Mount Desert Island facts for kids
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 Mount Desert Island
Location in Maine
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 44°20′34″N 68°18′26″W / 44.342827°N 68.307138°W |
| Area | 108 sq mi (280 km2) |
| Highest elevation | 466 m (1,528 ft) |
| Highest point | Cadillac Mountain |
| Administration | |
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United States
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| State | Maine |
| County | Hancock County |
| Largest settlement | Bar Harbor (pop. 5,235 people in 2010) |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 10,615 (2000) |
| Pop. density | 96.8 /sq mi (37.37 /km2) |
| Ethnic groups | mainly Caucasian |
Mount Desert Island (often called MDI) is the largest island off the coast of Maine, in the United States. It covers about 108 square miles (280 km2). This makes it one of the biggest islands in the U.S. and the second largest on the Eastern Seaboard. Only Long Island is bigger.
About 10,615 people live on Mount Desert Island all year round. Many more visit, especially Acadia National Park, which is mostly on the island. In 2017, around 3.5 million tourists came to the park. The island is also famous for its popular summer towns like Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor.
Contents
- What Does "Mount Desert" Mean?
- Towns and Villages on MDI
- A Look Back: The History of Mount Desert Island
- The "Rusticators" and Wealthy Visitors
- Acadia National Park: Protecting the Island
- Geology: How the Island Was Formed
- Wildlife on Mount Desert Island
- Art Inspired by MDI
- Getting Around the Island
- MDI in Pop Culture
- Images for kids
What Does "Mount Desert" Mean?
The name "Mount Desert" can be tricky to say! Some people say it like "dih-ZURT," similar to the French way. Others say it like "DEZ-ert," like the dry, sandy place.
The island got its name from a French explorer named Samuel de Champlain. In 1604, he saw the island's mountains from the sea. He noticed that their tops had no trees, just bare rocks. So, he called it L’Isle des Monts-déserts, which means "island of barren mountains."
Towns and Villages on MDI
Mount Desert Island has four main towns:
- Bar Harbor: This town includes smaller areas like Eden, Hulls Cove, Salisbury Cove, and Town Hill.
- Mount Desert: This town has villages such as Hall's Quarry, Northeast Harbor, Otter Creek, Pretty Marsh, Seal Harbor, and Somesville.
- Southwest Harbor: Here you'll find the villages of Manset and Seawall.
- Tremont: This town includes Bass Harbor, Bernard, Gotts Island, Seal Cove, and West Tremont.
A Look Back: The History of Mount Desert Island
People have lived on Mount Desert Island for a very long time. Scientists have found old shell piles that show Native American camps from 6,000 years ago. The Wabanaki people, who lived here, called the island Pemetic, meaning "the sloping land." They were skilled at hunting, fishing, and gathering food from the land and sea. They built homes from bark and traveled in amazing birch bark canoes.
Early European Visitors
The first European to write about Mount Desert Island was Samuel de Champlain. In 1604, he was exploring the coast for a mythical city. His ship hit a rock near Otter Cliff. While they fixed the ship, two Native Americans came aboard and helped guide them. Champlain then named the island.
French Mission and English Attack (1613)
In 1613, French Jesuit missionaries started the first French mission in America on the island. It was called Saint Sauveur Mission. They began building a fort and planting crops. But just two months later, an English captain named Samuel Argall arrived from the colony of Virginia. He attacked and destroyed the French mission. This attack showed the start of a big argument between France and England over who owned this land.
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac's Claim
Later, in 1688, a French explorer named Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac was given a huge piece of land in Maine, including all of Mount Desert Island. He hoped to create a large estate there. But he and his wife soon left. Cadillac later became famous for founding the city of Detroit. The highest point on Mount Desert Island, Cadillac Mountain, is named after him. It's the highest point on the entire eastern coast of the United States.
British Take Control (1759)
For many years, no one settled on Mount Desert Island because France and England were fighting over the land. It was mainly used as a landmark for sailors. In 1759, the British Army won a major battle against the French in Quebec. This ended France's control over this area. The land along the Maine coast, including Mount Desert Island, was then open for British colonists to settle.
The British governor of Massachusetts, Sir Francis Bernard, received a large land grant on the island. He offered free land to settlers. Abraham Somes and James Richardson were among the first to accept, settling in what is now Somesville.
After the American Revolution
The American Revolution changed everything. Sir Francis Bernard, who supported the British, lost his land claim. After the war, the new state of Massachusetts gave the western half of the island to John Bernard, the governor's son, who had supported the American side. The eastern half went to Marie Therese de Gregoire, who was Cadillac's granddaughter. Both of them soon sold their land.
By 1820, when Maine became its own state, people on Mount Desert Island were farming, cutting timber, fishing, and building ships. They grew crops like wheat and potatoes. They also quarried granite from the hills, which was then shipped to big cities on the East Coast.
