bird sanctuaries for the preservation and increase of wild life.
As yet in its inciplency, this movement is already growing widely with the spread of education and an intelligent appreciation of the important results involved.
The great national parks of the Pacific Coast and Central West have been since their foundation, gigantic tracts for bird protection;  and, more recently, private enterprise has endowed similar foundations on a smaller scale in the East, the best known of which is the Marsh Island and reserve in Louisiana, so generously presented by Mrs. Russell Sage.
In the Northeastern states, however, with their dense population and high land values, such reservations have been of necessity, difficult to obtain, although their relative significance, even when of small extent, is very great as compared to the vast park areas of the sparsely settled West.
The new Sieur De Monts park, therefor, acquires a supreme importance as the first bird sanctuary of any considerable extent on our thickly peopled East.
Its geographical location, more over, is most fortunate, near the junction of two great formal areas - the Alleghanian and Canadian;  while its mountain summits, the highest immediately upon the Atlantic seaboard, make it a predominantly marked resting place upon the main line of coastal migration.
The surprising variety of natural features within the boundaries of the park itself, affords a suitable habitat for a correspondingly varied number of places.
The ocean shore harbors gulls, terns, cormorants, ducks, herons and other water fowl.
Fresh water lakes, high up in the hills afford breeding places for the wilderness-loving loons and mergansers.
The low laying meadows and marshes shelter the  more northerly of the Alleghanian migrants - black birds, flycatchers, and the warblers ranging from farther South.  Thru the upland woods and forests clad hillsides flit Canadian warblers, Nashville, black-throat green magnolia, myrtle, pine, chestnut sided, and the like;  with pine and purple finches, and the heavenly voiced hermit thrushes.
On the more inaccessible rocky crags the osprey and bald eagle nest, while on the mountain tops may be found some of the Hudson species from still further north such as the Canadian chickadee, or the rare Bicknells thrush.  Then exists here, therefore, within the compass of a few thousand acres, formal conditions representing a geographical extent of many hundred miles.
An arboretum and wild gardens, wherein may be gathered the trees and plants of Maine for experimental work, and a biological laboratory in memory of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, enter into this plan.
These things accomplished, the paths and roads built, the Sieur De Monts national monument will become the most interesting, both scientifically and biologically, place of the east.
As to the soundness of these plans there can be no question.  Men of science who have made a study of conditions all approve of them.  Robert Abbe, who made the official cartographer of the park, says of the plan to establish a memorial to Dr. Mitchell;  "Not only the economic but the scientific value of such a marine laboratory is inestimable and no where on the Maine coast can a better field be found.
Henry B. Bigelow, curator of fishes to the Agassiz Museum, says on the same subject;  "Investigation along many of the most important lines can be carried on only with the aid of a well placed coast laboratory, such as might be established at Mt. Desert with exceptional advantage."
The bureau of fisheries at Washington also endorse the plan.
In a letter to Mr, Dorr, H.S. Gravea, forester of the national forestry department, says of the proposed wild gardens;  "The plan is a master thought.  It reaches much beyond interest in the preservation of a bit of local scenery and presents a great opportunity for scientific experiment and public demonstration in fields but but little developed."  (rest of paragraph unreadable.)

ON THE BEACHCROFT TRAIL
It must not be supposed that the night visit to Dry Mountain completed the trip to the National Park.  There was much more to be seen;  much which can not be mentioned in a story of this kind for lack of space.
Next morning Mr. Dorr's automobile was again at the hotel door and once more we rode to the spring house.  This time the sun was shining brightly and the beauties of the scenery where everywhere manifest.  The spring presented a different picture.  While this is not a part of the park, it is a natural starting point of paths, climbs and trails leading through the monument.  It is a delightful spot and its proprietors, much interested in the development of the park, have signified their intent to do all they can to make it pleasant to visitors to the monument.
Plans are underway for a tea house to be located at the edge of the woods, while the spring itself will be enclosed with a ventilated glass covering, so visitors may step inside the attractive little spring house and see the water.
The overflow from this is carried underground to a pool located between the spring and bottling house, which adds to the attractiveness of the place.  At the bottling house arrangements will be made for visitors to secure all the fresh spring water they desire to drink and to replenish their bottles for free of charge.
The office building is a small frame structure;  neat in appearance;  at its threshold is a large flat stone on which is the inscription;  "Sweet waters of Acadia,"  which is a quotation from Marc Lescarbot, a poet and writer of Sieur De Monts time, who wrote of their voyage to these places.
Leaving the spring Mr. Dorr led the way to where workmen were constructing the Jesup Memorial Walk.
This is being built in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Morris K. Jesup of New York, both of whom were very fond of Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert Island.  Mr. Jesup gave the New York Museum of Natural History an endowment of several million dollars and presented the village of Bar Harbor with the Jesup Memorial Library.
