Champlain the the the the the the the fo. Hook newpag Champlown Society by SHE 1931 with added material by cur 2nd for his draft SAE Book In the spring of 1880 by brother, Charles Eliot, who was then a sophomore in Harvard College, had R good idea. Bay. ing good ideas and working them out in practice became a habit of his, with results that have contributed to the welfare and happiness of thousands of his fellow-countrymen. This time he invented what we now call a "Field Expedition* of College Stu- dents. Kany young men are doing such things nowadays but fifty years ago it was a novelty. Charles invited to his room in Grays Hall a well chosen group of ten or a dozen classmates and fellow- students and proposed to ther to club together and undertake to put into practice during the summer vacation some of the things they had been studying in class-room and laboratory. Why not select some particular region and put in the summer studying its geological formations, its flora and fauna, its birds and fishes, its trees and shrubs? There would be a happy combination of work and play; sea and land; tramping, sailing and reading. It hap- pened that my father and mother, President and Mrs. Eliot, were planning to spend the summer in Europe, and so we boys ( by brother was twenty and I seventeen) had at our disposal the equipment which had been used by the family for several summers. This con- sisted of eight wall tents with the necessary furnishings, and a sloop yacht, the Sunshine, forty-three feet over all and with accommodations for four in the cabin and two in the forecastle. We boys had been accustoned to handling this boat and to the ways of camp life - in those days also something of a novelty. [For eight summers we had camped out, often on Calf Island in upper I. el I an -lined ih, W.W Vaushan's Imale. SAE=Samuel Atkins Eliot.(1862-1450) 2 Frenchmans Bay, and we had cruised the New England coast from-New London to Grand Kanan. Charles' proposal was enthusiastically received and the *Champlain Society" was organized. The members, with the excep- tion of two entering freshmen, were all Harvard undergraduates more or less interested in what was then called "Natural History." The choice of a region for our study was not difficult. Mt. Desert Island offered a detached field of about the right size and of ex- ceptional interest alike from historic, scenic and scientific points of view. It was a splendic playground and was just coming into fame as a summer resort so that the problems of transporta- tion and supplies were not insoluble. Moreover, the camp equip- ment was in storage at the head of Frenchmans Bay. The Gunshine sailed from Boston on June 29th, $80, with Charles Eliot in command, four members of the Society, mostly land- lubbers, in the cabin, and Orrin Donnell, seaman, and William Breyant, steward, in the forecastle. They had been in the yacht the preceding summer and knew our ways. William was a cheery French Canadian hailing from Cape Breton. The last I knew of him he was mate of a vessel out of Arichat. Orrin was a boy from Waukeag Neck up Frenchmans Bay. In age he was between by brother and myself. He lived aboard the yacht when William came ashore to be camp cook. Orrin Donnell has been associated with our family ever since, more than fifty years. He mar- ried a daughter of John Gilley, settled on the place, has been a selectman of Mt. Desert and a good citizen and loyal friend. Charles did not know just where he would pitch the 3 Camp but expected to find a suitable and central place somewhere between Otter Creck and Seawall Point. So, after picking up the camp equipment at a house on Waukeag Neck he cruised along that shore and up into Somes Sound and anchored in what we now call Wasgatt's Cove on the eastern shore. There, above the gravel bank was a bit of open meadow with a good spring at the back and just to the north the brook which is the outlet of Hadlock Pond fell with a little waterfall into the Cove. Mr. Asa Smalledge, who lived in the nearest house, not only was willing to let the cappers occupy the field but also agreed to supply the camp with milk, eggs and chickens. So on July 5th, the Camp, known as Camp Pemetic, was pitched, the parlor tent in the centre facing the cliff of Dog Mountain, the five sleep- ing tents on either side and the kitchen and pontry tents at the back near the spring. The Campers came for different periods - some for all summer, some for a month or