Biography First Draft (2008)- a chronological Narration. P63 1. 1918-1954 for GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. BEGIN 1918 (October 15, 2008) 1918 Charles W. Eliot writes to J.D.R. Jr. on diverse matters including a request by Merritt Ober, a Northeast Harbor provisionist, "for leave to cut wood on some part of the reservation." Dorr asked for Eliot's input but Eliot suspects that he might be intending to use one of Jr.'s roads to remove the wood. The larger context is that Dorr has permitted a number of Bar Harbor "natives" to cut wood in restricted areas under supervision from the newly "hired" Rangers. (January 16, 1918. RAC. III. 2. I. 59. f. 441) However, the monument continues to receive no financial support, for there is "no chance of getting any appropriation at the present session" of Congress. (7 February 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) As Spring nears, Eliot and Dorr both expend considerable energy over the next several months in educating House and Senate officials about the importance of elevating the status of the new national monument-and securing funds for the management of the recent gift to the government. Sometimes the approach was indirect. In his proposed 1918 budget, Dorr requested $8,640 for path development for five major trail extensions and initiatives. (Dorr to H.M Albright, 22 September 1917. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Box 1. Appropriations. f. 1) Dorr urges Eliot to enlist the support of the influential Winthrop Murray Crane (1853-1920), the former junior Senator from Massachusetts (1904-1913) and 40th Governor of Massachusetts (1900-1903). In his youth Crane had been an employee of the Dalton, Massachusetts family business, Crane and Company, the supplier to this day of woven paper on which U.S. currency has been printed since 1879. Crane responds positively when it is explained at length why it is important that Crane's support for Sieur de Monts funding be communicated to the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, Massachusetts Congressman Frederick Huntington Gillett (1851-1935). (March 4, 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Governor Crane's letter is followed within the month by Dorr meeting with Congressman Gillett. Never content with the fruits of first impressions, Dorr sends Eliot a letter informing him that Gillett "said there was no question as to the justice and reasonableness of our [appropriation] claim." Never content with the fruits of first impressions, Dorr asks Eliot to write to the Congressman a letter of support. (April 10 and May 2, 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Dorr receives from Eliot one of the most puzzling letters in their relationship. Recognizing that Dorr is about the leave for Washington to press his case for both monument appropriations and more importantly full national park status, he stops just shy of demanding an immediate full accounting of all land acquisition activity with which Eliot's name is associated as President of the Hancock Trustees and the Wild Gardens corporations. No explanation is offered for this urgency. To wit: "Before you leave home again I hope you will make a list of all pledges given by you, all projects concerning the monument and the Wild Gardens which you have actually entered on, and your visions which have not yet been put on paper. This is the piece of work which should take precedence of (sic) very other. It ought to be done today, or tomorrow at the latest." (11 March 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) DORR1918 Page 1 of 22 Dorr reaction to this directive is not known. In the years ahead both Eliot and J.D. Rockefeller Jr. will express their discomfort and annoyance with Dorr's reluctance to keep at hand a paper trail, relying instead on a memory that was as accurate as their own. This avoidance of Eliot's charge is but one example of Dorr's unwillingness to become thoroughly bureaucratic. His defiance of Eliot's ever soft spoken authority reveals what William James called in his celebrated alumni talk, the unorthodoxy of the true Harvard man. Instead, Dorr remains focused on the larger issue of achieving park status and departs for the Capitol. Even if new funds are unavailable until the mid-summer start of the next federal fiscal year, the apportionment of funds is important to pressing the larger issue of national park status. Accordingly, Dorr submits to Eliot a draft document that he hopes Eliot will revise and submit to the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Swager Sherley. One week later Eliot incorporates some of Dorr's key points in his polished letter to Congressman Swager. (20 & 27 March 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) On arriving the next day, Dorr sends a letter across town from the Somerset Club to Mather wherein we learn that Dorr has been "quite ill with a sort of bronchial, germ attack accompanied by a fever that has hung on persistently and quite knocked me out.' We now see that Eliot's directive also coincided with Dorr's illness. The park custodian first addressed questions that came from his organizational superior, the National Park Service Director. Mather had raised issues in his recent letter to Dorr about the continuance of the Sieur de Monts Publications, and Dorr enclosed a copy of his "National Parks and Monuments, number 19 in the series, 35,000 copies printed by the Rand, Avery Supply Co., Boston. Dorr also updates Mather on the additional letters of support for national park status that had been solicited and received from the heads of the three Maine railroads as well as the involvement of Rev. Lawrence on the Wild Gardens of Acadia board, the cleric representing Harvard University. (March 16, 1918. NARA. RG79. Central Classified Files. Acadia. Misc. Rpts.) The arguments for park status move forward. Following lunch with Dorr at the Colony Club in New York, Theodore Roosevelt urges favorable action on Secretary's Lane appropriation request for the Sieur de Monts National Monument. Roosevelt says that he has "watched with keen interest the work that has led to the creation of this Park," stressing both its recreational and wilderness appeal. (April 10, 1918. ANPA. B2. 12) Thirteen additional letters of support are submitted by distinguished attorneys, clerics, ornithologists, geologists, public servants, and businessmen. The first park National Park Service museum is opened in the new Mesa Verde National Park. Unlike Yosemite and Yellowstone where scenic attractions predominated, the uniqueness of Mesa Verde's Native American heritage required visitor mediation by educators. (Daniel A. Smith. Mesa Verde National Park. Rev. ed. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2002, p.20). Several years later archaeologist Jesse Nusbaum (1921-1931) became Mesa Verde Superintendent, secured museum funding from J.D. Rockefeller Jr., and hosted the 8th Superintendent's Conference in 1925. The challenges of museum establishment and management did not escape Dorr's attention as he increasingly became involved at this time in the museum aspirations of his friend, Dr. Robert Abbe. DORR1918 Page 2 of 22 By the end of 1917 and early into 1918 Horace Albright developed a set of NPS policy objectives using many of Mather's ideas. Horace Albright recalls that the "foremost problem facing the Park Service in the early months of 1918 was a concerted effort by certain interest to make adverse use of the parks, excusing it as patriotism but, in reality, attempting to open them once and for all for commercial and money-making projects alien to the Park Service's organic Act." (H. Albright. Creating the National Park Service, p. 271) The response was a widely circulated "Creed" for the parks, "one of the best things I ever did." Albright sent this document to Secy. Lane suggesting that he issue them as a letter to Mather. The May 13, 1918 was "a landmark for those early years, and became our basic creed" and was based on three broad management principles and 23 principles (see Birth of the NPS, p. 69 ff.) Principle 19 refers specifically to MDI. Despite the optimism implicit in development of this creed, behind the scenes the Army was demobilizing and the national feeling was one of new beginnings. So too with Horace Albright who was courted by several law firms and finally handed in his resignation in March. He agreed to stay until Lane and Mather returned from a trip West when he was offered a hybrid post: Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and field assistant to the Director. (Shankland, Steve Mather of the National Parks, p. 166). Through the end of August 1918 Albright's would sign documents as "Acting Director." To fill the Washington vacancy Mather reached outside the bureau to appoint Arno B. Cammerer, first secretary to the Public Buildings Commission of Congress. Mr. Dorr's efforts in Washington for national park status in the months ahead depend all the more on the good will fostered with Mr. Mather. According to landscape architects Rieley & Brouse (Historic Resource Study for the Carriage Road System, Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine), the road system that Rockefeller proposed to the Trustees in 1915 and elaborated to Dorr in 1918 ran into an obstacle that irritated J.D.R. Jr. On the last day of February Dorr informed him that the Trustee permission was void because of the land transfer to the Federal government--surveyor plans now required NPS approval (p. 89). Rockefeller's eleven page response was not sent because Dorr took the initiative (as outlined in his letter of 3.12) and secured from Secretary Lane approval to (1) "close to motor use, in the Park Service name, the roads you build in the park," and (2) "makes me responsible for what is done [and] I should only like to have you consult with me about your plans from time to time." (p. 90-91) JDR Jr. could not have been more pleased as is indicated in his March 18, 1918 letter to Dorr which involved Rockefeller's lengthy explanation of his reasoning, thanking the him for his "forethought, regarding it as a "privilege" to discuss his road planning with the monument administrator. (ANPA. B45. f1) At Dorr's request, two identical bills for the creation of Mount Desert National Park are entered in the Senate and House by Senator Frederick Hale and Representative John A. Peters, both of Maine. H.R. 11935 is discussed May 30th at the House Subcommittee of the Committee on the Public Lands. The 38-page report reveals initial member confusion about the park name, its location, the landscape character of the area (due primarily to the inclusion of the word "desert"), and the intent of its supporters to connect the park to its French heritage and the events of the current war. Dorr and Peters are very effective and circumspect advocates in dealing with committee unfamiliarity. Dorr refers to the HCTPR as a "public service organization" where he is its "executive DORR1918 Page 3 of 22 officer." Secretary Lane's letter of support is entered into the public record and discussion soon turns to war issues as Dorr defers to the war climate. Dorr surely alarmed some park advocates when claimed that Somes Sound could be an impregnable submarine base, an issue that fortunately captured no interest. After fifteen pages of question and answer, supportive statements from Theodore Roosevelt and nine others are entered before the questioning resumes, focused on comparative financial requests and needs are weighed. The documentation concludes with ten additional perspectives, most previously published, on the importance