The Kane path is being built by Mrs. John Innes Kane of New York in memory of her husband, who was one of the old New York families and a trustee of the botanical gardens of that city.  The woods through which it passes are named for Mrs. Kane's family, one of the old families of New York, the Schermerhorn woods.
At the foot of the Kurts Diedrich climb we crossed the outlet of Sieur De Monts farm on stepping stones and proceeded to the foot of the Beachcroft Trail and started upward.  At the start the trail is more in the nature of a path, rising slightly, not a step being in evidence.  It continues this way for probably a thousand yards, than the ascent becomes more pronounced and continues so to the summit.  While steps are necessary at several points it is for the most part a trail.  A peculiar feature of this trail is that while it was constructed only last year, it has the appearance of several years usage.  This is the result in care in building.  Every effort was made to secure this result.
Up trail we preceded, stopping every few rods to view the landscape and comment upon its beauties.
The path led upward, turning and twisting about the mountain side, until it came out upon the side of a great, nearly bare, ledge.  Here and there a stunted tree stood up four or five feet above the rock, the only sign of life there.  Along the ledge we went, until Mr. Dorr paused and uttered the words with which this story began.  The place was Huguenot Head and the woods out over which we were looking to the ocean were Eliot woods, named in honor of President Emeritus Eliot of Harvard.
As he talked of his hopes for the future of the monument, pointing out at the same time points of interest and beauty, it was impossible not to wonder weather the great work which he has accomplished for Mt. Desert Island and the State of Maine could and would be appreciated by the people of the day.
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A ROUGH AND RUGGED WAY
This decent was a nearer approach to what one pictures when speaking of mountain climbing.  It is a path but not such as those previously traversed.  It was steeper, rougher.  Less attention had been given to its to its building than on the others.  It was older, having been given to the building than on the others.  It was older, having been one of the very first attempts toward preparing a path to the mountain top.  For the most part it had been made simply by cutting out trees and brush to the desired width.
At several points it dropped down for a distance of four or five feet, and there one must use eyes and hands to safely cover the distance.
But, thou it was difficult traveling, it was worth the effort.
There was constant change in scenery, for the path wound almost entirely thru thickly wooded areas.  At one or two places it opened into clearings, which were delightful spots.  In one of these was a small pool  in which were water flowers and plants in all their wildness.
In due time the path entered the old bicycle path.  This was constructed by Mr. Dorr in the 90's when wheeling was at its height.  It was a favorite ride in those days.  Following along this we came to Bear Brook.  No one knows the derivation, but from the rocky nature of the immediate vicinity and the formation of the rocks the assumption is that the rocks were favorite places for the bears of old to make their dens and that this led the aborigines to bestow the title "Bear Brook" upon the stream.
This path also takes the visitor by Beaver Dam Pool, an interesting body of water.  There is no guess work regarding the derivation of this name.  The ancient beaver dams which traverse it in many directions tell the story plainly.
Trout have been planted in this pool and they thrive splendidly.  A part of the plan of the park, which is a game and bird preserve, includes recolonizing the pool with beaver, so that those who visit Sieur De Monts National Park will have an opportunity to witness the activities and the accomplishments of those wonderful animals.  This, it is believed, will be one of the greatest features of the monument.
Leaving the pool we went across a stretch of meadow land, coming out onto the country road and than, after a walk of about a third of a mile, were back once more at the spring.
But this did not end the writers visit to the National Park of Maine.  It was than late in the afternoon, but next morning at 5 o'clock, he left the hotel, walked to the spring to climb Dry Mountain just to see in daylight the view in which he had seen first after dark.  It well repaid the early rising and the tramp.  It was splendid and some day he will rise at the same early hour to follow the Beachcroft trail to the tip top of Newport, just to see how different it is at that hour than at any other time in the day.

WHAT IT MEANS TO MAINE
And now, for just a few moments, consider what this means.  Put aside all sentiment, historical or otherwise, and look at it from the twentieth century standpoint of dollars and cents.  If it were only Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert Island which it were to benefit it would not be so great, but all Maine must gain, commercially, from the park.  It will draw strangers here.  They will come to see the park, exactly as they now go west to the parks and monuments there.  Being here, they will go elsewhere in the state.
It will be but natural for the motorists coming to Sieur De Monts National Monument to visit also Poland Springs, Rockland, Camden, Castine, Kineo and other resorts.
For years Maine has been noted for its delightful summer resort features.  It has become the summer home of thousands, yet its attractions have not been advertised as they should have been.  the state has done nothing along this line;  all the advertising has been by individuals, the Rickers, the railroads and a few of the summer hotels and camp people.  this is wrong.
Until now the United States government has given no heed to the east.  What little it has done on this line has been in the west.  National parks have been located there.  None have come east.  Today, thanks to the efforts of Mr. dorr, President Eliot and their associates, the east has a park.  Better still it is in Maine.  Its establishment this year was an opportune time for Maine.  It was not until last year that the Federal Government awoke to the commercial possibilities of the country's natural beauties.
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