more. There were no trails or paths in those days, so exploration of the interior meant a lot of hard scrambling; but the yacht pade frequent ex- cursions into all the coves and corners of the island coast. Stores, meat and supplies had to be purchased at Southwest Bar- bor and one also had to go there to find a doctor, a telegraph office and a steamboat connection. The summer produced & geolog- ical survey and map of the island, lists of the birds and fishes, the trees, flowers and marine invertebrates, and a meteorological record kept at five points on the island. The Champlain Society's Camp PRS probably the first appearance of summer visitors on the shores between the Sound and Schooner Read. A number of these pioneers, most of whom attained 4 in after years to positions of influence in their om communi- ties, remained attached to Mt. Desert. Edward L. Rand contin- ued to come hither for many summers. From the original lists made by Rand and his associates was expanded the well known "Flora of Lt. Desert" and Rand was our pioneer trail and map maker. His love of the island is commemorated on a tablet on the Jordans Pond-Seal Harbor Trail. Barry L. Rand has long been a cottager at Southwest Harbor. George and William Dunbar in- terested their father, Professor Charles F. Tunbar, and he later bought the northern end of Bear Island and built the house which is now the summer home of his grandchildren. William C. Lane was a regular summer visitor, betaking himself in later years chiefly to Islesford. R Charles Elio's, when our parents returned from Europe, told his father that if he wented to find a place for a permanent summer home he had better look along the shore between Somes Sound and Seal Harbor. That advice was taken. President and Mrs. Eliot went to Northeast Harbor in October, 1880, got a horse and buggy at Deacon Kimball's and drove along the rough shore road, getting out from time to time to survey possible sites. The result of that visit was the choice and purchase of the ridge running from the sea a mile inland to the (where releval tozi ancestial." reco top of the Asticou Hill and the building of the house which, Totic.C with the house built that same winter (1880-81) by Bishop Doane near the present Kimball house and the lodge built on the Asticou Road by Mr. J. A. Curtis, now a part of the house of Mr. R. B. Rohbins, were the first cottages in the region of Northeast Harbor. At that time Northeast Barbor was a very different 5 place from the busy, codern town of today. Everything was prim- itive. There was no steamboat connection, no telephone, no electric light. Water came from individual vells. Household. ers, including summer residents, cut and stored their own sup- plies of wood and ice. You drove to Bar Harbor to mail your letter, to send a telegram or to get a doctor or a prescription. You sailed or rowed to Southwest Harbor for meat and groceries save for what could be bought from an itinerant butcher who drove a cart along the road after he had killed a lamb or pig. Trans- portation about the island was mostly by water, in row boats and dories and small sailing craft. There were only a few roads and they were rough, steep and narror. The "twenty-two mile drive" from Bar Harbor out by the Eagle Lake Food and round by the Sound, Seal Harbor and Otter Creek, was an all day excursion. There were only a few houses along that route and no village center. At the head of Northeast Harbor lived two families, the Savages and the Roberts. [The Roberts' house has disappear- ed. The Savage house is now the cottage across the road east of the Asticou Inn. On the east side of the harbor Captain 9. C. shallueds Smith lived in a dwelling which is now part of lrs. F. W. Pea- body's house and on the vest side of the harbor lived the Frazier family / Where is now the village street of Northeast Harbor there was not a house, just a narrow ribbon road running through the thick woods and leading to Deacon Kimball's house and to the store which stood on the beach of the little cove at the entrance of the harbor. This store still had a trade with the coasters and fishermen who came in for shelter. I have seen 6 fleets of fifty or sixty sail lying in Northeast Harbor. From the corner at Kimball's the almost untravelled road ran as far as Mr. Corson's house - opposite what is now the golf course. Along this road were the homes of Snalledges, Gilpatrics, Fen- nellys, Whitmores and Manchesters. Mrs. Gilpatric