Schoodic Periusula Acadia History SCHOODIC'S JOHN GODFREY MOORE Allan Smallidge ad John Godfrey Moore not died pre- mon schools, and spent one year at nearby the deal. Moore was subsequently elected to H maturely at age fifty-one, the wildly Cherryfield Academy. When he was 18, he the Western Union board of directors. beautiful Schoodic Point might be a went to New York and entered into employ- After living some years abroad, Moore very different place today. As it happened, after ment as a clerk in the lumber dealership of returned to New York as the head of the bro- Moore's death his heirs began spending their Thomas Mahew and Wilson Godfrey, his kerage firm Moore and Schley, also acquiring time away from their summer places in Winter uncle. At age 21, Moore started his own lum- large interests in Chase Manhattan Bank and Harbor and it was not until 1922, some twen- ber business and prospered almost immedi- several railroads. After the panic of 1893, he ty years after his death, that George Dorr was ately. In company with a partner named John invested $25,000 of his own money in a case able to make arrangements to acquire Evans, he executed several important con- to defeat a new federal income tax law. The Schoodic for the park. By then Moore's some- tracts with the War Department, including Supreme Court ruled in his favor and the what younger second wife, Louise, had remar- piers and breakwaters at Buffalo, New York, law was defeated, at least for the time being. ried and Moore's daughters were living in and Cleveland, Ohio, as well as dredging All during his career, he maintained his England, one married to Viscount Lee and the projects along the Delaware River. interest in and loyalty to the rural section of other, a spinster, living near her sister. The In 1880, he and Evans went into the fast- Maine from which he sprang. He became contact between Dorr and Louise Leeds was developing telegraph business, founding involved in the plan to develop Grindstone a casual one, made while both were having the Mutual Union Telegraph Company and Neck in Winter Harbor and built himself one supper at the Jordan Pond House, but the constructing lines to rival Western Union. of the largest cottages there, which he called result was that Dorr was able to set the wheels Their intentions were to lease their lines to "Far From the Wolf." He purchased hundreds in motion for the eventual land acquisition. businesses by day and to newspapers by of acres of forest and islands in the vicinity, At the time of his death, however, Moore night. Before all their plans could be real- including Schoodic Point. He built Schoodic had vastly different plans for Schoodic Point. ized Evans died and Moore, as the new pres- Drive, the first carriage road on the point, John Godfrey Moore came from modest ident, led the company into one of the biggest which wound from his newly-built bridge at beginnings. He was born in Steuben, Maine, competitive wars in the history of telegraphy. Frazer Creek, along the bold, rocky shores to the son of Captain Henry D. and Maria The outcome was that Western Union was the salt ponds and Devil's Anvil. His road also (Godfrey) Moore. The young Moore took forced to lease Mutual Union lines. Moore climbed to the summit of Schoodic Head, a whatever schooling he had at the local com- and his associates realized vast profits from favorite spot, reputedly, because from there Picnic party on Schoodic Head, July 1923. Summer 2005 Friends of Acadia Journal he could see all the way to his native Steuben placed a bronze tablet in his memory at the ALLAN SMALLIDGE is a native of Winter and beyond. He had plans to build a grand overlook on Big Moose Island. Also in his Harbor and a graduate of the University of hotel at the summit, and supposedly honor, in 1937 the name of the road which Maine. After a career teaching high school had ideas for the further development of runs from the village south to the bridge at English both in Maine and in Massachusetts the rest of Schoodic. He died, however, before Frazer's Creek was officially, albeit belatedly, public schools, he returned to Winter Harbor these plans could be brought to fruition. changed by the people of Winter Harbor from to serve as Town Manager for fourteen years, Apparently his heirs were not as enamored Schoodic Street to the Moore Road. until retiring in 1998. of the area as he was, although his daughter Faith did maintain a summer home on Grindstone for several years afterward. FORESIGHT E GENEROSITY The day after Moore's death, an article appeared in the Bar Harbor Record quoting a previous interview with him concerning his acquisition of Schoodic Point and the islands and of the pleasure he realized from building the first substantial road on the point. He stat- ed that he had acquired the land because of its beauty, noting that there was nothing he admired more than a mountain, "especially when an ocean goes with it." Also, he explained, he had enjoyed the experience of Yankee trading with the previous land own- ers, and he thought that it would be a good investment considering what was being developed in Bar Harbor at the time. The road, he said, was built for his own pleasure and convenience, but also as an object lesson in economy for the local authorities. He felt that they could repeat his successes in the public roads all over the area. Moore said, "[The road] is nine miles long and I enjoyed every foot of it It did me and my family as much good as a trip to Europe and didn't cost any more. Besides, it gave employment Schoodic Point to a large number of people who need the ESTATE PLANNING money." While it may have seemed arrogant of him to assume that he could teach the Preserving and protecting those things that we all hold dear - our quality of locals how to build roads, any hard feelings life, a distinctive heritage, and the integrity of Mount Desert Island's the statement may have provoked was prob- natural wonders is a wise investment. You can help protect Acadia forever. ably defused with his sincere efforts to cre- It's simple. Add only one of the following sentences to your will, or a codicil: ate jobs and to aid the local economy. After Moore died on June 27, 1899, con- 1. I hereby give % of my residuary estate to Friends of current services were held in New York City Acadia, Inc., a Maine charitable corporation, P.O. Box 45, and at St. Christopher's-by-the-Sea in Winter Bar Harbor, Maine 04609, for its charitable purposes. Harbor. Bedford Tracy, a young Winter Harbor attorney who was a local associate of Moore's, 2. 1 hereby bequeath $ to Friends of Acadia, Inc., elaborately eulogized him at the Grindstone a Maine charitable corporation, P.O. Box 45, Bar Harbor, Maine service and concluded with the words, "The 04609, for its charitable purposes. fragrance of his acts of kindness perfumes his sepulcher, and he must live on, embalmed 3. I hereby devise the following property to Friends of Acadia, Inc., by our love and garlanded with our affec- a Maine charitable corporation, P.O. Box 45, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609, for its charitable purposes: [legal description of property]. tion. The cold marble bears in mockery many a name forgotten but for the letters chiseled on its icy slab. It cannot be SO with the name of John G. Moore, which is chiseled on the For more information, contact Lisa Horsch at 1-800-625-0321, tablets of too many hearts to need the aid of email her at lisahorsch@friendsofacadia.org, or visit our marble or bronze to perpetuate it." website at www.friendsofacadia.org Nevertheless, Acadia National Park has Friends of Acadia Journal Summer 2005 7 ADDRESS ONLY THE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WASHINGTON. D. c. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WASHINGTON October 10, 1928. Personal and Private. Dear Mr. Rockefeller: x Congressman Cramton, with his wife, visited the Lafayette National Park and the immediately surrounding areas on September 23rd and 24th last. I arrived the 22d and stayed till the 26th, being in conference with Bureau of Public Roads executives on the last day. Mr. Cramton was tremendously impressed with the park, especially the work done on the motor road and horse roads and was sorry he could not stay longer. Through your kindness, Mr. Ralston took us over the Sargent Mountain drive, and some of the carriage roads on your place. Mr. Cramton said that the view from the Sargent Mountain road is one of the most in- spiring he had ever seen. In fact I believe it was this that inspired him to plan ahead for Lafayette National Park along larger lines as he later did. GBD. He was told by Mr.Dorr of the various offers of land at verious points outside the island proper, such as Schoodic Head, and gave it very definite- ly as his opinion that the Lafayette National Park act, which limits ac- quisition of lands for the park to the island, should be amended so as to save, while they still can be saved, such islands as the Porcupines, Schoodic and other important headlands, - in fact, anything that would protect the splendid views from the areas within the park and the fine estates on the island. Bills will therefore be introduced in the coming Congress to provide for such enlargement. Mr. Dorr is already working on this with Maine representatives. I had the opportunity very thoroughly to go into some of our adminis- trative problems with Mr. Cramton. As a result additional funds will be Agency provided for a position of Associate Superintendent who is to take all administrative burdens off the shoulders of Superintendent Dorr, Mr. Dorr CRD to continue as Superintendent with his sole duty the acquisition of lands for the enlargement of the park; to effect this a special provision will be inserted excepting him from the provisions of the Federal Retirement Act. After Mr. Cramton's departure, I discussed this whole situation with Mr. Dorr, who was much pleased, and thoroughly in sympathy with the plans. I think this will work out very nicely, despite a few complications which I will have to straighten out. Mr. Cramton was very sorry to have missed you, since, particularly after going over some of the roads and seeing some of the truly remarkable roadside work that is being done, he desired to express to you personally his sincere appreciation of your work. It occurred to me that you would like to have thus briefly the above few highlights, which is my reason for writing. Faithfully, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 26 Broadway, New York City. Northeast Harbor, Me., 14 September 1923 My dear Dorr: Ellist Before I built a house in 1881 near Northeast 1873 Harbor, I camped on Calf Island, Frenchman's Bay, for eight years, and then became very familiar with the shores of the Bay and all its passages and inlets which were safe for 2 good-sized sailing yacht which drew five feet and a half. I then made the acquaintance of Schoodic Eoad and all the approaches to it by land and water. During these years I repeatedly climbed Schoodic Head, and enjoyed the wonderful prospects northeasterly by Petit Manan and beyond towards Grand Nanan, southwesterly tcwards Baker's Island, the Duck Islands, and Iale am Esut, and due vest to the high hills of Mount Desert Island just across the bay. These prospects are unique. They are far the finest on the Atlantic Coast of the United States; and therefore the Head itself should be preserved in all its own beauty of geologic structure and forest decoration for the enjoy- ment of future generations. This conservation can be best made sure by adding the Schoodic Peninsula to the Lafayette National Park now established on Mount Desert Island. It will then come under the scientific management of the National Pale Sereice. Sinf your Chall W.Eliat. for To file BY DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DEC 26 Rec'd NATIONAL PARK SERVICE J. D. R., LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK REMARKS BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT December 22, 1923. Dear Mr. Rockefeller: I sent off last night to Washington the deeds for an exceedingly interesting tract of land given by Mrs. John Innes Kane of New York in memory of her sister, Mrs. Bridgham. It includes, in its entirety, the whole drainage basin of Lake Wood, a picturesque little lake not visible from any public road which lies north of that from Hull's Cove to the Bridge, and west of the Breakneck Road. It is wholly surrounded by woods, largely deciduous, which turn wonderful colors in the fall, with some fine old pines upon a rocky height above. A little lakelet, called Fawn Pond, sunk deep in woods, which with its surroundings was given to the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Society some twenty years ago by Mr. Charles T. How, drains into it, and the land he gave joins on to this, making an unbroken reservation. The tract which Mrs. Kane has given reaches eastward far beyond the lake to meet the bridle path built by the town of Bar Harbor to the west of the Breakneck Road in continuation of the one from Witch Hole pond, and an old woodroad branching off from this and running through the tract skirts close beside the lake. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 3. horse or on foot, to return to a forest wilderness as the woods grow up on the cut-over lands. This gift of Mrs. Kane then would form the northern portion of its western bound. Another tract that I have recently secured is I the Ella C. White land I told you of upon the Bluffs, and reaching below them to the Bay across the Bar Harbor - Hull's Cove road. Two nephews of Miss White, a visitor of the early days, inherited it. Both died, leaving widows who have both married since. One of these, coming to Bar Harbor, offered me her undivided half-interest in the tract; the deeds for it were prepared and signed this fall. In returning them, the giver offered to use her influence to get the other undivided interest given also if I would write the owner of our work and plans. This I did and recently this, too, was given, the deed being returned to me through Mr. Richard Aldrich of Providence, husband of the owner, who is a member of Congress. It is really a noble tract in its bold outlook on the Bay and one on which the real estate agents here quoted to me from their books, when I first took DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR. MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 4. the matter of the Bluff lands up, a price of twenty thousand dollars. Half this probably would represent fair value now, which leaves it still a handsome gift. Another tract which I seem now in a fair way to get, not for the Park but for the Public Reservations whose field lies wider, is that of Schoodic Head and Point, the bold and wooded terminus of the long peninsula which forms the eastern shore of Frenchman's Bay. This is a tract of some two thousand acres with a road to its summit commanding a magnificent view, eastward up the Bay of Fundy and westward across Frenchman's Bay to the Island mountains. The tract was one gathered together in the course of years by Mr. John G. Moore, a native of the region who returned to it after a successful business