The "Rusticators" and Wealthy Visitors
In the mid-1800s, artists and writers discovered Mount Desert Island. Painters like Thomas Cole and Frederic Church showed its beauty to the world. Their friends and wealthy people started coming to visit. These visitors were called "rusticators." They stayed with local fishermen and farmers for a small fee. They loved the fresh air, beautiful scenery, and peaceful life.
Soon, the small cottages and huts were full. By 1880, there were 30 hotels on the island for vacationers. Tourism quickly became the main business.
In the late 1800s, very rich families like the Rockefellers, Morgans, and Vanderbilts began spending their summers here. They built huge, fancy homes called "cottages." These grand estates changed the island's look. The famous landscape designer Beatrix Farrand created beautiful gardens for many of these homes.
Life for the wealthy was full of luxury and big parties. But this changed with the Great Depression and World War II. The final big change happened in 1947 when a huge fire swept across the island, destroying many of these grand estates.
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Somes' Hotel around 1870
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Rock Inn, Northeast Harbor around 1908
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Seal Harbor Yacht Club
Acadia National Park: Protecting the Island
In 1901, a man named George Dorr worried about too much building on the island. He wanted to protect its natural beauty. So, he helped create a group called the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations. Their goal was to save land for everyone to enjoy. By 1913, they had bought 6,000 acres (24 km2) of land.
Dorr offered this land to the U.S. government. In 1916, President Wilson created Sieur de Monts National Monument. Dorr kept working hard to get the land full national park status. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed the law that made Lafayette National Park. This was the first national park east of the Mississippi River! George Dorr became its first superintendent. In 1929, the park's name was changed to Acadia National Park.
John D. Rockefeller Jr., a very wealthy man, gave a lot of land to the park. He loved the island and wanted to keep it free of cars. Even though cars were allowed on the island's roads, Rockefeller built about 50 miles (80 km) of special carriage roads. These roads were only for hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders, and horse-drawn carriages. They have beautiful views and stone bridges. Today, about 40 miles (64 km) of these roads are inside Acadia National Park.
In 1969, the College of the Atlantic was started in Bar Harbor. It's the island's only college.
Geology: How the Island Was Formed
Mount Desert Island has an amazing geological history that goes back about 550 million years. The oldest rocks on the island are from the Ellsworth Schist Formation. These rocks were once mud on the ocean floor. Over millions of years, huge movements of the Earth's crust pushed and folded these layers, lifting them above the sea.
Later, other rock layers formed, including the Bar Harbor Formation (made of sand and silt) and the Cranberry Island Formation (from volcanic ash). These also got pushed up, but not as much.
The island is also known for its granite. There are three types of granite found here, formed by powerful geological forces. Quarrying granite was once a very important industry on the island.
Most recently, giant glaciers covered Mount Desert Island during the Ice Age. As the glaciers moved and then melted, they left behind clear marks on the land. One famous example is Bubble Rock. This huge boulder was carried 19 miles (31 km) by the glacier and left balancing on the side of South Bubble Mountain in Acadia National Park. The glaciers also carved out valleys and left piles of rock and dirt called moraines.
Somes Sound, a long, narrow body of water on the island, was once thought to be a fjord. Now, scientists call it a fjard. It's a bit like a fjord but not as deep or steep.
Wildlife on Mount Desert Island
Scientists have found bones of many animals that used to live on Mount Desert Island. These include wolves, deer, elk, and even a type of seal called a gray seal. Bones of raccoons, lynx, and muskrats have also been found.
Beavers were once hunted until they disappeared from the island. But in 1920, two pairs of beavers were released. Their descendants have now repopulated the island! A large fire in 1947 helped the beavers. It burned down many pine trees, allowing new types of trees like aspen and birch to grow. Beavers love these trees, so they were able to thrive.
Art Inspired by MDI
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View Across Frenchman's Bay from Mount Desert Island After a Squall (1845) by Thomas Cole
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Fog off Mount Desert (1850), by Frederic Edwin Church
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Newport Mountain, Mount Desert (1851), by Frederic Edwin Church
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Beacon, off Mount Desert Island (1851) by Frederic Edwin Church
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Entrance of Somes Sound, Mount Desert, Maine (1855) by Fitz Henry Lane
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Off Mount Desert Island (1856) by Fitz Henry Lane
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Mount Desert Island, Maine (1864) by Jervis McEntee
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Mt. Desert, Maine (1866) by William Trost Richards
Getting Around the Island
The Island Explorer is a bus service that runs during certain times of the year. It helps visitors get around the island and to Acadia National Park.
MDI in Pop Culture
Mount Desert Island was featured in the 2015 video game Fallout 4. A downloadable part of the game called Far Harbor takes place on a post-apocalyptic version of the island. The game's town of Far Harbor is in the same spot as the real-life Bar Harbor.
Images for kids
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Acadia National Park
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An Acadia carriage road
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Frenchman Bay and Porcupine Islands around the town of Bar Harbor viewed from Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island