of this landscape. ( (NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia. Misc. Rpts.) Dorr presents a well argued case before the Public Lands Committee which reports the bill favorably in a unanimous vote, aided by Frederick H. Gillett of Massachusetts, a long-time acquaintance of Dorr's. (Gillett will become a three-term Speaker of the House several months after passage of bill establishing Lafayette National Park) The bill comes up on the Unanimous Consent Calendar and passes without objection. It moves rapidly through all further stages; the Senate bill passes October 3 but the House bill is not unanimously passed until February 17, 1919. The signature of the President was required. Elsewhere in Washington, R.S. Yard establishes a National Parks Education Committee to assist him in craft additional publicity and enhance the visitor experience. Within the next year the Committee had grown to 70 members including leading nationally prominent scientific and educational figures who discussed creation of amore formal organization, a National Parks Association. New legislation in July would bring an end to Mather's private funding of Yard's salary; with Mather's encouragement Yard founded the National Parks Association. Nearing its first birthday, Sieur de Monts National Monument receives an July 1 appropriation of $10,000 from Congress. This level of budget support was deemed appropriate in recognition of the national park character of Sieur de Monts National Monument. The inclusion of a statement stressing the outstanding characteristics of the Island landscape was critical. In this specific case, Congress itself had bridged the gap between monument and national park. Immediately, administrative staff were hired. Secretary Lane appoints Princeton Universities Henry Lane Eno (park ornithologist), New England Botanical Society secretary Edward L. Rand (botanist), and Boston Natural History Museum scientist Charles W. Johnson (entomologist) to study the monument for a nominal compensation. Confidentially, Representative John A. Peters assured Dorr that the House Land Committee will take up the matter following the Summer recess but Peters does not see this as troublesome. (Peters to Dorr. July 6, 1918. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) The Bar Harbor Times gave front page attention in mid-July to the Senate passage earlier that week of the bill to make SMNM a national park. (July 13, 1918) Public health officials in Philadelphia issue a bulletin about the so- called Spanish influenza. By late August many sailors stationed in Boston reported symptoms of the grippe. Throughout September the disease spread and by October 2nd 202 deaths from influenza are registered. Within a week more than 800 New York residents died in a single day. As President of the Northeast Harbor VIA, Eliot writes from Asticou about desirable improvements in the bylaws of the Board of Health in the Town of Mount Desert that look beyond the immediate influenza threat. He underscores the point that "influenza has attacked Northeast Harbor severely; and is likely to go far." (October 3 to Mr. Melcher. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) By the 19th the Bar DORR1918 Page 4 of 22 Harbor Times could report that the town was solely recovering. Statisticians would later report that at the national level there was an association between the incidence of the influenza and one's economic condition-the lower the economic level the higher the attack rate. (E. Sydenstricker. "The Incidence of Influenza among Persons of Different Economic Status During the Epidemic of 1918," Public Health Reports 46, #4 (1931) : 155) Sadly, October 1918 turns out to be America's deadliest month as 195,000 America's fall victim to the pandemic. As the Great War was ending, the pandemic would result in the deaths of somewhere between twenty and forty million people, including 675,000 Americans (ten times the number killed in WWI) No evidence exists that this pandemic impacted park development. The Harpswell Laboratory faced a "severe setback," largely due to the World War which reduced faculty availability for research. The abandonment of the laboratory was discussed with increased frequently especially since there were few wealthy Harpswell residents to support the research. Mary Frances Williams (in The Harpswell Laboratory, 1898- 1920) argues correctly that this was not the case on Mount Desert Island and during the Summer of 1921 "biologists mingled with the owners of great estates at fund-raising teas and receptions," with Dahlgren's persuasiveness effectively eliciting the necessary start-up funds. Acting NPS Director Albright requests (8.26) a Sieur de Mont annual management report to be modeled on the 1917 report of the Acting Superintendent of Yellowstone. (NARA. RG79.CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports. Reports. Annual) The largest fire in the history of Bar Harbor occurred in late August when three blocks of the downtown were completely destroyed by fire that started in the kitchen of the New Florence Hotel. (BHT 8.31.18). September marks the death of the wife of the cousin with which Dorr had the closest associations, Thomas Wren Ward (1844-1940) Sophia Howard Ward died at 68 years of age at her Nutwood residence on Perkins Street in Jamaica Plain. Her husband arranges for her burial following a service in Brookline on September 7th but whether Dorr attended is uncertain since he was still in Washington working on the national park bill. In December Ward informs cemetery authorities that he now has the headstone for installation prior to the winter frost. (Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collection, #235) Mr. Dorr initiates his correspondence with the United States Board on Geographic Names (Board) to seek their approval to formally change the commonly accepted names of prominent landscape features that had been gifted to the government through the Trustees. While this may appear a trivial pursuit, over the next decade the approved modifications will meet with unvarying success until 1931 when a flash point is reached with residents and some Trustees. To counter the arbitrary designation of geographic names, the Board was established to develop nomenclature criteria and render decisions that were binding for federal agencies. Following discussions earlier in the year with NPS officials and receiving their endorsements, Dorr ambitiously requests as National Monument custodian that six prominent physical features of the island be renamed. Within two weeks the new nomenclature was authorized. Nearly half the mountains that form the Mount Desert Range were renamed Acadia, Bernard, Cadillac, Champlain, Huguenot Head, Mansell, and Norumbega. Critics will characterize the proposed name changes as arbitrary, an issue that Dorr had anticipated. Aware of the sensitivity of this issue, Dorr sends lengthy letters in DORR1918 Page 5 of 22 1919 to the Chairman of the Board Executive Committee explaining his rationale for the new names. (United States Board of Geographic Names Archives, documents provided by USBGN Executive Secretary Roger L. Payne, February 6, 2003, especially the letter of April 9, 1919) No evidence exists that Dorr initiated public discussion on this matter prior to making these requests. Explanations were given to Eliot and when the Board decided not to follow Dorr's lead, there was no indication of disappointment or regret at having initiated the nomenclature recommendation. (February 19, 1917 Dorr to Lincoln Cromwell; May 7, 1919 to Eliot; May 9, 1919 to Dorr. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) While Dorr's motives for initiating the renaming of natural features were complex, the basic failing of conventional names (e.g., Brown, Dog, and Green etc.) was that they were "undistinguished." The commonality and historical shallowness of many of the names were their failings. Dorr is not intent upon substituting names of his own choosing for all local nomenclature. To the contrary, early island settlers provided an alternative model when they gave "excellent descriptive names "to the seacoast and harbored waters where names like Egg Rock and Otter Creek suggest their own interesting ancestry. But "mountains and paths, woods, and lakes, must all have names for sake of distinction and as points visitor reference." As a new federal administrator, Dorr was also trying to conform to the Board principle of long standing usage, yet as a scholar he was driven to find a preferred historic precedent for the conventional names. Where historical roots were shallow, Dorr saw an opportunity to develop alternative historical arguments that emphasized the role of Native American and French historical associations. In this process he pioneered the application of a more ancient lineage than what was customary on Mount Desert Island. He wanted to convey "to the American people, the new owner of these lands, some realizing consciousness of an interesting and half-forgotten past that this corner of their land has had to link that past, with its old French associations, with the present, epoch-making cooperation of America with France and England, on the battlegrounds of Europe..." (See R.H. Epp, "The Mountain Naming Controversy and the Mission of the Trustees," Woodlawn Museum Newsletter 2, #3 [Summer 2005] Pp. 1 ff.) We shall see that a segment of the public will stew about these and subsequent name changes for more than a decade until the issue escalates into a local controversy. Nomenclature is no stranger to the District of Columbia. In Washington there is progress on the bill to elevate the monument to a national park. Some had suggested that it be named Mount Desert National Park or George B. Dorr National Park. Eliot thought that Lafayette was "a good name for the Park, although he was never much of a hero in France; and Senator Hale's Bill is very timely, in spite of the fact that America has no alliance with France at this moment, and does not seem likely to attain to any." (Eliot to Dorr. 27 September 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B.95) On October 3rd the Lafayette National Park Bill introduced by Maine Senator Frederick Hale is passed. One month later a Department of the Interior press release clearly has the ring of Dorr's language and perhaps unwisely closes with the following political claim: "It will stand as a sign, set up forever and visible to all the navies of the world, of that league of nations for which the President is wisely striving and from which alone true peace can come." (September 26, 1918. NARA. RG79. Central Files 1907-39. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports to DORR1918 Page 6 of 22 1920.) The planting of the peace tree at Sieur de Monts Spring by Eliot and Dorr the following summer is a direct outgrowth of this judgment. One summer resident who would prove to be even more strongly interested in local history than Dorr was Little Cranberry Island summer resident William Otis Sawtelle (1874-1939), a Haverford College physics professor. He had recently purchased a ships' store on the island as a venue for his growing collection of historical memorabilia. In 1919 he formed the Islesford Historical Society. Sawtelle's scholarly habits embraced maritime history and local genealogy, resulting over the next decade in a rapidly expanding collection as well as his own publication of definitive historical articles on the region. As the National Park Service warmed to the idea of park properties extending into Frenchmen Bay, park service officials would pay closer attention to the richness of Sawtelle's historical collections. The Honorable Luere B. Deasy is nominated in late September by the Governor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Senior member of the Deasy & Lynam law firm, he began his practice of law in Bar Harbor in 1885. A Republican, he has served as president of the Maine Senate (1909) he is currently president of the Bar Harbor Banking & Trust Co. Active in the BHVIA, as well as the HCTPR, he is closely associated with Mr. Dorr's endeavors. Mather receives a letter from Dorr referring to the new "park office the building where I took you to see King's photographs.' Office available for visitor information, distribution of maps and publications, and working environment for a stenographer; however, in winter months the office is uninhabitable for it lacks heat. (October 20, 1918. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Box 4.f.121) It is curious here that Dorr should mention drawing Mather's attention to King's photographs. I suspect that one of Mather's closest friends, the prominent photographer Herbert Wendell Gleason, had not yet arrived on the island. Indeed, six weeks later writes to Horace Albright reiterating the language he uses in a letter to Mather supportive of Gleason's pro rata contract with the NPS, emphasizing that due to winter light conditions his November photography on Mount Desert Island did not fulfill his expectations. Dorr expects Gleason to return within a few months though it will not be until Spring 1919 that he will "finish his collection." NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Dec. 2, 1918 letter from Dorr to H. Albright) As we know from the Sawtelle Archive inventory of Gleason's photography, hundreds of photographs will be taken during 1921 and 1922 before the collection is finalized. Apparently representing the NPS home office, Mary C. Daly reports (about the aforementioned) to Horace Albright (11.29) about her MDI visit and the efforts expended by Dorr to show her the island ( hikes up Flying Squadron and the Beehive concluding that "Mr. Dorr is the very nicest sort of person imaginable to work for, as he is very thoughtful." (NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-31. Acadia Misc. Reports. Reports) During the late fall Dorr translates an article for English language readers published in Italian by Luigi Parpagliolo on the merits of a proposal to establish the first national park in Italy. Published in the September 1919 issue of the Journal of the International Garden Club, this translation reflected Dorr's desire to show the similarities he recently faced in bringing Lafayette National Park into being but also to demonstrate to NPS superiors his talent for understanding issues beyond the confines of Maine. Horace Albright received a letter from Dorr (12.2) stating that he has made progress with this translation and hopes to send the Italians an accounting of American park development DORR1918 Page 7 of 22 progress. In the same letter he details park office facility improvements, closing with notice that Herbert Gleason's contracted photography work for NPS has drawn to a close because of faint seasonal light. (NARA. RG79. Central Classified Files. Acadia. Misc. Rpts.) With these matters concluded, Dorr returns in December to Bar Harbor to set up the national monument's office. Very likely at his own expense, Dorr "secured the services of Mr. A.H. Lynam, who had prepared our former deeds under the direction of Judge Deasy and was more conversant than anyone with the land ownerships upon the island. { Lynam] took up his active work as Assistant Superintendent with the special aim of extending our knowledge of the ownership and title of lands desirable for reservations." (Dorr to Eliot. September 25, 1919. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. .95) Lynam and Schuyler Clark focus on Southwest Harbor lands. Regardless of the progress of the national park bill, the expansion of the park over the next decade remains a primary objective. When appropriations are received in the Summer of 1919, the efficiency of land surveys essential to park growth is improved after the first park automobile is purchased. 1919 As Dorr anticipates his return to Washington, he and the nation mourn the death January 6th death of President Theodore Roosevelt at Sagamore, the press recounts his unprecedented conservation achievements. In Washington, legislation identical to Senator Hale's approved bill of October 1918 to establish a national park in Maine is introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman John A. Peters--and passed unanimously on February 17th. Following months in Europe negotiating the peace, President Wilson returns to Washington. Ten days later on February 27th Wilson adds his signature to the Lafayette National Park bill. (Bar Harbor Times, March 1, 1919) Horace Albright says of Lafayette National Park that "it could have been named George B. Dorr National Park, for if ever a park was achieved by the inspiration and determination of one man, it was this one." (Birth of the NPS, 85) This legislation established as well the Grand Canyon National Park, tying for 17th place in the evolution of the national park system. (A fascinating administrative history of Grand Canyon National Park is Michael F. Anderson's recent Polishing the Jewel. [www.nps.gov/grca/adhi/index.htm]) For the new National Park Service, 1919 would be a banner year with three new areas--including Zion National Park-receiving congressional approval. Recently, several National Geographic Magazine readers objected to a precedent-making claim about Acadia National Park. (John G. Mitchell. "Autumn in Acadia National Park," NGM 208, #5 [Nov. 2005] 28-45) The source of the criticism was an historical assertion widely used in public presentations and publications since its appearance in 1919: namely, that the new park was the first national park east of the Mississippi. As the magazine readers reminded its editors, Michigan was the first state east of the Mississippi to have a national park. In 1875 on the shores of the Great Lakes, the U.S. Congress established Mackinac National Park just three years after Yellowstone National Park was established. In 1894 the Ward Department abandoned protection of the site when it was deemed economically indefensible and no longer within the scope of military responsibility. Since Congress was unwilling to step in and fund a ranger force to protect the national park, an arrangement was struck with the State of Michigan. In 1895, however, this land was given to Michigan with the stipulation that it be DORR1918 Page 8 of 22 maintained as a state park. "Thus, Mackinac National Park became a footnote in most histories of the U.S. national park system." (Kathy S. Mason, Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872-1916. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004. Pg. 40). There is no evidence that Dorr was aware of Mackinaw's short-lived standing. No Michigan Congressman of the era contested Dorr's claim as legislation worked its way through the Congressional committee process. Until the National Park Service was established, the national park concept was imprecise and devoid of consistent application. Chronologically, Mackinaw was the first national park east of the Mississippi. Yet it is a matter of fact that it was decommissioned. A quarter century later Lafayette National Park was established and sustained for nine decades since then. Acadia continues to be described in popular and official publications as the first of the national parks east of the Mississippi River. At the annual Bar Harbor Town Meeting held at the Casino (3.3) a resolution [approved?] is introduced by Fred C. Lynam and passed by a unanimous rising vote : "Whereas Mount Desert Island will be eminently benefited by the establishment of a National Park. Its tree, plant, and animal life will be protected, the approach to its scenic beauty improved and increased, its natural beauties advertised to the world through tens of thousands of leaflets and pamphlets issued by the Federal Government, and the Island benefited in ways too many to enumerate. Resolved that inhabitants of Bar Harbor extend most appreciatively thanks to George Bucknam Dorr for his tireless, persistent, intelligent work, carried on under the most adverse circumstances. He has overcome obstacles that no other friend of the section [sic] would have commanded the courage to overcome, and have finally secured for us and for our posterity the Lafayette National Park on Mount Desert Island. We regard the achievement as a crowning event in a life, SO much of which has been devoted to the interest of Bar Harbor." (Town Records of Eden, v.11). In the 1919 SHVIS Report the establishment of LNP is noted and GBD is recognized: "we are all indebted for its accomplishment to the untiring devotion of Mr. George B. Dorr of Bar Harbor." These accolades were surely appreciated by Dorr despite the fact that he considered this "a beginning only; much remained to do before the larger vision that had come to me should be transmuted into fact." (Dorr Papers, B1.f. 14, June 11 transcript). Despite the land-locked interior properties gifted by the Trustees to the federal government, the acquisition of coastal properties was essential if Dorr was to establish the first national seacoast park-where land and shore interacted. However important this goal, within a year Rockefeller horse-road system development issues would become the most critical issue. As part of his effort to publicize the new national park, Dorr prepares a series of dramatic Lafayette National Park landscape photographs that Congressman John A. Peters has enthusiastically agreed to display in his new congressional office in Washington. (April 3, 5, and 18, 1919. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Peters support for this marketing of the park does not preclude Dorr taking the risk of challenging the status quo. In early April Dorr sends two lengthy letters to Mr. Bond of the U.S. Geographic Board. The shorter personal letter explains the background and supportive maps justifying two MDI mountain name changes. Penobscot Mountain is proposed as "a superb memorial to our native Indians," remarking that papers will be published on native populations (likely DORR1918 Page 9 of 22 projected for the Sieur de Monts Publications) The other is to rename "Flying Mountain" (formerly Dry Mountain) as Peace Mountain; Dorr proposes a memorial at the crest of the mountain, including a series of papers focused on the recent sacrifices to secure peace. A lengthier formal memo reveals that Dorr was more knowledgeable about regional native Americans than is usually supposed and that he employed a scholarly investigative process to determine which names would best reflect Penobscot culture. In the contemporary spirit of multiculturalism, Dorr's memo also argues for renaming mountains to reflect as well French and English historic influences. Finally, transcending the distinctive cultural influences the letter offers several reasons proposed by President Eliot for the re-designation of Peace Mountain. Implicit here is Dorr's commitment to a "wider vision" where the historic conflicts of these cultures are replaced by a harmonious use of this new public sanctuary. No action was taken by the Board and no documented explanation is extant. (BGN) It is one thing to modify nomenclature and yet another to alter the landscape with a historic physical icon. The effort to erect a religious artifact atop Flying Mountain is worth recounting as representative of the periodic public efforts to modify the natural landscape with cultural artifacts. The property with the strongest and deepest religious associations on the island is the catalyst for a controversy that will unfold over two years. Beyond Mount Desert it is not commonly known that seven years before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the first French religious community in North America was the 1613 Jesuit Mission on Mount Desert, in an area of Southwest Harbor still called Jesuit Field. Dorr and Eliot are two of the six known members of a Committee formed in the fall of 1917 to solicit public contributions to purchase Jesuit Field and transfer it to the federal government. Committee members distribute circulars in which they delineate the rationale for their effort to raise twenty thousand dollars. In language that has all the earmarks of Dorr, they argue that since America is now engaged with France in a war to defend civilization the public acquisition of this property is a way to honor the "religious and patriotic" undertaking of 1613. (RAC. III.2.I. B. 84. f. 830) That circular reaches Rockefeller who emphasizes in a letter to Eliot that "my interest is rather keener in the purchase of the mountains on the Island for the National Park than in this historic material. " (Letters of October 31, November 13 & 24, 1917. RAC III. B84 f.830). Whether Rockefeller aided the successful acquisition of this site cannot be determined. (Sieur de Monts National Monument, 1st Annual Report. October 31, 1917; Dorr to Albright. November 6, 1917. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Misc. Rpts. Annual) The controversy was not rooted in site acquisition but in the offer made by "a long time resident of Northeast Harbor [Mrs. Winthrop Sargent] and an old friend of my own, [who] consulted me in the summer of 1917 with regard to commemorating the Jesuit settlement by the erection of a cross on Flying mountain, a ridge of granite overlooking what is known as 'Jesuit Field' and jutting boldly out across the entrance to Somes Sound." (September 26, 1919. NARA. RG79.CCF 1907-39. Acadia. B. 3. f. see also A.H. Lynam. Trustee Meeting Announcement. April 18, 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Dorr's ambitions are to secure sufficient funds to erect a "stone cross-a 'Celtic' one-on Flying Mountain above the Field" where memorial stones will inform those trekking to the summit about the significance of the French colony DORR1918 Page 10 of 22 seeking a foothold in the New World. In his report to Washington, Dorr even goes SO far as to state that this cross will promote the idea of a pilgrimage to a shrine. (NARA, RG79, CCF, Acadia. Misc. Rpts.) With the approval of Secretary Lane, a 30 foot temporary wooden cross designed by prominent Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram was erected on the proposed site; public reaction was mixed and included "much criticism." Indeed, Eliot writes that the cross "is objected to by a considerable number of persons, including most of the residents on the easterly side of Somes Sound." (Eliot to Dorr. 8 September 1918. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Eliot's position is not disclosed but his letter indicates that objections centered on two issues: uncertainty about the cross is intended to represent, and its conspicuous visibility against the natural landscape. The cross stood until the Spring of 1919 when it was removed at the direction of an unnamed member of the committee. Later a memorial inscription-recognizing Rev. Cornelius Smith and his wife Mary Wheeler- will be positioned on Acadia Mountain, formerly Flying Mountain. (August 19, 1919. Dorr to Eliot. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B.95) Yet in the end, one wonders at Dorr's motives, especially at a time when negative publicity could jeopardize the case he was making in Washington for national park status. Since these events unfolded on private land not yet transferred to the government, Dorr and the government could side step for the moment the legal implications of a religious symbol atop federal land. Unfortunately, Dorr's enthusiasm for new properties ripe with "historical associations" aroused local objections that could have escalated to national difficulties once the land was transferred to the federal government, volatile issues relating to the separation of church and state. Yet not all of this can be laid at Dorr's feet. After all, the erection of a temporary cross was the result of input from Trustees with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. An essay written by Maria G. van Rensselaer nearly thirty years earlier on the achievements of Frederick Law Olmsted contains a judgment wisely applied to the new Lafayette National Park superintendent. "In doing public work of any sort [and] in his dealings with certain high-placed officials, as in his management of his humblest workmen, there was never a moment when his hands were unfettered, his mind at leisure for its artistic tasks, his spirit untried by a myriad illegitimate vexations. Nevertheless, by hard personal work, beginning at dawn the new superintendent very quickly made his energy, honesty, and capability felt." ("Frederick Law Olmsted," The Century Magazine 46, #6 (October 1893) pg. 863) It what appears to be the first of Dorr's many subsequent superintendent reports to the National Park Service, a May 7th five-page document now in the National Archives summarizes "Rangers' Work in Lafayette National Park." The report covers the territories and issues faced by Chief Ranger A.H. Lynam, John Rich and Henry Smith. Dorr refers to a colleague named Dockham who systematically organized "my accumulated photographic and other material illustrative of the park. anticipation of a thorough landscape and physiographic study of the whole park area." His goal is provide appropriate illustrations to accompany reports needed by the National Park Service. (NARA. RG79. NPS. General Records. Central Files, 1907-39. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports. Box 4) The National Park Association is formed (5.29) at the Cosmos Club, with leadership provided by R. S. Yard (who could no longer retain his NPS position because of a change in the law that prohibited his financial DORR1918 Page 11 of 22 dependency on Mather). Yard becomes increasingly concerned about the commercialization of the parks, the "regional boosters, opportunistic politicians, and a variety of commercial interest [that] were plugging the parks into an increasingly sophisticated commercial matrix and distorting the role of the national parks as educational places." (Sutter, Driven Wild, p. 111) At the same time the press was reacting favorably to "The Book of National Parks," Yard's survey which judges the forests of Lafayette National Park as "schools for tree study, their branches a museum of bird life." (quoted in NYTimes 8.17.1919) Mr. Dorr entertains fifty members of the Appalachian Mountain Club at Old Farm following their arrival from Boston to spend a week exploring the new national park, "the first excursion that this well-known club has made to Mount Desert Island." A lengthy article in The Bar Harbor Times (7.2.1919) repeatedly emphasized the enthusiasm of club members- roughly two thirds being women--for the beauty and hospitality afforded them. Even though the park has formally existed for a mere five months, Mather sends (7.3) highly detailed instructions to Dorr-as well as the other new Superintendents one presumes--fo completing his annual seasonal NPS report prior to its September 15th due date. (NARA. RG79. CCF. NPS. 1907-39. Acadia. Misc. Reports. Reports, Annual) John D. Rockefeller arrives in Seal Harbor to spend the summer with his son and daughter-in-law at Gleneyrie, having motored from Pocantico Hills where JDR celebrated his 80th birthday July 8th. In what may have seemed at the time a minor administrative matter, a new employee is added (7.28) to the park clerical staff. As we shall see, Benjamin L. Hadley's administrative accomplishments are second only to that of Mr. Dorr. His son Lawrence Chase Hadley will become a Park Ranger, serving in Shenandoah National Park and NPS HQ in Washington. In late July a hundred people gathered at Sieur de Monts Spring to share in the ceremony to plant two young trees dedicated to lasting peace. Though the silent force behind this occasion was Dr. Abbe, there is no documentation that he attended. (Eliot to Dorr. July 24, 1919. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Eliot and Dorr broke ground to plant a Sequoia from Yosemite National Park (representing the west and California) beside a White Pine (representing Maine, the Pine Tree State) provided by the Mount Desert Nurseries, both presented by Dr. Robert Abbe. No speeches were made but the newspaper captured the spirit of the occasion when it reported that everyone present placed a trowel of Maine soil at the foot of each tree, hoping that "peace should endure as long as these trees should lend their shade to our forests. (Bar Harbor Times. July 30, 1919; an anonymous poem-rightly attributed to Dr. Abbe--was published therein as well) American Society of Landscape Architects President Frederick Law Olmsted visits Bar Harbor as Dorr's guest to study approaches to Lafayette National Park and plans for the Wild Gardens of Acadia, the first of several visits in the years to come. (BHT 7.30) Dorr's efforts to celebrate the park wildlife is again expressed in his response (8.15) to Director Mather's inquiry about photographs of eagles in Lafayette National Park. The process for securing these images is described in detail, with greater specificity than the circumstances required. Dorr concludes by informing Mather that President Wilson-with whom Dorr had "a personal acquaintance"- sent an enlargement of this national symbol. (NARA.RG79 CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Box 3) In an earlier DORR1918 Page 12 of 22 letter to Eliot, Dorr notes that he had promised eagle photographs to two recent hosts who had him to dinner a week before the Peace Tree planting: Frances R. Appleton and the William Crowninshield Endicott. (July 20, 1919. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Mindful of public concerns about Park expansion, Charles W. Eliot presides at an afternoon public meeting at the Casino on the growth and development of the national park. According to press reports Dorr was unaware that the gathering was to be "a splendid tribute to George B. Dorr an expression of the appreciation of the community for the untiring efforts of the gentleman who has devoted years of his life to the development of the National Park." Dr. Abbe called Dorr to the stage to receive a list of 400 persons who had contributed $25,000 for the purchase of parklands. Dorr was apparently overcome by this generosity and asked Dr. Eliot to thank his friends for him. (Bar Harbor Times, September 8, 1920. Some have suggested that these funds really were intended to offset the debts that Dorr had accumulated in assembling parklands) The extent to which Dorr involved himself in photographing the Park is difficult to determine. Many Sieur de Monts Publications included images that may have been his own since they are not credited. The American Musuem of Natural History contains a collection of 19 images of Mount Desert Island taken in 1919 and credited to Mr. Dorr, one or more credited to A.D. Dockham as well since Dorr is the subject of one image. These landscape photographs are similar stylistically to the techniques of Herbert Wendell Gleason who will take several thousand photographs of the park in the early 1920's (G.B. Dorr. Maine Field Photographs, 1919- 1920. American Museum of Natural History Special Collections) There is growing concern about Dorr's methods. Specifically, his entrepreneurial approach to land acquisition, the absence of shared documentation about the status of complex negotiations, and the extent of Dorr's indebtedness. President Eliot writes to JDRJr. (9.3) confirming Rockefeller's concern that "nobody knows what the lands are which Mr. Dorr has established some kind of claim on" as part of his plan to ultimately gift them to the government. It is not unreasonable to suppose that this concern is being raised privately by other Trustees but Eliot is clearly frustrated at his lack of success in inducing Dorr "to write down the information he has in his head about lands on this Island which ought to go either to the National Park or the Wild Gardens." Moreover, Eliot is concerned because Dorr's familiarity with the Island human and natural history "ought to have been written down years ago [but] he has on paper only scattered memoranda that nobody else could make anything out of, and he himself cannot find when he wants them. I fear that the situation is a hopeless one." Continuing this expression of unusual frankness, Eliot confides to Rockefeller that Mr. Dorr "lives in such a preposterous way as respects the care of his health, and takes SO many absurd risks in rushing about this Island that we are likely to lose him any day by disease or accident.' (RAC. III. B59.f441) Despite these reservations, JDR gifts land to the government through the Trustees are completed. Deeds for one hundred acres of the Beech Hill Cliff tract and another 100 adjacent acres on Echo Lake are transferred on September 13-15, 1919, the first of many Rockefeller land donations; not until 1927 will another parcel be transferred. (RAC. OMR. II.2.I. B86. f.845) Nearly a half century later, Acadia Park Superintendent John M. Good reports that Rockefeller gave 9,599 Mount Desert Island acres to the government prior to his death--and acreage in excess of 1, 700 acres DORR1918 Page 13 of 22 bequeathed in his will, making him the largest single donor. (RAC. OMR. II.2.I B83.f821) Dorr distributes signed presentation copy pocket maps of Lafayette National Park based on Dr. Abbe's relief map. The National Parks Foundation is established in Washington by a group of public officials, scientists, and educators under the leadership of Robert Sterling Yard, with the personal and financial support of NPS Director Mather. In 1970 will be renamed National Parks and Conservation Association Mr. Dorr departs (11.8) to attend the Fifth National Park Conference held in Denver and at Rocky Mountain N.P. from Nov. 13-16, NPS Dir. Mather presiding. (RAC. OMR. II.2.I. B86.f.848, Dorr letter to JDR Jr., 12.9.19, Following the conference Dorr visits "certain western parks" before returning to Washington where he stays through December. Unfortunately, we have no itinerary or log of Dorr's visits. Administrative difficulties develop over park oversight of Rockefeller's carriage road project on the Asticou-Jordan Pond road. The correspondence that lasts less than a month is a telling example of the nature of the relationship between the Triumvirate members at this time. According to contractor Charles P. Simpson reports to JDR Jr. (11.5) that a few days earlier Dorr voiced concerns that the beauty of an area laden with springs and pools would be marred if the planned road was constructed across a rock slide; Dorr however, "would not strongly object is none of the big fragments of rock were disturbed." Simpson not only proposes alternative routing but emphasizes that Dorr made clear that he did not want to ask anything that would "discourage us from the good work we are doing, but reiterated that he is "responsible to those higher up, and ultimately to the Secretary of the Interior, and he felt that he should know, and be able to approve of the plan of construction.' Simpson then specifies criticisms offered by Dorr regarding selection of appropriate rock coping stones and the width of bridges among other matters; Simpson concludes by reiterating that Dorr believes that "minute specifications should be prepared and submitted to him for approval.. (See RAC. OMR. III. 2. I. B86. f848 for related correspondence) Rockefeller responds two days later suggesting that Mr. Dorr re-inspect the area in the company of Mr. Clement. Lengthy well-reasoned arguments are offered by Rockefeller to meet Dorr's criticisms but on one issue shows no openness to a continued dialogue. He makes clear that he has in his possession letters from Dorr given Rockefeller "complete authority" which he "has probably forgotten." Though Rockefeller hopes to visit in early December, he encourages Simpson to meet with Dorr at the site. On the 12th Rockefeller sends a letter to Dorr stressing that the selected route would "mar only temporarily and to a very slight extent the beauty of the rocks" and that it was his intent to leave certain large rocks undisturbed which could be made clear to Dorr if he arranged another visit with Simpson. Rockefeller's letter (11.18 copy unavailable?) to Dorr is unanswered and a copy sent to Dr. Eliot elicits a response on 3 December suggests that both are unaware of Mr. Dorr's whereabouts. In this letter Rockefeller had first express the possibility of terminating the road-building programs and Eliot tries to shore up his confidence by stating that "everyone that is interested in the Island of Mount Desert will regret DORR1918 Page 14 of 22 that you should have to contemplate even for a moment such a contingency or conclusion. (RAC. OMR. II. 2. 9.f.441). Dorr responds from Boston (12.9) that he has not been ill or remiss and that the letter only reached him a few days earlier in Washington (RAC. OMR. II. B85.f.839) Unknown to Eliot and Rockefeller, Dorr had just returned from Denver where he attended his first National Park Conference. Since 1911, the Secretary of the Interior and then the Director of the National Park Service, called together senior field NPS administrators to discuss the development and administration of the nations parks. The conference location varied in order to expose park superintendents to the challenges faced by their counterparts. Nonetheless, Dorr clearly sees himself as the park road strategist well aware that national park status was but the first stage in the attainment of his "larger vision.' Dorr makes clear that the "larger vision that had come to me should be transmuted into fact. A seacoast park, the first as yet within our national bounds-east or west--the sea- waves rolling in and breaking on its granite coast, it had no actual contact with the sea..." Dorr is also "acutely conscious" of the fact that the Atlantic seacoast is best viewed from atop Cadillac Mountain, which is still "inaccessible to all but active climbers." Much repeated throughout his private and administrative correspondence, the unique seacoast park concept has not to this day been given the attention it deserves. The acquisition of shoreline property and a road system enabling access would be one of his major challenges. (Dorr Papers. B1.f14) As the new decade dawned both he and Rockefeller increasingly realized that the wildness that Senator Pepper and others defended was not SO much threatened by road building as by the sheer number of automobiles--and the tourists who desired easy access to the shrinking acreage that could rightly be called wilderness. (Craig W. Allen. The Politics of Wilderness Preservation, p. 65) Dorr is also increasingly sensitized to the political consequences of his advancing years as well as Rockefeller's vulnerability to local criticism: "I have been greatly interested in your road-building work and am trying to work out a plan for the park development that will incorporate it in the park as a permanent and important feature, along the lines of your intention Such a road takes time to build, and should anything happen to me before its completion it would be well, as it seems to me, to have on record such a statement of what was planned and authorized." (RAC. OMR. B86.f.848) The issue has been resolved for the time being in large part because both strong individualists increasingly realize that there is a third-party bureaucracy in Washington with emerging policies that hold each of them increasingly accountability. Dorr is traveling to Bar Harbor to spend the winter as the December 1919 issue of The Atlantic Monthly appears, containing an anonymous piece titled "Written But Never Sent: To a Very Rich Neighbor." In hindsight, this letter appearing in a widely read publication offers readers a rare insight into the Rockefeller family-and its impact on Mount Desert Island culture. Addressed to "Mr. Aristos," the letter focuses on the issue of neighborliness. Although the location is never specified, readers soon infer that it is Seal Harbor, especially since it claims that the author is a friend of Mr. Aristos living within live hundred feet of him. After stressing their commonalities, he asks why they are not friends and comes to the conclusion that "the explanation is your money,--your extra money,--not the money you spend, but the money you DORR1918 Page 15 of 22 have not spent. The writer believes that when someone is "so redundantly rich" then his neighbors will believe that Mr. Aristos is convinced that all others are after his wealth. The cumulative effect is a kind of social inertia where Mr. Aristos acts out of a sense of duty and not from shared neighborly feelings. Even though the letter is not sent, it finds its way into the pages The Atlantic and in due course elicits a response published in the TAM that may have come from Abby Rockefeller. (RAC. OMR. B. .77. f. 784). 1920 As new national part superintendent, Dorr escalates his efforts to make the NPS aware of the year-round recreational opportunities available in the park. Director Mather would have also been copied when important correspondence took place with Mr. Rockefeller, as was the case when Dorr begins the New Year (1.2) with an eleven-page letter to Rockefeller that deals largely with road construction matters. Following a critique by Eliot, Dorr details the economic benefits of his road modifications, stressing improved trail access and the heightened aesthetics of his proposed elevated roadway. (Dorr to Eliot. January 2, 1920. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) This letter is clearly not apologetic but instead an effort to educate Rockefeller about the merits of his land shaping perceptions couched within a larger vision of the seacoast park. He also thinks that Rockefeller needs to be reminded of the political realities that both of them face: specifically, a public perception that carriage road access to the park is undemocratic given the costs associated with horse-drawn transportation: Dorr wants to avoid "hostile criticism reaching back to Washington, that we [my emphasis] are developing the park for the benefit and pleasure of wealthy summer residents, or that the work we {my emphasis again] are doing is not in harmony with the wild beauty and primeval quality that drew, first the artists ands their friends, and then SO many here in early days. My own work has been criticized, I know, along this line." Dorr insists that he still is "responsible personally for all that is done." Nonetheless, he will continue to shelter Rockefeller believing that "the more freely you could work things out on your own responsibility the greater your interest and pleasure in the work." (RAC. III.2.I b85.f.839) In February, the editors of The Atlantic published an unidentified response from the wife of "Mr. Aristos," justifying its inclusion because of their "admiration for a tone and temper in trying circumstances. Implying that she knows the identity of the author of the initial letter, Abby Rockefeller (Mrs. Aristos') emphasizes that her husband is only their neighbor two months of the year and during that time "to be worthwhile to one's friends and the cause of righteousness, one must-so to speak-retire into the wilderness." She says that during vacation certain duties persist-such as responding to mail-that interfere with social visits. She does not apologize for the fact that her husband "prefers to spend his mornings chopping wood or riding and playing tennis with his boys, his afternoons driving or walking-he and I together-his evenings with his children, [which] inevitably results in nothing but little time remaining. It may seem selfish, but it has nothing to do with money." She concludes by asking for help from her neighbors SO that the surplus money is forgotten and that the "deserving rich" are not taken too seriously. The correspondence ceases but for a brief moment the public is given a glimpse into the Rockefeller family self-perception; to avoid a clear disclosure of identity, the letter does not address the time spent by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in the development of his carriage road system. DORR1918 Page 16 of 22 Dorr updates Mather (letters dated 2.17 & 2.19) on the winter months at Lafayette N.P. and his new awareness of "the extent to which the park can be developed in the direction of winter sports and outings." Skating, ice-boating, ice-fishing, sking, and snow-shoeing are mentioned as recreational assets. These two letters characteristically show his interest in the recreational potential of the park, the conservation of park natural life, and the human impact of park policies. He discusses at length the effect of winter on animal populations. Steps were taken to provide hand-sledded hay for deer after recent ice-storms denuded trees and shrubs; and Dorr introduced a beaver colony which "will make a feature of wide interest in the park at all seasons," even if the interest of some in recent years has been for their eradication. Finally, Dorr says that he has gathered many photographs of the park in winter which he will forward to Washington for information and publicity purposes, a promise he fulfills as explained in his letter two weeks later (March 3, 1920. NARA. RG79. CCF, 1907-39. Acadia. Misc. Reports. Box 4) The Town of Bar Harbor departs from historic convention by appropriating $6,500 to "making known the town's newest asset in the Lafayette National Park." (Dorr to Mather, March 3, 1920. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. B.3.f.4) Dorr credits this accomplishment to Mr. Hadley and hopes that this is but the beginning of a "permanent attitude and of a sympathetic comprehension by them of the Park Service aims and plans Bar Harbor insurance agent Fred C. Lynam informs Peters that the town wishes to cooperate with the Park in promoting island resources, concluding that "the park will not only be a great thing for Bar Harbor but for the whole island and the county as well... {And} I realize how much the success of this enterprise has depended upon the help that you have given to Mr. Dorr.' (Lynam to Peters. March 24, 1920. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Correspondence) A collaborative effort with Mount Desert Fish and Game Association to secure a State Fish Hatchery on the Island and to further promote protection for game birds is undertaken at this time. In what is clearly a sign of Dorr's supportive encouragement, clerk-stenographer assistant Benjamin Hadley writes to Mather on park winter sport development, emphasizing that downhill skiing "an almost unknown sport here," until the time when this expanse of land was made publicly accessible. He concludes by stating that MDI "never stood in a better way to become a popular resort for winter tourists as well as summer.' (March 25 and April 16, 1920. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Box 3) Dorr also requests from Mather additional compensation for Mr. Hadley who is proving to be "of great usefulness to me" on matters involving the development of the park; Dorr's lengthy handwritten postscript details the initiatives undertaken by Mr. Hadley which Dorr argues warrants upward reclassification. Given Mr. Dorr's age, this support for Mr. Hadley must have been viewed at NPS Headquarters as an encouraging sign. Prompted by Eliot's early Spring note expressing interest in Dorr's activities for the last three months, Dorr responds at length that he stayed the winter in Bar Harbor "finding much to keep me day after day, until the days grew into weeks and months and Spring is here-Birds are singing now, the squills have opened their bright blue flowers, and rhubarb is pushing its great stalks up in the garden." (April 14, 1920. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. 1.95) As well as keeping up with the New York Times and other papers, winter evenings were spent reading works on marine biology, entomology, and geology. He has "felt most useful here" working on new property acquisitions, writing a paper on the park, and arranging for distribution of park photographs to be DORR1918 Page 17 of 22 exhibited in twenty-five greater New York high schools. Similar photographic exhibits were arranged from Maine to Iowa, and Dorr is confident that "a large opportunity for educational work is going to open up for the park. " Eliot replies that "you must have enjoyed yourself a good deal this winter" in spite of the severe weather and his "solitary condition." His letter focuses on a "defective" Massachusetts Forestry Association advertisement he received for national park tours, promotional information that does "not mention any national parks east of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana." Recognizing the explosion of bus and auto tourism, Eliot asks whether it is not time to get state associations that arrange such park tours, to "organize tours to the Lafayette National Park." (15 April 1920. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Eliot could not have foreseen that in several years the consequences of tourism and road construction in the park will be addressed by hearings before the Secretary of the Interior. Of the many acquaintances of Mr. Dorr, few have been memorialized by him with a named trail. Jacob Schiff (1847-1920) was a German immigrant who had achieved great success in America as an investment banker. He was widely celebrated as the greatest Jewish philanthropist of his day. Of the handful of Jewish families in Bar Harbor, only Schiff was accepted by the summer community. For nearly two decades, the Schiff summer home, Farview, was the point of departure for visits with the Eliots in Northeast Harbor, recreation at the Bar Harbor Swim Club, participation in village improvement projects, and lengthy rough hikes with Dorr, Eliot, and others. (Judith S. Goldstein. Crossing Lines: Histories of Jews and Gentiles in Three Communities. New York: William Morrow, 1992. Pp. 188-189; see www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/oralhistories 1 html for an extended family photograph at Farview) In the Summer of 1919 Dorr informed Schiff that "the path on Dry Mountain which you SO generously made it possible to undertake has now been carried, as we planned that it should be this year, to its meeting with the old Ladder Path [and] ultimately, it will be made a continuous, easy path from the foot to the summit.' (August 7, 1919. Harvard University Archives. C.W. Eliot Papers. B. 95) Schiff accepted an offer to have a steep new trail named after him that Dorr designed connecting four lower Sieur de Monts trails to the summit of Dry Mountain. The path was a formidable construction challenge. When completed after Schiff's death in 1920, it had extensive built features including steps, iron- pinning retaining walls, and "enormous capstone culverts." (Coffin Brown, op. cit. p. 221) In Seal Harbor, JDR Jr. deeds to the Town of Mount Desert the property formerly occupied by the Glen Cove Hotel to he held in perpetuity for public use as a Village Green. Assisted by Beatrix Farrand, the VIS has prepared plans for property development. (Seal Harbor VIS Minutes, 1920, Seal Harbor Public Library) Several miles to the north, Dr. Ulrich Dahlgren is appointed Director of the Harpswell Laboratory, succeeding Dr. Kingsley. On June 25, 1921 the new Weir Mitchell Station in Salisbury Cover opens its doors for ten weeks of scheduled research programs. The Mount Desert Transit Company was formed to manage a parcel of Bar Harbor land abutting Park Street and Ledgelawn Aveunue. Dorr is President, Ernesto Fabbri, Augustus Thorndike, Charles F. Paine, Guy E. Torrey, A Stroud Rodick, and A.H. Lynam are co-owners pf land to "be DORR1918 Page 18 of 22 used for outdoor games and sports and for the development and encouragement of athletics." (ANPA, Sawtelle Archives, B3.f6) Construction of the Asticou-Jordan Pond road stopped in June because of opposition of local residents. Dorr and Rockefeller tangle with George Wharton Pepper over the construction of a road circling Amphitheatre Valley, the last road authorized by Franklin Lane during their meeting in the summer of 1917; this was also one of the roads endorsed by the Trustees in 1915. .Rockefeller's termination of work on this portion of the Asticou-Jordan Pond Road would effectively put the completion of this road on the shelf for more than a decade; instead, Dorr encouraged Rockefeller to think about a "grand northern terminus" for his carriage road system atop Paradise Hill in Hulls Cove. (7.22 letter quoted by Willliam Rieley. Cultural Landscape Report for the Carriage Road System, p. 189) Dorr alerts Rockefeller of a need for additional roads to complete the park system. Rockefeller, with his surveyor, studies the possibilities all summer. From Dorr's perspective as park founder and administrator, Rockefeller's road projects were necessary elements in "making the park a nationally significant attraction." (D. Haney, "Picturesque Mount Desert," p. 281). In a lengthy letter dated July 22nd Dorr enlists Rockefeller's help in the completion of a comprehensive bridle path and carriage road plan. While Secretary Lane had approved in 1917 the original plan, Dorr is "anxious" to update the NPS in Washington about what has been achieved in the last three years and what remains to be done in establishing a bridle and road system extending across the island from south to north. In this highly personal draft, Dorr details his concerns about both the bridle paths, the roads, and their relationship. He details the merits of carriage road extension north into Duck Brook and Witch Hole Pond, clearly trying to whet Rockefeller's interest in this "picturesque" area. Dorr's recent conversations with Mather lead him to conclude that " a riding and driving system carried out on a scale to make it a real feature of the Park, available to all, would win strong support." (RAC III.2.I. B.85.f.839) Dorr concludes with a request for feedback prior to the August meeting of the annual meeting of the Northeast Harbor VIS. Its President invited Dorr to "make a statement of plans for future roads and paths" which would " a favorable opportunity to carry out your plan." While we do not know the details of Rockefeller's response, we do know that local support was mixed. Important island village