life elswhere and built up, out of interest in the territory as his native land, the summer colony at Grindstone Neck and formed this reservation out of many ownerships as a parkland for it, building the road to the summit of the Head before he died. This, with other property, on his death, passed in undivided thirds to a widow and to two daughters by an earlier marriage. The death last winter of t he widow DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 5. brought up the question of the ultimate disposition of the land and I am now in correspondence with Mr. Moore's daughter, Lady Lee of Fareham, who married an English diplomat met at Washington, and hone to get from her and her sister, who lives with her in England, the gift of the whole tract, made in memory of their father. Obtained, it should make a splendid longer ride from the Island for motorists and content them in leaving uninvaded areas within the Park desirable to keep secluded. The tract on Eagle Lake still held by the water company I expect to get transferred to the Park on a similar basis as the rest before next summer. I had the matter agreed upon with the executive committee but the death of Mr. Cuyler and illness of Mr. Ogden, with a new member on the board replacing Mr. Cuyler, made it seem advisable to postpone the matter till I could make sure of my ground. It was the last land purchased by the water company and represents considerable expenditure, so I need to show a strong case, which I have, to insure the transfer. It covers a mile of shore. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 6. The MacFarland pasture with its blocking cattle- way to the lake front it may be necessary to get by condemnation. It ought not to exist as pasture, draining directly down into the lake near the ice and water intakes through a wet-weather streamlet and forming itself a collecting basin, over-flowing in wet seasons. I secured for the Public Reservations condemnation rights for the protection of the water supply, the Water Company having previously tried and failed to get them, but in securing the whole basin of the lake but this, with the check upon unreasonable prices the condemnation rights in the background gave, I never had to use it, and if MacFarland realizes that the power exists it may not be necessary now. The power can only be used upon approval of the State board of health. I have been taking advantage of the leafless con- dition of the woods, mild weather and bare ground to study out plans for the ultimate completion of the bridle path and horse-road system which have been gradually forming in my mind. I want at least to plan for the extension of the system from the central to the eastern section by leading DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 7. it around the mass of Green and Dry Mountains, as on the western side it will pass around that of Jordan and Sargent. But the construction will be relatively simple, with little necessary rock-work, old roadways to utilize, and good gravelly soil over a great portion of the way. What I have in mind, in part made possible by the Traveli purchase of last winter, is to unite with you, representing the Park and owners of the land, to ask the Town of Mount Desert at its annual meeting to relinquish whatever rights it may possess by usage or otherwise in the Boyd Road from the Wildwood Farm Road junction north, and on this being done, to use it in either direction, north and south, from the summit of its rise -- reached by the road you plan through the Triad - Day Mountain pass or by the Triad - Pemetic pass. The Boyd Road in that section is beautiful in summer with its overshadowing hardwood trees, and would introduce an oldtime element into the driving road system which it would take years to get in building new, and going south it could be led to the eastern side of the valley to avoid connection with the southern portion of the Boyd Road, continued by the Wildwood Farm Road; then, kept gradually mounting to cross the descending southern ridge of Green Mountain wherever survey might show DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 8. as best, obtaining in crossing it a splendid ocean view. Then descending again on the eastern side to cross the valley of the brook that comes down from between Green Mountain and Dry Mountain, and ascending its low eastern ridge to continue through the Eliot woods at the bottom of the valley between Dry and Newport Mountains, skirting the side of the Tarn, the little sheet of water in the gorge, without crossing or entering the public road, and down its outlet valley to the Great Meadow, crossing it northward to connect with the survey that Mr. Simpson made when we were first studying the outlet of the motor road. His survey, rising from the present motor road, led above an old quarry with a superb view over Frenchman's Bay and then descended gradually where it crossed the brook, turned and descending still, turned eastward finally to skirt the golf links opposite the Building of Arts, and the wooded eastern base of Kebo mountai - to the Great Meadow. The Martin Roberts road would be utilized from the foot of Bubble Pond to where he built his camp upon the shore DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 9. of Eagle Lake whence an excellent old wood road mounts to a point easily connected with the former Beaton farm land across which it could be led in easy grade to cross the Park motor road at right angles on the level just north of the big stone culvert and in the open where it would be under observation and could be kept easily to right use. After crossing the motor road it would follow the line of the old Beaton haul-road till it should intersect Mr. Simpson's survey. The only land necessary to secure for carrying this out beyond what Mr. Lynam is now at world upon by Otter Creek and what I hold myself is the Kebo Spring property of fifty acres at the head of the Great Meadow, where it blocks the way, and portions of the Roberts and the Rodick Realty lands on the north ridge of Green Mountain, above the constructed section of the Park motor road, and down its rugged eastern slope to Kebo brook. The eastern side of Kebo brook we have, and thence on, bordering the Golf Links on the way, till blocked by the Kebo Spring land from the Meadow. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LAFAYETTE NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 10. Such a system would not once cross a public way; it would have great variety and ,interest; and if the necessary land should be secured, I believe there would be no difficulty nor long postponement in getting the Government to build it as at least a horseback way. The position of the whole bridle path and driving system as a unique and special institution of the Park and permanent feature would be greatly strengthened if I were able to show such a completed plan for the whole body of the Park, to the westward of Somes Sound, coming within reach of all important residential sections and resort communities. The building of it would be secondary to the possibility of showing it as a connected scheme. Believe me, with best wishes of this Christmas season and for the coming year, Sincerely yours, Gunge B. DoH Paul 6. Favour,In (1968) JUSTIFICATION FOR OFFSHORE ISLANDS Acadia National Park & Acadia National rark is a coastal National Park. Its paramount values are those associated with the sea - its seascape scenery, its marine plants and animals, and its marine history. Acadia is basically an archipelago park, for between and near its major segments (Mount Desert