kept the Post Office in the house still standing at the head of Gilpat- ric's Cove and Kr. Corson drove twice a week to Somesville to fetch and carry the mail. / One lived on friendly and neighborly terms with these good people, as, Nan glad to say, I continue to do. The family Mr John stayed at the Everyi Kemballs foldeveral QUALIMIN and the futura Mrs Eliot recalls that Fath with HAE Sept 21.57 out. X. "One summer day in 1882 (the the camp at Posicion) Hophmans were staying (next the old scharg) un who nouhlast an elegant horse and causage drove in to the collage where Hantor the - and \ hed in a closet. my aister beoke saw was coming and was all anticipation Sam came in and asked "where's Fana, cy ?" ~ no answer - and started to explain to mother Day he had an errand To do in Bar Harbo (a whole day's drive for the 1 was ourn the closet. I that was when he was in college and round tup ) and wanted permission to take me. By that time J was eleven?)" Coins Citize were call through the 1887 hit after 1883 the Elioi trup apport Their vacations at the " Incestral" instead of in Camp. % SAE. + Champlain Society Jan 24, 1884 "C. Eliot made a speach on The necessity that nisted for an organiz ation for the preservation of mr. Desert." a smmittee set up if Lane, C. Eriot, S.Q Veiot, Townsend, Duntar + Rand. April 29,1884 - -Dunner. SAE Toastmaster next stands the "tattooch man, 20 strange TO our eyes, rus many society Ties". May 22, 1884 "the Sunshine really sold 1885+86 Camp est tatleshed at head of Harbor. SAE at Ancestral March 23,1886 Mr S.A Eliot vigorously denounced the present 'girling' policy and found much support ambing the members Bugust 13, 1886 S.A.E + Nutter "with females retinue" to Maple Spring on Sargent. May 19, 1887 - at '9 Park St. Meteorology - Incomplete report of first years study ty S.A.Elior who was assisted in Takens observations by several members, Q scheme of obtaining Records of observ atimes in different parts of the \ sland was partially carried our but never reported on" Buy-Sept 1887 on Tiesta Dec 8, 1887 w SAE"has departed to the far West and Pacific Coast to avilize the heather and take meteorological observ altoms. A.L. Rand. Secretary. 11 8 Sam was responsible for the miteorological record. Runted sheets headed Cham plain South - meterological Department were prepared with columns for reending "date, time, Then. Rain, wind der. & Veloc. fog an dep and weather", and these sheets were filled by observice - Camp Pemetic - Samuel a Elest N.E. Harbor Charleall Eur goose Cove mis LIVIT Bar Island Pryn green mountain A.S. Brewer Schooner Head Aon. g.s. Hale A refort with gir .inker describes the methods used (from manual 10len dis Buchan and Henry James) and the madequate instruments available 76th He venture M a "general weathir which the summer visitor at it Decent may export and Day but nummer's bewatime will be create limited foundation for future He ungel "an investigation sittle Rubits you Drow for feature m defeneri bland ( have alway. was our of the worner apots with could in the surface sea water (to determine) 10, best this wind at which to go NN Valling: e/c. guage should he obtained. Camp Pemetic on the Sound was used again in the summer of 1881 In the activities of the Streety and during 1882 and 1883 a new site - Camp Paticon - at the head of North East Hasher - was occupied. think Sure hotmass 9 Associations of Charles W.Eeist with Acadia National Park My life-long interest and concern for mr Desert Ioland and the Acadia Archipedago continues my family's involvement dating tack over 100 years. my Sand father - Charles W. Eliot, President of Yaroard University cruised the archipelags with his sons in the 18TOs and they camped on Calf Island in Frenchmans tsyay for several summers. In 1880my uncle Charles Eliot reanized the Champlain Society among his fellow. students IM Harvard College and, using the family yacht. Sunshine and amping equipment, camped on somes Sound and at Northeast 'fartor while members of the Society conducted scientific studies of mr Desert Island during several summers:- Dotany I.A.Edot. E. etc, Rand, and ornith on visits ology-Chailes Prop on Toursend, Meteorology geology at my unclis suggeotion my grand Father bought land with ocean frontage facing Cadill ac Hartor and the Western Way ant Lots) upthe ridge of Pasticon Hill-now Erist mountain. and including a strip a miletack (oneofine original Qungham There rehiet a house in the