EARLY HISTORY OF MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MAINE: THE GEORGE B. DORR BIKE PATHS

Thursday, June 18, 2020

THE GEORGE B. DORR BIKE PATHS

GEORGE B. DORR BIKE PATHS

September 18, 1895
Bar Harbor Record

VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION MAKES AN APPROPRIATION

The following report of Mr. Dorr, chairman of the bicycle committee of the V.I.A., is handed to us for publication by the secretary of the association, Mr. Sherman, as a matter of general public interest.
The work done by the bicycle path committee this summer has been to lay out, and, in so far as the funds at its disposal have permitted, to build a path about a mile in length skirting the northwest base of Newport mountain, and opening at either end into the cross-roads for driving and riding, which is now being jointly built by the Village Improvement Association and the owners of the land between the Schooner Head and Otter Creek town roads.
This path was selected for this first year's work because of the unusual beauty of the woods it opened up near to the town and because of the courteous consent of Mr. Martin Roberts to allow his half mile trotting track, which is at present the best bicycleing ground upon the island, to be used in conjunction with the path.
The greater and by far the most expensive part of this path is now completely built, gravelled and rolled, the brush has all been taken off and burnt and the unsightly banks left by grading have been covered with loam. The thickness of the woods, the wet character of much of the ground and the sidehill slope of the remainder has made this part of the path exceptionally expensive, its total cost having been somewhat about $850, of this amount $660 has already been raised by subscription and more is promised. The remaining part of the path will be much less expensive to build and the cost of the completion would probably be between $250 and $300.
The interest in the scheme seems to be very wide-spread, and it seems important for that future continuance upon which its main usefulness and attraction depend that the work done should be regarded as the accomplishment of the Society as a society and not as that of a few specially interested individuals. Such work has an imthousand dollars a mile would be an outside average estimate for the cost of building, in the best and most permament way, a path through wildportant public bearing and ought to have a character at least semi-public given to it. Not only the pleasure it would add to the general summer life upon the island but the much needed connections it would establish between points that now seem distant, make the building up of such a system work in which not only the Society but the town itself ought, for its own widely extended advantage, to share.
It seems desirable that the piece of path taken for this summer's work should not have to wait till another summer, when fresh work ought to be begun with fresh interest elsewhere, for its completion if the delay can be avoided. As to the general expense of path construction, our experience seems to show that one thousand dollars a mile would be an outside estimate for the cost of building in the best and most permament way, a path through wild and wooded land. In the more cultivated portion of the island the cost would be considerably less.
At a regular meeting of the board of managers of the Village Improvement Association held on the 10th last, a sum not to exceed $250 was appropriated from the funds to the association to complete the seasons works as proposed above.