Island, Schoodic Peninsula and Isle au Haut), be some 250 smaller islands and islets. file These offshore islands are an inseparable part of the Acadia scene. Collectively, for the most part unoccupied, they represent Acadia's wilderness along with Isle au Haut. Currently, a very few of these islands form a part of the park. It is here proposed that the 73 offshore islands shown on this Boundary Plan be acquired for addition to the park. The selection of these 73 islands is based upon first hand knowledge of them by one or more members of the park staff. Each has been selected because of its outstanding, special, or above average contribution to the total picture. Although there are varying specific reasons for choosing these 73, all may be considered as especially desirable for National Park status in terms of preservation of the natural scene, and especially including their shorelines and shore line vegetation. Of the 73 currently selected offshore islands, only 16 have a summer camp or other dwelling on them. There follows in more detail additional justification data for ac quisition of the 73 selected offshore islands, either individually or by groups: Schoodic area Schoodic Island supports the largest single gull colony in the Acadia archipelago; it also has nesting guillemots, and from time to time, bald eagles. Turtle, Mark, Ned, Spectacle, Heron, and off the east side, Rolling, are all part of the Schoodic scene and ought to be preserved in their status quo. Turtle Island was recently purchased by The Nature Conservancy to prevent its being completely logged off by a pulp company. It will no doubt eventually be donated to the park. Middle Frenchman Bay The route of the very popular Naturalist Sea Cruise which has been conducted by the park since 1932 passes closely by Ironbound, Jordan, Long Porcupine, The Hop, Rum Key, Burnt Porcupine, and Thrumcap Islands. These are all outstandingly scenic islands and all are prominent in the view from Cadillac Mountain. Ironbound is unique in that it has the highest perpendicular cliffs in the whole park area, and also in that it has the oldest (200+ years) virgin spruce stand known along the Maine coast. It is owned by a conservation-minded family. Long Porcupine has steep cliffs, nesting guillemots, a heron colony, and a natural bridge. Burnt Porcupine has an intermit- tently occupied eagle nest. Upper Frenchman Bay Calf Island is the site of the most extensive and most valuable (i.e., undisturbed) Indian shell heap within the park environs. Cranberry Islands Baker Island is one of the richest in scenic and natural history values of all of Acadia's offshore islands. It has superb views of the Mount Desert mountains, rare plants and a south shore seawall of huge granite blocks. More than half the island is now owned by the park. There remains the eastern side to be secured. Baker Island is the objective of a popular Naturalist-conducted combination cruise and nature walk. Duck Islands Great Duck and Little Duck are the only known nesting sites in Acadia for Leach's petrels and blackpoll warblers. Besides having large sea bird colonies (gulls, guillemots, and some eiders), the Ducks have several species of rare arctic plants. Little Duck is owned by the National Audubon Society. Both islands offer splendid views of Mount Desert Island's mountains. 2 Gott Islands Little Gott, Placentia, Black, and Little Black have high, steep, richly colored pink granite shorelines and dense forest growths of white spruce. All are very high in aesthetic value. Placentia has recently had an active bald eagle's nest at its western end. This island is owned by a conservation-minded couple who might be persuaded to will the island to the park. Long Island (Frenchboro) group While the northern portion of (outer) Long Island is the site of the sparsely populated village of Frenchboro, the southern half is unoccupied and is now in Rockefeller ownership. The southern exposed shore is extremely rugged pink granite, and because of its exposure to cold sea winds, is the site of a northern flora. The two Green Islands and John Island have significant sea bird colonies. The two Sister Islands which lie directly along the outer route between Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut are outstanding aesthetically. Opeechee Island group Opeechee, Pond, Black, Sheep, and Johns Islands form a group which is important both biologically and recreationally. At low tide they are either connected by a very extensive exposed intertidal zone area or separated by very shallow water, thus offering excellent opportunity for intertidal zone research and interpretation. Large numbers of black ducks congregate in the fall in the shallow basin between Opeechee and Sheep while in summer many seals are to be seen in this basin. Black Island has a beautiful pink sand beach, unique in the Acadia archipelago, on its southern shore, and Pond Island has a sizeable sand beach along its north shore, as well as a smaller sand beach and nearby extensive Indian shell heap along its south shore. Tiny Lamp Island has the appearance of a mushroom, formed by the sea erosion of a glacial till cap. Eagle Island is a scenic jewel with a steep granite shoreline. Ship and Trumpet are low treeless islands with sizeable gull and cormorant colonies. Buckles and Orono Islands which lie along the direct inner route between Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut, are high in aesthetic value. Buckles and Orono are Rockefeller-owned. 3 Marshall Island group Although Marshall Island more or less recently has been pulped and burned over, it has in its Sand Cove the finest sand beach in the whole of the Acadia archipelago. Along its west shore is another excellent but smaller sand beach. Along with its attractive satellite island, Ringtown, Marshall Island would be an ideal site for camping, picnick- ing, and swimming. It is presently owned by a Camden, Maine fisherman who, we understand, is chiefly interested in main- taining his herring fishing rights in Sand Cove. Mason Ledge is a sea bird colony site. Isle au Haut area Eastern Ear and Western Ear are two very striking high- cliffed islands lying immediately off Eastern Head and western Head which are the two park-owned southern extremities of Isle au Haut. Deer frequent both Ears. Western Ear is connected to Western Head at low tide by a gravel bar. 30th Little Spoon and Great Spoon Island are treeless islands where both great black-backed - and herring gulls, and possibly eiders, nest. Great Spoon also has very large and conspicuous examples of black basaltic dikes along its western and southern granite shorelines. Merchant Row archipelago Nowhere else along the entire Maine coast is there another grouping of small islands quite like this one which lies between Isle au Haut and Stonington on Deer Isle. Alto- gether some 50 islands make up this closely-knit archipelago. A leisurely cruise among them with perhaps a landing on and exploration of one of them is one of the most memorable experiences the Acadia region has to offer. A total of 27 of these small islands is here proposed for park acquisition. These are Pell, Mouse, Wheat, 3ills, Wreck, McGlathery, Little McGlathery, Round, Gooseborry, No Mans, Saddleback, Enchanted, Phoebe, Shingle, Millet, Spruce, Ram, Buckle, two Coombs, two Coot, Camp, Hells Half Acre, Devil, Eastern Mark, and Southern Mark Islands. Each of these except 4 Southern Mark is an out and out scenic gem with glacially rounded granite shorelines and dark blue-green crowns of spruce. Southern Mark is a treeless gull breeding island. All are unoccupied