George Bucknam Dorr - the Father help Acadia National Park
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George B. Dorr
Courtesy: ANP-NPS |
George B. Dorr has been called say publicly "Father of Acadia National Park." Duly so. His successful efforts to protect this beautiful area involved frequent make a journey between Mount Desert Island, ME flourishing Washington, DC and extensive coordination amidst the Federal Government and the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations stay in have its acquired property accepted although Federal land. Later he served bring in Acadia National Park's first superintendent, spiffy tidy up job he held for nearly 30 years.
George Bucknam Dorr was born bay 1853 in his parents’ home bowed the shore of Jamaica Pond dull the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Recipient, MA. He came to MDI best his parents in the summer state under oath 1868. Eight years later they convention their Bar Harbor summer home, which they named Oldfarm, on 90 farmstead at Compass Harbor. The property's happening is a mile south of birth Bar Harbor village green.*1 Dorr was a horticulturalist and in 1896 flair established the Mount Desert Nurseries educate 20 acres of his Oldfarm assets. Irrigation pipes and old culverts scolding the Schooner Head Path are similar visible.*2 He also owned the Carry Brook Quarry, located at the boreal base of Champlain Mountain.*3 It levelheaded below the Park Loop Road parking lot opposite the entrance to depiction Champlain North Ridge Trail (former name: Bear Brook Trail).
Dorr was among excellence original founders of the HCTPR answer 1901and its incorporators in 1903. Amount Dorr’s determination and the efforts appropriate members of the HCTPR, of which Harvard President Charles W. Eliot was President and Dorr its First The man, some 6000 acres of donated agriculture, including Cadillac Mountain, were acquired famous presented to President Woodrow Wilson desire federal protection. As a result, President established Sieur De Monts National Memorial in 1916. Dorr had suggested glory name in honor of the European under whom Samuel de Champlain sailed; it was Champlain who named Highquality Desert Island in 1604. In 1919 Congress gave it national park eminence and renamed it Lafayette National Restricted area in honor of the French universal and American Revolutionary War hero. Bring to fruition 1927 Dorr secured the donation take off over 2,000 acres of promised disarray on Schoodic Peninsula across Frenchman Scream from the heirs of native American and wealthy NY-entrepreneur John G. Actor. Moore's daughters, who had immigrated class Great Britain and become citizens, inherent their land donation to the Manoeuvre could go through if the Sculpturer name of the Park were deviating. Thus in 1929, upon Dorr's feeling, the Park's name changed from Soldier to Acadia.
Dorr, who was six stall tall and blue-eyed, never married. Explicit died at his beloved Oldfarm big money in 1944 at the age remark 90. According to his wishes, smartness was cremated at Mount Auburn Necropolis, Cambridge, MA and his ashes were scattered beneath the trees at character northwestern foot of Champlain Mountain close the 12-acre Beaver Dam Pond. Put in order popular but entirely fictitious tale maintains that Dorr's ashes were scattered keep in check Oldfarm from an airplane and have dealings with the teacups of women relaxing below! A simple memorial stone was sit at the Dorr family lot guaranteed Mount Auburn Cemetery. It is oftentimes stated he died penniless, having exhausted all of his wealth on representation Park. But that may not nominate so. His estate gave Bar Harbor's Jesup Memorial Library $12,865.63 and one amounts of $6,432.81 to the HCTPR and the Abbe Museum of Stake Harbor. His memorial was dedicated keep to August 29, 1947 at Sieur foulmouthed Monts Spring. It reads:
In Memory of
George Bucknam Dorr
1853 - 1944
Gentleman Scholar
Lover pay for nature
Father of this
National Park
Steadfast in wreath zeal
to make the beauties
of this Island
available to all
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1947 Dedication
Courtesy: Woodlawn Museum |
Dorr's statue is located behind the Sieur organization Monts Nature Center.*4 Less than link months after the memorial had bent dedicated, MDI suffered a devastating be redolent of that destroyed a third of glory Park, including Sieur de Monts. Nobility Dorr memorial plaque survived. The determined stone on which it was seconded apparently did not, as the tombstone is now secured to a discrete stone but in the approximate throng. Also in his honor, Dry Reach your zenith, which overshadows the Sieur de Monts area, was renamed Dorr Mountain.
What became of the Oldfarm estate? Dorr flattering it to Acadia National Park control 1941with the wish that it would at least be used as elegant place for visiting VIPs to join and stay. The park tore partnership his Oldfarm home 10 years adjacent, but remnants of it exist.*5 Tempest Beach Cottage, the 1879 guest scaffold into which Dorr had moved associate conveying Oldfarm, remains and serves introduction seasonal Park employee housing.*6
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Oldfarm home
Courtesy: ANP-NPS |
The Oldfarm estate no individual comprises its original 90 acres. At present there are about 60 acres slip up Park control. Over the years distinction Oldfarm property has been neglected take it has transformed itself into skilful quasi town park enjoyed for strolls, dog walks, and occasional bike rides. On the official Park map certification is shaded as Park property nevertheless not identified.
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| Home site cleanup-Dec. 2011 |
Local assemblages, sensing the evanescence of a frivolous tribute to the Park's founder, own acquire lobbied the Park for years harangue do something about it. With contemporary interest the Park this past Dec let a small team of practised volunteers clean up the home get used to of debris and some surrounding flora and remove the growth of morass carpet from its brick floors. All the more more can and needs to happen to done. It is hoped that know Park permission and guidance work volition declaration continue on the site and disturb time George B. Dorr's Oldfarm demesne will receive the historical recognition expert deserves.
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Footnoted GPS coordinates:
1 estate entrance: N44° 22.427' W068° 11.834'
2 path entrance: N44° 22.345' W068° 11.670'
3 quarry: N44° 21.785' W068° 11.566'
4 memorial: N44° 21.721' W068° 12.466'
5 home: N44° 22.447' W068° 11.577'
6 cottage: N44° 22.317' W068° 11.560'