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Bar Harbor - Background & What's Ashore
Bar Harbor, Maine - Background
Although Maine was not one of the original 13 colonies, in name, the entire territory was part of Massachusetts until 1820, so technicalities aside, residents consider their home to be one of the founding states of the American union. Nowhere is American pride or patriotism as evident as it is in the northernmost part of New England. Stars and stripes seem to fly from every home and business.
Bar Harbor is on the eastern side of Mount Desert Island. Samuel Champlain named desolate Cadillac Mountain and named the island “L’lle des Monts Deserts”. It was the beginning of the 16th century and though encampments appeared and disappeared during the years that followed, the island was not truly settled until much later. When Bar Harbor was established in 1796, Maine was still a Massachusetts province.
By the mid 19th century, the picturesque island had begun to attract painters in search of new landscape subjects. As they returned to cities to sell their work, customers began to inquire about the beautiful scenes in their work. Soon, tourists were coming to Bar Harbor. Rail and steamboat travel in the 1850’s brought more people. The island became known as a colony of spacious mansions for New York and Boston millionaires who owned them. For almost a century, Bar Harbor was an exclusive high society resort.
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