except Levil, Saddleback, and Shingle which have camps on them. Shingle is Rockefeller-owned. McGlathery is owned by a small group of conservationists, one of whom has indicated that McGlathery would be donated to the park if other nearby islands were also to become park-owned. With its variable shoreline, Camp would iend itself ideally to interpretive forays. Further justification Master Plan data may be found on the Visitor Use and Interpretation Plan (proposed sea cruise routes) and the several Natural History Base Maps (location of significant species). There follows a table in which several significant character- istics of these 73 selected islands have been indicated. Some of these characteristics are shown in the appended photographs. Pane 4 Favour. Paul G. Favour, Jr. Chief Park Naturalist October 16, 1968 5 DRAFT ACADIA NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE FINDING AID FOR U.S. NAVAL SECURITY GROUP ACTIVITY WINTER HARBOR RECORDS, 1915-2002 CATALOG NUMBER: ACAD 33731 FLEET SUPPORT SINCE 1935 WINTER PREPARED BY VICTORIA KALEMARIS ANDRILENAS ELIZABETH S. BANKS TERI A. DEYOUNG DAVID J. VECCHIOLI NORTHEAST MUSEUM SERVICES CENTER September 2007 Collection Description NSGA Winter Harbor Records-15 O. Historical Records 1915-1984 1. Naval Communications at Otter Cliffs and Seawall, 1917-1984 The Naval Radio Station at Otter Cliffs, ME opened in 1918 and closed in 1935 when the Navy moved operations to Winter Harbor, ME. Includes World War I era correspondence, memorabilia and later recollections from veterans stationed at NBD Otter Cliffs, the Navy's precursor to US NSGA-WH and material collected by COs about the Navy's early radio efforts in Down East Maine. 15 It is organized alphabetically by the veterans' surnames. In some cases material, primarily photographs could not be linked to a particular veteran. Items from unidentified sources are filed at the end of the sub-sub-series. Included in this sub-sub-series are World War I era photographs, copies of military citations and other ephemera donated by Navy veterans from that era. The correspondence, research and reminiscences are primarily from the 1960s and 1970s. It also includes programs and photographs from the veterans' reunions in 1961 and 1965. Of particular interest are correspondence and memoirs from 1917 to 1920 written by Alessandro Fabbri, first commander of Naval Radio Station, Otter Cliffs. Three veterans donated extensive material. Harold W. Castner (1888-?), Charles B. (& Emily) Ellsworth, and Herbert C. Hovenden each realized the significance of the station's role in World War I and radio communication advancements and wanted to document the history of Naval Radio Station Otter Cliffs. Castner was Fabbri's confidential aid and after Fabbri's death had access to his personal papers, a resource he used extensively in writing a history of Otter Cliffs. However, his hero-worship of Fabbri made his history and memoirs less comprehensive. Hovenden organized veterans' reunions and spear-headed an effort in the late 1970s by several veterans, including Raymond Cole, Frederick "Hank" Grindle, Carl E. Herr and Raymond McCrae, to write a more objective history of their work at Otter Cliffs. The sub-sub- series also includes correspondence between U.S. NSGA-WH COs (primarily CDR T.F. Hahn, 1966-1968) and various veterans. The base held a 50th anniversary commemorating Naval Radio Communications in Down East Maine in 1967 and the CO at that time (CDR Hahn) was very interested in having veterans attend the anniversary gathering the Navy organized. The commander's interest inspired additional veterans to donate materials from their years of service. Hahn also contacted veterans and their widows requesting biographical information with a stated interest in their time with the Navy and their work in radio communication. 2. Early years of Naval Communications at Winter Harbor, 1931-1982 includes photographs, reports, maps, and correspondence documenting the planning, construction, and improvements to the Schoodic Base and Corea Operations Site, as well as correspondence with former COs and research gathered by various COs to document the early history of the Naval base at Winter Harbor, ME. 15 There is a link between these materials and some materials in the Public Affairs Records series. The 1961 Dedication of Fabbri Hall was coordinated by the Public Affairs Office but the veterans lobbied the Navy to name the building after Fabbri. The Public Affairs Office also organized the 50th Anniversary in 1967 but the CO made the decision to include veterans in the celebration. 3. NSGA Winter Harbor Records - 24 Historical Note Chronology The timeline below is an overview of major events and projects at U.S. Naval Station Otter Cliffs, ME, the U.S. Naval Security Group Activity, Winter Harbor, ME and NPS projects conducted at those two sites between 1916 and 2002 and provides a framework for understanding the arrangement of the records sited in this finding aid. 1914: World War I begins in Europe 1916: National Park Service created Presidential Proclamation establishes Sieur de Monts National Monument on Mount Desert Island, ME 1917: United States enters World War I Private citizen Alessandro Fabbri offers his radio station on Mount Desert Island, ME to the U.S. Navy in exchange for a naval commission. U.S. Navy accepts Fabbri's offer and Ensign Fabbri is put in charge of the station. 1918: Seawall transmitter set up in Manset, Mount Desert Island, ME; October 6th Otter Cliffs site intercepts first message from Kaiser Wilhelm to President Wilson concerning an armistice 1919: Fabbri requests release from active duty. 40 Stat 1778 Establishes Lafayette National Park from Sieur de Monts National Monument 1920: Lt. Alessandro Fabbri awarded the Navy Cross for "exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility in the development of the radio receiving station at Otter Cliffs, Maine and the small receiving station at Sea Wall until at the end of the War, it was the most important and the most efficient station in the world." 1929: 45 Stat 1803 Lafayette National Park name changed to Acadia National Park 1930: 46 Stat 377 Navy transferred Seawall and 233 acres to Acadia National Park 1932: NPS and Navy agree on Ocean Drive extension. Schoodic Point on Big Moose Island chosen as new naval communications site 1934: Otter Cliffs communication site dismantled. Seawall site transferred to Coast Guard The following buildings were completed: powerhouse, navigational D/F shack, the pump house, the transmitter house and the Apartment Building (Rockefeller Building) at Schoodic Point. 25 Much of the information here was taken from the 2002 Base closure book. Historical Note NSGA Winter Harbor Records- 25 4. 1935: 49 Stat 795 Navy transferred Otter Cliffs radio station to Acadia National Park and Acadia NP transferred a new radio site at Schoodic to the Navy 28 February U.S. Naval Radio Station (NRS) Winter Harbor was officially placed in commission. 