From Pesamkuk to the present.

Every event links to the places on the map that still carry it.

1. 12,000+ years ago

   Pesamkuk

   Wabanaki people live on and around the island, a gathering place they call Pesamkuk.

   Fernald Point and Saint-Sauveur
2. 1604

   Champlain names the island

   Samuel de Champlain sails past and names it Isles des Monts Deserts.

3. 1613

   Saint-Sauveur

   French Jesuits found a mission at Fernald Point; Argall destroys it on July 2.

   Fernald Point and Saint-Sauveur
4. 1761

   Somesville

   Abraham Somes and James Richardson settle the island's first village.

   Somesville Historic DistrictSomesville Mill Pond footbridge
5. 1796

   Eden incorporated

   The town that will become Bar Harbor is incorporated as Eden.

6. 1840s

   The rusticators

   Thomas Cole and Frederic Church paint the island and summer visitors follow.

   Thunder Hole
7. 1883 to 1890

   Green Mountain cog railway

   A cog railway carries hotel guests from Eagle Lake to the summit.

   Green Mountain Railway bedCadillac Mountain summitEagle Lake
8. 1900 to 1909

   Waldron Bates, pathmaker

   Bates chairs the Bar Harbor path committee and invents the Acadia trail style.

   Gorham Mountain and the Bates plaque
9. 1901

   Hancock County Trustees

   Charles W. Eliot incorporates the trustees who will assemble the park's land.

   The Beehive
10. 1913 to 1940

    Carriage roads

    John D. Rockefeller Jr. builds 57 miles of carriage road and seventeen stone bridges.

    Cobblestone BridgeDuck Brook BridgeStanley Brook Bridge
11. 1916

    Sieur de Monts National Monument

    The monument is proclaimed on July 8.

    Sieur de Monts SpringHomans Path
12. 1919

    Lafayette National Park

    The first national park east of the Mississippi.

13. 1929

    Renamed Acadia

    The park takes its present name on January 19.

14. 1933 to 1942

    The CCC

    Civilian Conservation Corps crews build Ocean Path and rebuild east-side trails.

    Ocean PathSeawall
15. 1944

    Dorr dies at Old Farm

    George B. Dorr dies at his home on Compass Harbor.

    Compass Harbor and the Old Farm ruinsDorr Mountain
16. October 1947

    The fire

    About 17,675 acres burn; 67 of 222 summer cottages are lost.

    1947 fire origin areaArchbold estate ruinsGreat Meadow and Jesup PathKane cottage (Breakwater)West Street Historic District and La Rochelle
17. 2003

    Homans Path reopens

    A stair path lost from the maps for sixty years is rebuilt.

    Homans Path
18. 2022

    Trails on the National Register

    The island's historic trail system is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Dates follow the National Park Service and the sources listed on the About page. Where sources disagree (the Deer Brook Bridge date, the fire's origin, the end of the summit hotel) the waypoint tale says so.