winter of 1880-81 which was his summer esidence until his death in 1926. He paruade my other gr and gather- John P. Hopkinson-To also Quil and in 1897, my p arents ~ Samuel Q. Eliot and Frances on part of the same property closer To Nouthe art Hartor, Hopkinson Elist built their house on the north aide of asticou Way that - The road between Northeast and Seal Harboro. that house is still owned by a family Trust and occupied every summer by than descendants of my parents. In1899 my Father prepared a paper for the Strooklyn Historical Society which was published in the New England on August under the title "The Romance ofmr. Desert It recounted The story of the Island's discovery by Champlain and the rivalry between the funch and British over two settlement, as well as the beginnings of ine summer colony 10. is the letter half of the 19th Century. four years later, at the request of the widow of Rev. Scorge E.Street, and using Dr Street's r, Tes and incomplete drafts 5 he wrote Mount D weat-Attastory 339 pp. 1905 which he up-dated in 1925 in a second edition. other writings by my father about mr. Desert veluded an account of the Champlain Society- -1931, and History of the Hancock County Trustees of when was young in the 1900s we went To Northeast Harton each summer by the Bangor Boat - the "Bangor" and Rockland" and later the "Belfast" and Camden which left RowesWhouf in Boston at 500PM with a first stop at down at Rockland where we paddle. wheel steamers. The Morse steamed from Rockland To Bar Transferred To the mm. Desert" or later to The "J.T.Morse" both Hartor in the mornings and returned To Rockland in the after noons through the Islan ds which we now call 'The Acadian Archipelego. In the rarber years the route from Flockland was through Eggmogern Reach with stops at Dark Hartor on Deer lole, at Brooklyn on the main land and onTo Southwest. northeast, Seal and Bar Hartors. Later, it was by the Dear Island Thorofare To North Haven, Stonington and, as before in the Western Way (un the Center of the view from the Eliot family Houses) To The Harbors on mr. Desert Island. The alternate way To reach mr. Desert in those days was by Train To Ellsworth and mt Desert ferry at the head of Frenchmans Bay and thence by the ferry. toats Sapho succeeded by the "Norumhega and Sapho -To Sorrento and Through The Bay Islands to deliver passengers To Bar, Seal, northeast and Southwest Harbors with Two, three or even four Trips every day during the summer season. Those journeys made us familiar with the Coast and its Islands. the Tortuous channels among reefs and ledges, and the distant and closer views of the Camden Hills, Blue Hill, and the Desert Mountain of the" Blessed lele". and during The summers, cruises, salling adventures (mall weathers), and family picnics up the Sound, to Bakers, The Ceanterries, or Soft Islands, and cruises around mr Desert Island - all added To our knowledge and love for the area. in 1901 Grandlather Eliot assembled a eroup of summer and for mament residents of mr. Desert Island to discuss ways To DW the the protection and preservation of the special qualities of You Dent and the for the enjoysment by future everation Hdhod recently completed the look Charles Elist. handscape Prichetect with arecord of my uncle's professional career and his role on founding the Mado. Trustees of Patac Reservations in 1891. Material .) 11. mailed to Therdone L. Elot 12/30/74 Records of Chamblam Sociate -Blue Brok Sige Secretary's Report for 1882-831 - Edward Rand for 1886-87 Marune Invertenates - 1880 . Charleaw Townsend Ichthyolocial Dest. 1880 - Edward L. Rand Geology of mr. Desent- Samuel de Champlain - 1882 Charles Eliot Historical Notes - Nas I-VIII - Charles Eaist Bound Volume 230pp. Chedes Elist's Noteson early explorers ? Explorers of the new England Coast - SAE - 1898 new insland Crast - 1881.83 - with summary Captain John Smith sar. 1898 Castine Lecture SAE, 1895 Champlam Society SAE-1931 with added material by cur23 195 Notes for Champlain Lecture SaE 1898 with lest of 77alides. a thick holder of "Misc. Notes . used t Unused 2ndEdit con of History of Mr. Desurt with drafts, source materials etc. Photographs Champlain Soe. Camb Penetic 1880-81 5 large + 1 medium . mounted on heavy cardboard all duplicates of copies in Camhudge Study . Mab of mr Desur 1896 - by Rand' Rased on his Champlain are investigations 7 map of Hora. Copy of 1904 - first Edition "mr Desert attrituted to Street hit by SAE