1939: Hitler invades Poland. France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany 1941: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. United States enters war. 1942-1989 Period of growth for base as result of WW II, Korean, Vietnam and Cold War 1942-1943: Major expansion at the base Building 10 new administrative offices, a mess and quarters added Building 3 doubled in size 1944: D-Day 1945: Japan surrenders Post WWII 1947: Navy acquires 151.86 acres from Acadia National Park Salt water pump house, hose houses, fire protection system, coaxial cable vault in Bldg. 3 1950: Name of station changed to U.S. Naval Security Group Department, U.S. Naval Radio Station 1951: Navy acquires 469 acres of land at Corea, ME and Direction Finding facility is moved there from Seawall in Manset, ME. 1952: Building 39 built to provide new communications and terminal equipment 1955: Bldg, 45 Generator Bldg. erected 1957: Twenty family housing units built in the village of Winter Harbor 1958: Name changed to Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor 1959: First military housing (Harbor View) opened in Winter Harbor, ME. 1961: Fabbri Hall, a new enlisted barracks, dedicated. Otter Cliffs veterans hold reunion in Bar Harbor, ME. 1962: Antennae array and Building 85 completed at Corea site Historical Note NSGA Winter Harbor Records- 27 History and Significance of U. S. Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor, 1917-2002 26 by Jannelle Warren-Findley, PhD., Arizona State University, Public History Department INTRODUCTION The U.S. Navy and the U.S. National Park Service in Acadia National Park, Maine, have intertwined histories for most of the twentieth century. One year after Congress authorized the first national park on the East Coast of the United States in 1916, the Navy established a presence inside the park. During World War I, the Navy's lead role in radio communications led it to acquire a radio station built by a wealthy amateur radio enthusiast at Otter Cliffs and an additional site at Seawall on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The Navy found the site to be extremely valuable because of its physical qualities for transmitting and receiving radio signals and continued to use the site after the war. Eventually, however, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the park's primary patron, wished to use the Navy station property for the extension of the park loop road. Through a series of negotiations, the Navy base eventually relocated to Big Moose Island on the Schoodic Peninsula, also a part of Acadia National Park. The Schoodic installation thus became one of the few navy bases placed for its entire working life surrounded by a national park. This was, in fact, a spy base within a park. Eventually known as Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor, the base served as a communications installation for the next sixty four years, but its mission was affected by the terms of the original agreement, under which Acadia National Park's administration had the right to approve or reject all new construction and major changes to any of the Navy's buildings or 27 structures. In reality, however, the National Park Service rarely exercised its authority in these matters. During World War II, the mission of the base was to act as part of a larger network that communicated with Navy ships, submarines, airplanes and shore installations. The navy base underwent a major expansion of building facilities and antenna installations to aid in the war effort. Many bases were decommissioned after the end of World War II. If they were needed for the Cold War period (1945 to 1989)28 they often had to be reopened and staffed. But no such 26 First appeared as History and Significance section of U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Northeast Museum Services Center, Acadia National Park (U.S. Naval Security Group Winter Harbor) Collection Management Plan, pp 1-21, 2002. 27 An Act To authorize the transfer of the Otter Cliffs Radio Station on Mount Desert Island in the State of Maine as an addition to the Acadia National Park, and for other purposes, approved August 24, 1935 (49 Stat. 795) says "the Secretary of the Interior shall be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to transfer to the control and jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy for naval radio purposes the site of the relocated radio station, with the buildings and improvements thereon, and such surrounding areas as may be agreed upon by the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Navy: Provided That the Secretary of the Interior shall retain the right to approve the design of the buildings and structures to be placed thereon including any additions or alterations to the present radio station." 28 Report on the Department of Defense Legacy Cold War Project, Coming in from the Cold: Military Heritage in the Cold War,http://www.denix.osd.mil/denix/public/ES-programs/conservation/Cold War/coldwar.html. p. 42 defines the period as from the March 1946 "Iron Curtain" speech of Winston Churchill to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But without the atomic explosions in Japan that opened the "Atomic Age" included, the dates do not seem inclusive enough. NSGA Winter Harbor Records - 28 Historical Note standdown was called for at NSGA Winter Harbor. 29 The Navy purchased land at the nearby fishing port, Corea, and built a Circular Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA), which became fully operational in October 1963. An attempt was made to move administrative and support activities to the Corea site in the 1960s, but the lack of sufficient drinking water at the site prevented the move. So NSGA Winter Harbor continued its work, split between administration, public works, maintenance, recreation and housing at Schoodic Point and operations at Corea. In the 1970s, the Navy installed new satellite surveillance technologies at Corea and perhaps in other locations in the vicinity. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Navy continued operations and used the base to support its training mission. Unfortunately, the record of accomplishments for the entire period remains almost entirely classified, which makes evaluation for significance and interpretation difficult. Yet indirect evidence can lead us to some conclusions. Documents such as the now-declassified information about the work performed in Winter Harbor; the high level of funding poured into this remote base for buildings, structures and maintenance; the high level of commanding officers who led the staff, and the important jobs that they came from and went to at Winter Harbor; and the large numbers of sailors and civilians who worked at the base until the closing process began all indicate that the untold stories are likely to be extremely powerful. The base and its activities 30 during the Cold War are of the highest significance to that period of American and international history, and should be handled as such. The periods that are significant in the story of the Navy base and the national park are: World War I and the establishment of naval communications at Otter Cliffs and Seawall (1917-1919) Relocation of the base from Otter Cliffs to Schoodic Point (1929-35) World War II and the growth of the naval facility on Schoodic Point (1941-45) The Cold War and expansion of the site at Corea and Winter Harbor (1945-1989) Aftermath of Cold War and Base Closure (1989-2002) EARLY HISTORY OF SCHOODIC PENINSULA The internal areas of Schoodic Peninsula were little disturbed by roads or other development until the middle of the nineteenth century. Thomas Frazier had developed a salt works near Frazier's Creek in the 1790s. By the mid-nineteenth century, about fifty people lived in the area and supported themselves by fishing. 31 Jabiz Myrick's property was noted on Walling's 1860 map of Hancock County. The Arey family lived on the Schoodic Peninsula until 1863, and Adam Pendelton moved onto their abandoned property. In contrast to what appears to have been a hardscrabble life at best on the peninsula, the town of Bar Harbor profited from the summertime influxes of upper-class residents from Boston and New York in the late 1880s. In 1887, in an attempt to emulate its successful neighbor, Winter 29 R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc., Navy Cold War Communication Context: Resources Associated with the Navy's Communication Program, 1946-1989, Atlantic Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, December 1997, p. A-11. This report will subsequently be cited as Cold War Context. 30 Coming in from the Cold, p. 14, suggests that among the questions to be asked of Cold War property types should be "How much did the Department of Defense invest in them?" as one of the ways to establish significance. 31 CRS, ibid. 7. Historical Note NSGA Winter Harbor Records- 29 Harbor saw the establishment of the Beacon Hotel, but it closed three years later. At about the same time, the Gouldsborough Land and Improvement Company organized to "purchase, improve and sell land. ,,32 The company held land on both Grindstone Neck, just northwest of Winter Harbor, and the Schoodic Peninsula and opened offices in New York City, Bar Harbor and Winter Harbor. John G. Moore, Maine native, Wall Street financier, and the primary Gouldsborough Land Company investor, began to purchase large tracts of land on the peninsula and, in 1897, arranged for construction of a road to Schoodic Head SO that visitors might enjoy the views of Mount Desert Island and other islands and bays along the coast. Moore died in 1898 before he could build his planned resort hotel on the top of Schoodic Head. THE LANDSCAPE IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICA While Schoodic Peninsula developed slowly and in relative isolation, the same was not true for Mount Desert Island just across Frenchman's Bay. The trend to summer in Bar Harbor arose from a number of developments in nineteenth century life: transportation changes that made travel to the remote area easier, growth of personal wealth in the Industrial Age, and the already existing stunningly beautiful landscape of the region. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the American perception of the role of nature was affected by a number of intellectual and cultural currents. Wealthy East Coast residents first became familiar with Mount Desert Island partly as a result of the visits in the 1840s of American Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole and Frederick Church, who painted the island landscapes and seascapes. As Jeff Pappas 33 points out, "At first, the national parks were seen as a way to broaden our appeal internationally: to literally show the world that America was not just some cultural backwater content to perpetuate European traditions. We were unique, and to illustrate our uniqueness we took an obvious source: 'monumental landscapes' and made them symbols of our expanding empire." American artists who adapted elements of English landscape painting to American sites in the nineteenth century had a role in shaping expectations of how scenic reservations should look, and it was as true for Mount Desert Island as it was for major western parks like Yosemite or the 35 Grand Canyon. THE FORMATION OF ACADIA NATIONAL PARK The scenic landscape movement, a Romantic nineteenth century preservation activity, culminated in Maine with the formation of the Hancock Country Trustees of Public Reservations in 1901. Wealthy summer residents of Mount Desert Island, led by textile heir George Dorr and Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot, organized to protect a system of scenic paths and trails constructed by village improvement groups from logging or development. By 1913, the group had amassed enough land through donations and purchases to work to establish a national monument. In 1916, the same year that the National Park Service was established, the Hancock County Trustees' land holdings became Sieur de Monts National Monument. 32 CRS, ibid. 33 Leonard E. Brown, Acadia History, Acadia National Park, Maine History Basic Data, Office of History and Historical Architecture, Eastern Service Center, National Park Service, Washington, DC, February 1971, pp. 37-49 and passim 34 Jeff Pappas, "Preface: Nature Study and the National Park Service," draft dissertation chapter, Department of History, Arizona State University, August 2001, p.l. 35 Brown, ibid. NSGA Winter Harbor Records - 30 Historical Note In 1919, Lafayette National Park replaced the original national monument designation. This national park was the first on the eastern seaboard and was accepted into the system partly as an attempt on the part of the National Park Service administration in Washington to balance the political and geographic presence of the Service throughout the United States. 36 The desire of some wealthy Mount Desert Island residents to preserve what was an idealized, pre-settlement landscape and to view it through carefully crafted means including viewpoints, paths and later roads for automobiles, met the needs of a new government agency searching for widespread political support to strengthen its presence in government. The combination of the two produced a national park on Mount Desert Island. This cultural landscape has shaped one aspect of the park and its story since its establishment. An extension of that landscape continued at Schoodic. In September 1922, George Dorr, who was by then the superintendent of Lafayette National Park, dined with a group of friends at the Jordan Pond house. Among the guests were Mr. and Mrs. Warner M. Leeds, who apparently lived near Dorr in Bar Harbor. During the course of the dinner, Mrs. Leeds, who was the widow of Winter Harbor developer John C. Moore, offered Dorr her one-third interest in the peninsula, which she held in equal shares with her two daughters who now lived in England. But Mrs. Leeds died unexpectedly while visiting England, and Leeds, her widower and estate executor, wanted to sell her share to the park. Leeds's demands appeared to doom the agreement. However, Dorr managed to obtain the contingent assent of the two Moore daughters to the land gift (it was contingent on their mother's share being part of the memorial to their father). Dorr prevailed and, in addition, agreed to the wishes of the two daughters (who both now lived permanently in England) that the name of the park be changed to something less French. Seven years after the initial conversation at Jordan Pond, federal legislation changed the name of the park to Acadia National Park and enabled the government to accept more land in outlying areas of Hancock County. 37 THE MACHINE IN THE GARDEN The acquisition of Schoodic Point and the surrounding lands added new assets to the assembling of Acadia National Park and its culturally significant landscapes. But at virtually the same time, a completely different twentieth century story, one rich with developing technology and wartime strategic success, was developing at Otter Cliffs, one of the scenic points on the southeastern side of Mount Desert Island. The era of wireless communications began in 1843, when Samuel F.B. Morse first wired a message from Washington to Baltimore, but by the latter 1890s, in the same period that Bar Harbor was at the height of its wealth and influence as a summer playground, the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi recognized that there was commercial potential in transmitting radio waves. The U.S. Navy began testing wireless apparatus in 1899, and the first official radio message was sent from ship to shore that year. The Navy also funded communications research, both internally and by contractors. From 1902 onward, the Navy was 36 Hal Rothman, America's National Monuments: The Politics of Preservation (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1994). 12 Sargent F. Collier, Mount Desert Island & Acadia National Park: An Informal History (Camden, Maine: Down East Books, 1978, pp. 123-125. 38 The title comes from Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964). Historical Note NSGA Winter Harbor Records- 31 "a significant market" for radio communications products. 39 THE U.S. NAVY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS President Theodore Roosevelt, in recognition of the Navy's early acceptance of the new technology, placed the service in charge of government radio operations. By 1904, the Navy had established nineteen short wave radio stations. In addition, the US Navy Radio Laboratory was opened in 1908 to conduct research on vacuum tubes and other components that made voice transmission possible. By that time, the Navy had also developed a chain of stations capable of relaying messages between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Coverage of the north Atlantic and continental U.S. was achieved by a high-power transmitter NAA Arlington based at Ft. Myer, Virginia in 1913. Congress authorized the Navy to construct a chain of stations in the Canal Zone, California, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and the Philippines. When the first station at Chollas Heights in San Diego went on line in 1917, it was the most powerful radio transmitter in North America. 40 When World War I began, the Navy was government communications and needed to develop equipment for secure communications, interception techniques, and cryptoanalysis. In addition, President Wilson directed the Navy to establish and operate a transatlantic communications system with headquarters at Belmar, New Jersey. As a historian of the period recounts, "This system comprised facilities taken over by the Navy from commercial interests the facilities included transmitting stations located at New Brunswick and Tuckerton, New Jersey and Sayville, New York; and receiving stations at Belmar, New Jersey; Chatham, Massachusetts; and Bar Harbor, Maine. ,,41 NBD RADIO BAR HARBOR Before World War I, a wealthy New Yorker, who was perhaps a member of the Italian nobility, established amateur radio stations, or what would now be called "ham radio operations" on his yacht and in his family's summer house on Mount Desert Island. Alessandro Fabbri, whose brother Ernesto was a banker with J. P. Morgan in New York and who had married a Vanderbilt daughter, was an enthusiastic amateur radio operator. One evening, probably in the spring of 1917, Fabbri invited Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then the assistant Secretary of the Navy, to dinner in Bar Harbor. After dinner, Fabbri turned on one of his long-wave radio receivers (he had built it himself) and they listened to the signals coming from station POZ, in Nauen, Germany where a regular daily broadcast from German naval leaders went out to German vessels all over the world. Roosevelt knew that on orders from President Wilson, the Navy had been trying to intercept messages from Nauen radio. The Navy had established the Belmar, New Jersey station and an additional one in Newfoundland but had not been successful. Fabbri, on the other hand, appeared to be intercepting everything and the transmissions were clear. 42 Roosevelt asked for copies of the Nauen contacts and took them back to Washington with him. The Navy immediately sent Chief Radioman Ray Cole to Fabbri's estate in Bar Harbor. Fabbri 39 Cold War Context, p. 10. 40 Ibid., pp. 10-11. 41 Ibid., p. 12. 42 Emily Ellsworth, "Echoes from Otter Cliffs," Down East, November 1964, p. 30; Brandon Wentworth, The Fabulous Radio NBD (Southwest Harbor, Me: Beech Hill Publishing Company, 1984), p.6. NSGA Winter Harbor Records - 32 Historical Note was commissioned in June 1917, although not without a great deal of discussion and lobbying. He was placed in charge of his own equipment at Otter Cliffs, the land that Fabbri leased for the Navy from the owner, who had leased it to the Bar Harbor Country Club. 43 The Naval reserve radio operators at Belmar, New Jersey were transferred north and the latest Naval radio 1917 equipment was shipped to Bar Harbor. On August 28, 1917, Naval Radio- Bar Harbor started up with the call letters "NBD". Seawall was constructed in the next year SO that outgoing messages could be "keyed" at Otter Cliffs and transmitted at Seawall. Otter Cliffs originally had only a 1 kilowatt spark transmitter, and the Seawall transmitter was particularly needed to communicate with ships. The Otter Cliffs receiving equipment consisted of two 125-foot towers and loop antennae and counterpoise that Fabbri "had devised and built at his own expense." Barracks were built and a barbed wire fence erected around the area. Fifty Navy enlisted men, most right out of training courses at Harvard College, arrived to join the original thirty other enlisted 44 personnel and a detachment of Marines who had been sent for security. There were both ship- to-shore circuits and transatlantic circuits. The receivers were housed in small shacks, each with its own antenna and each assigned the call letters of a European station: POZ for Nauen, Germany; YN for Lyons, France, and others. Fabbri's station was used to pass most of the official communications between the battlefronts in 45 Europe and Washington. They often received 20,000 words a day, most of them in cipher. The receiver tuned in to POZ in October 1918 intercepted the first message from Kaiser Wilheim to President Woodrow Wilson asking to negotiate an armistice. Bar Harbor was the only station in the US to pick up this message clearly and completely. As a result, it was also the only station in the U.S. used for President Wilson's communications with Washington from the peace talks in Paris. Thus, World War I is the first period of significance in the mutual history of the Navy 46 and the National Park. Immediately after World War I, the Otter Cliffs station continued its ship-to-shore traffic, which increased dramatically. The radiomen distributed messages from returning soldiers still at sea to their families. The four radiomen assigned to the ship-to-shore frequencies worked eight-hour shifts in rotation SO that the radio was available 24 hours a day. In addition to the ship communications, Otter Cliffs communicated with airborne radios. In the case of a trans-Atlantic flight by Navy seaplanes in May 1919, Otter Cliffs established a new, plane-to-ground communications record of 1250 miles and by the time one of the planes landed in the Azores, Bar Harbor was listening across a distance of 1900 miles. Naval radio at Bar Harbor also aided the British airship R-34 from Scotland to New York in July 1919 SO successfully that the dirigible asked that Bar Harbor monitor its flight home. The radio station collected weather reports from ships at sea across the Atlantic and communicated the information to the airship. This was perhaps the first time that weather reports, seven hundred in all during the course of the 47 seventy-two hour journey, were communicated in this way to a vehicle during flight. With the end of the war, however, the armed forces began to disband and the reservists at the location received their discharges. Some returned as regular Navy personnel, but the central role 43 Wentworth, p. 7 and accompanying photo. 44 Ellsworth, p. 31. 45 Bill Continelli, W2XOY, The Wayback Machine, #4, http://www.hudson-loop.org/waybak4.html. 46 Collier, p. 128. 47 Ellsworth, p. 40.