improvement society members desired postponement of the Amphitheatre road and express concerns about concessions within the park; these individuals believe that a general plan needs to take these matters into consideration and should be presented to the public for their approval. (Letters dated Aug. 20th from Lincoln Cromwell and Sept. 3rd from Joseph Allen to Mr. Rockefeller, RAC III. 2. I. B.87. f. 876) Aside from the question of who manages national property which is not addressed at this time, this "small minority" is not ignored and Rockefeller stops Amphitheatre Road construction; work crews are shifted to the area near Jordan Pond. (See Bar Harbor Times Sept. 8, 1920 for an extended discussion of the issues) Before the end of the year Dorr will report to Mr. Rockefeller about the so-called "quiet stage" of negotiations for western and northern land, especially in the latter region between Hulls Cone and Eagle Lake where acreage costs could escalate if Rockefeller's interest was even suspected. (Dec. 29th letter, RAC III.2.I. B. 86. f.847) The larger original project quietly moves forward until three years later when a frustrated Senator Pepper DORR1918 Page 19 of 22 persuaded Secretary of Interior Work to hold hearings on the issue of Lafayette National Park road development. Freeman Tilden, a NPS author, who emphasized the importance of heritage interpretation during the 1950's in a typescript RAC essay "Friend of our Heritage," makes the striking claim that "no two men could have been much different in their approach to their private affairs than Mssrs. Dorr and Rockefeller: "George Dorr could and did move with trigger celerity. Again and again, in the early days, he had stormed the forts of doubt and antagonism, and taken them by his dominating fervor. But, unlike the man who came to his aid, he was an imprecise in his personal management as a Bohemian of the art colony. It pained and frightened Mr. Rockefeller. For both men it was very difficult to find general acceptance of the idea that Acadia should be a park for everyone. Many sang the lyrics of preservation for the public good but their lyrical memories failed executing the plan touched their petty concerns. "And much as he esteemed and cared for him, he had to be patient with Mr., Dorr. For they tell a little story in Acadia, which I hope is true-for this sort of tale is most amusing when true-of an occasion when Mr. Rockefeller gave George Dorr a friendly suggestion as to the evils of dilatoriness and procrastination. 'Why, I myself, he said, 'check my affairs every night before I go to bed.' George Dorr looked a little saddened, like an erring child corrected by a kind parent. Then he suggested, hopefully, 'wouldn't once a week be often enough?'" (pp. 10-11, RAC II.2.I. B60. f.518), Other residents viewed the sixty-six year old Dorr primarily as a community developer. A case in point was the mid-August meeting of prominent residents at the Reef Point home of landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand. There Dorr outlined a plan for the acquisition of land adjoining the Bar Harbor athletic field to be developed as a community recreation center-and the principle gateway to the Lafayette National Park (Bar Harbor Times August 8 & 25, 1920) Farrand spoke of the merits of expanding the existing athletic field with a band stand, a dancing pavilion, and a children's playground, an attraction not available on the Village Green. Dorr and Farrand were committee members charged with raising funds to purchase this five acre tract. Stephen Mather's 1920 Report of the Director of the National Park Service draws attention to the fact that Lafayette N.P. is "the first national park to be established within the original United States.' More than 65,000 visitors traveled to LNP from 29 states to visit a park that is rapidly expanding through additional gifts. Mather's report anticipates park winter sports use: ice boating, skating, snowshoeing, skiing, and tobogganing. None of this would pose a threat to wildlife. Deer are ruffed grouse populations within the park are on the increase and a pair of young beavers were presented to the park by Maine Fish and Game. While no longer extant on the island, their dams remain and it is hoped that their native communities can be restored under park protection. Within a decade their proliferation and migratory behavior would be seen as a threat to the landscape and the local economy, as Mr. Rockefeller Jr. would state in a private and confidential letter to NPS Assistant Director Cammerer. (RAC III. 2. B.83, .824) U.S. has nearly 20,000 business failures and by September nearly 3.5 million Americans are out of work, expressions of postwar political and economic convulsions. On Labor Day, President Eliot presided at a meeting held at the Bar Harbor Casino where numerous speakers spoke from different perspectives on the value of the new Lafayette National Park. "The occasion was one DORR1918 Page 20 of 22 of rejoicing in the possession of the Lafayette National Park and at the same time the whole meeting was a splendid tribute to George B. Dorr...an expression of the appreciation of the community for the untiring efforts of this gentleman who devoted years of his life to the development of the National Park.' Bar Harbor Times. September 8, 1920) The week before Dorr had been bedridden with a cold, yet his spirits had to soar when his close friend, Dr. Robert Abbe, presented him with a roll containing the names of 400 persons who had contributed to the $25,000 fund to purchase parklands. Those present stood for a standing ovation and Dorr was SO deeply moved that Eliot interceded to thank his friends for him. At this time, rumors about Dorr's financial solvency circulate among his most intimate associates. Was this gift intended to cover Dorr's indebtedness rather than parkland needs? While this cannot be substantiated, within the year a memorandum prepared for Mr. Rockefeller lists Dorr's debts at $85,000, exclusive of the $35,000 mortgage on Old Farm. (July 29, 1921 from H. Lynam. RAC B.83.f.827) Over the next year Dorr sells many of his real estate holdings, reducing his debt to $34,000. In Washington however, Dorr is encountering difficulties of a different sort. The first Annual Report for Lafayette National Park is sent off to NPS a few days past the due date. It covers administrative matters, title and deed research, facility issues, visitation, natural history, weather conditions, and the future territorial extension of the park since its February 1919 establishment. Characteristically, Dorr expresses himself in elevated language, optimistic and exacting language that vividly portrays the promise of the landscape. As a new superintendent the congressional language SO effective in establishing the monument is retained. The NPS Acting Director Cammerer thanks Dorr for his excellent report but chides him for not conforming to annual report formats, statistical expectations, and timetables that are of "the utmost importance." He suggests that Dorr should delegate "these annoying" administrative details to his staff SO that he can stay focused on larger issues. (See Arno Cammerer letter, September 15, 1920, NARA, RG 79, NPS, Central Files, Acadia. B3, f. 121) This report emphasizes that LNP was created in "a peopled region where human associations replace in a measure the appeal of far-reaching wildness made in other parks. In it, however, one great element of wildness that must endure forever enters in uniquely - that of contact with the ocean and the sight from mountainous heights of its great plain of waters stretching boundlessly away till hidden by the curvature of the earth." If we are to keep to Dorr's values, this phraseology should be celebrated with each new generation of park enthusiasts who wish to answer critic who claim that there is no wildness in the small island park. Over the last winter, Dorr had written two articles that emphasized the unique coastal character of Lafayette National Park. As in his earlier publications, Acadian history was brought to the forefront in "A Glorius Tribute to France: The New Lafayette National Park on the Maine Coast." (La France. September, 1920.P 590-593) When addressing readers of the signature publication of the Appalachian Mountain Club, the historical component is present but here the park as diversity of woodland, lake, mountain, plants and animals on both land and ocean is emphasized. ("Our Seacoast National Park," Appalachia 15 (1920) : 174-182). Yet despite Dorr's repeated public references to this unique "seacoast park," it is important to be reminded that park land at this time DORR1918 Page 21 of 22 afforded "no actual contact with the sea." (Dorr Papers. B1. f. 14) Dorr is confident, nonetheless, that in time this limitation will be addressed. Over the next decade his thoughts and land acquisition efforts will be shaped by the desire to provide access to the encircling ocean, to expand the road and carriage system within the park, and ultimately to extend parklands beyond Mount Desert Island to neighboring landforms. DORR1918 Page 22 of 22 GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. BEGIN 1921 (October 16, 2008) 1921 In March a new Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall, is appointed. Unlike his predecessor, Fall stood by the NPS bringing about what Horace Albright calls a "very exciting period for the Interior Department." NPS officials had been "very much afraid that political considerations might mean our elimination" but with former Rough Rider Fall at the helm matters looked for a while most promising since as with Lane they were committed to taking the Parks out of politics. (Albright, Reminiscences, p. 92) Fall's credibility would be short lived for within a few years the Interior Secretary would be indicted, convicted, and incarcerated as a key player in the oil reserves political scandal known as Teapot Dome. Franklin K. Lane, who had resigned fifteen months earlier as President Wilson's Secretary of Interior, died on May 18th while recovering from an operation at the Mayo Clinic. The nation's chief conservationist for seven years, his fierce advocacy was essential to the establishment of the National Park Service and Acadia National Park. Two letters sent by Lane on September 2nd following his Sieur de Monts National Monument inspection visit of 1917 offer insight into his conservation ethos. To Henry Lane Eno he writes that as he looks back on the trip "one thing that gives occasion for regret-we had too few good, mind-stretching talks, you, Dorr, and myself. But those we had were certainly not about affairs of small concern. We indulged ourselves as social philosophers, psychologists, war-makers, and international statesmen. The world was ours, and more-the worlds beyond. To do things worth while by day, and to dream things worth while by night, and to believe that both are worth while, that is the perfect life." (The Letters of Franklin Lane: Personal and Political. Ed. Anne W. Lane and L. H. Wall. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1922. Pg. 257) To "noble, unselfish, high-spirited, [and] broad-minded " Dorr he offers thanks for "what good you did my tired politics-soaked soul by showing me, under such happy conditions, the beauties and possibilities of your island if I could have an extended term of exile on your island with you and your friends, I would feel reconciled to banishment from politics for life A wilderness no matter how impressive and beautiful does not satisfy this soul of mine. It is a challenge to man. It says, 'Master me! Put me to use! Make me something more than I am.' So what you have done in the Park-the Spring House and the Arts Building, the cliff trails and the opened woods, show how much may be added by the love and thought of man." (Op. cit., p. 258) Lane's advocacy of enhancing Nature and improving access resonate with Dorr's cultivation of Mr. Rockefeller's interest in the Park. He made the case to Rockefeller for a single road along the western edge of Jordan Pond which would enable park rangers to easily move between the northern and southern sides of the mountain ranges. Dorr also receives from JDR Jr. a "carefully studied plan for a horse-road system some seven or eight miles in length, encircling at high level the whole broad mass of Jordan, Sargent, and Parkman Mountains." Dorr refers to this vision as "the child of my suggestion. Dorr Papers, B1, £.14; B2, f.6) ) Engineer Paul D. Simpson-standing in for his ailing father--received DORR1921 Page 1 of 28 letters from Mr. Rockefeller outlining this new vision. Rockefeller's personal wealth increased dramatically following the end of WWI, providing him with the financial resources to envision a motor road network separate from the horse and carriage ways already in place. He agreed to spend $ 150,000 for construction of the park's first motor road, and Dorr forwarded the plan to the J.P.S. with the recommendation that it be accepted. Rockefeller's view of the automobile is becoming more accommodating though we must not suppose that he ever believed that the scenic experience of the automobile rivals that of the carriage. Similarly, during the Winter he has been working with the town of Bar Harbor on development of bridle paths that are "open to driving." While the larger vision of "a more extensive system" he privately shares with Mr. Rockefeller, a letter explains his reticence to reveal but a portion-an 6,554 foot extension from Eagle Lake to Breakneck Pond-of the larger vision with town officials. In it he asks for Rockefeller financial support [which he receives] SO that ultimately the path will extend "from your system in the south to the Bay Drive and these northern parklands. (RAC III.: B. 110. f. 1103, letters dated March 20th and January 12th) The acquisition of additional parcels of land involved Dorr in quiet negotiations with prospective sellers, carried out during this decade on a massive scale. What remains undocumented to this day is the funding for most of the legal expenses associated with land donations. These were likely Dorr's out-of-the-pocket expenses for many years but as his indebtedness grew Rockefeller became the revenue source to purchase land and search titles. The Rockefeller Archive Center contains a full list of deeds received by Rockefeller from Mr. Dorr spanning the period 1921 to 1930. (RAC. f. 839) During this decade alone, at least 145 parcels were "mediated" by Mr. Dorr without compensation SO that the park might grow in ways aligned with the Dorr-Rockefeller park plan. (a less inclusive list of deeds for 1921-22 contains Dorr non-transferred properties [RAC III. 2. Nowhere is Dorr more explicit about this process than in a seven-page letter Dorr letter (Jan. 12 1921) to Mr. Rockefeller regarding the combined town and park bridle path system which concludes with the following assurance: "The options will be taken in my name, and I will then give you a paper transferring them or the lands' ownership to you, which would not be recorded." (RAC III.2.I. B. 110. f. 1103) The energy invested in this endeavor is nowhere reflected in Dorr's annual NPS reports but it is appreciatively acknowledged in scores of Rockefeller's land acquisition letters directed to Mr. Dorr. For several years the Wild Gardens of Acadia had been holding a 14.5 acre parcel of Salisbury Cove land that Dorr purchased in 1907 for the purpose of providing "good wharfage" for a alternative transportation frontage to the trolley line to Trenton. Dorr and Dr. Robert Abbe raised funds in 1914 to honor the memory of physician S. Weir Mitchell, one of America's foremost neurologists for his service to Bar Harbor. While some favored a memorial on the village green, Dorr and Abbe thought that a living memorial in the life sciences would be more fitting to Mitchell's commitments. Dorr approached one of Mitchell's colleagues at the Carnegie institution, ichthyologist Alfred M. Mayer, to advise him on the suitability of the Salisbury Cove site as a marine biology research station. Mayer had a decade of experience managing a Key West research laboratory established by the Carnegie trustees at Dry Tortugas. Mayer visited the Salisbury property and found it suitable, suggesting that Dorr should contact a Princeton colleague, Ulrich Dahlgren, who was President of the Harpswell Laboratory of South Harpswell, Maine. DORR1921 Page 2 of 28 Founded in 1898 by Tufts University professor J.S. Kingsley, the Harpswellian biological researchers carried out original marine research that resulted in publication of over one hundred papers during its first two decades. (See A Laboratory by the Sea. Ed. F. H. Epstein. Pp. 4, 23-24) World War I depleted the faculty ranks of this economically marginal facility, threatening its continued existence. (See Mary Frances Williams, "The Harpswell Laboratory, 1898-1920," 1985, Pp. 99- 100, typescript) The wealth associated with the Summer residents of Mount Desert Island made the array of prospective donors irresistible to the Trustees who signed the Wild Gardens of Acadia lease on April 22nd In a letter to Mr. Rockefeller a month earlier (March 20th) on another matter he states with customary modesty that he will "be going down to Bar Harbor in a couple of weeks' time with reference to the establishment of a marine biological laboratory this summer at Salisbury Cove." (RAC III.2.1 110.f 1103) The renamed Weir Mitchell Station of the Harpswell Laboratory was relocated from Casco Bay to the Frenchmen Bay site. Initially, living conditions were primitive in a tented community that lacked the utilities available in Bar Harbor. Nonetheless, in the Summer of 1921 the staff and faculty shared small talk with the owners of MDI estates at fund-raising receptions and social teas. There is no surviving documentation for Dorr's institutional advancement role. Nonetheless, the following year eighty acres of adjacent land was purchased and there is documentation to suggest that donors believed that the property would in time be incorporated into the national park, which was not its fate. (See The Mount Desert Biological Laboratory: Weir Mitchell Station. Twenty-Ninth Season. 1927. The Preface details the 1922-23 acquisition of the McCagg and Ogden land tracts) In late 1923 Dorr offered to deed the leased tract, subject to several conditions. The most notable caveat being that ownership would revert to the Wild Gardens if active biological research was discontinued for a period of three consecutive years. This caveat was intended to impress upon the trustees the serious interest of the Wild Gardens Association in the success of this new scientific endeavor. A former MDIBL Director J. Wendell Berger emphasizes that these constraints also reveal something about Dorr's skills. MDIBL was "a spin-off of the formation of Acadia National Park" executed by one who was "no administrative fool, full of only philanthropic motives. [Dorr] laid down strictures for MDIBL whereby if the enterprise failed 'he' could recover the tract." (W. Berger, "The Pioneer Days, 1898-1951," A Laboratory by the Sea. Ed. F.H. Epstein. Pg. 27) The trustees accepted these terms and the property was renamed on November 10, 1923 The Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. Within several years the financial hopes were realized largely through significant contributions from John D. Rockefeller Jr. (See the March 1948 MDIBL Project Memorandum for David Rockefeller, RAC III. 2. I. f. 801) Dorr's interest in the capacity of the laboratory to further understanding of the Frenchmen Bay marine life did not wane-- he continued to serve as a Trustee until 1938. With the Park successfully past its formative stage, Dorr increasingly began to assemble mental lists of a multitude of projects that require prioritized attention. That he might be deserving of some relief from the pressures of an understaffed organization did not cross his mind. He continued to drive himself ceaselessly whether in the office studying official documents, in the field studying opportunities for trail, road, and landscape development, in the Somerset Club advocating conservation with fellow members, or in his Oldfarm easy chair drafting correspondence to Mr. Rockefeller and officials in the nation's capitol. DORR1921 Page 3 of 28 Indeed, Dorr's 1921 Annual Report to the National Park Service contains language that is remarkable for his advocacy of the urgent need for additional means to access the natural wonders of the park, especially trail, carriage road, and motor road development. He is well aware that improved public access will have to be balanced against the preservation principles that are at the heart of the National Park Service mandate and the desire of scientists to engage in uncompromised environmental investigations. While nowhere suggesting that the Harpswell Laboratory be incorporated into the park, he does advocate a broadened research agenda for the facility "promises to become one of the great biological research stations, marine and land, of the world [which is] intended to cover every field of biology, animal and vegetable on Mount Desert Island or its neighboring ocean [which] will add an element of extraordinary scientific interest to the National Park." (NARA, RG79. CCF, 1907-39. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports. Reports, Annual) Dorr bolsters this long range agenda by attaching two supportive documents. Following his ten week research investigation on Mount Desert Island, Johns Hopkins University researcher Duncan S. Johnson summarized the exceptional advantages that the island offered the botanist. Renown forest ecologist Barrington Moore also documents the importance of preserving and investigating the vegetative habitats within Lafayette National Park; six years later the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens would publish his 148-page study of the Vegetation of Mount Desert Island, Maine, and its Environment (B. Moore & N. Taylor. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Memoirs. Vol. 3 [1927]) The forty million dollar annual budget of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory furthers the next generation of researchers through building on its investigations into vertebrate physiology, the membrane transport mechanisms in the kidney, and how genes, chemicals, and disease interact within humans and their environment. These achievements are due in no small part to Dorr's ability to envision this research facility as a strategic component of island-wide development. Nevertheless, Dorr was clearly not content with what could be realized with local applications of marine and island-based research. Ever mindful of the larger context, Dorr pointed out to his superiors that this first seacoast national park provided a foundation for the development of the marine sciences within the National Park Service. Without public notice and on his own initiative, Dorr hires Bar Harbor engineer Walters G. Hill to survey a route for a mountain road to the summit of Green (Cadillac) Mountain, a park development issue that he will stress when NPS officials visit nine months later and before construction is announced on the front page of the October 11, 1922 Bar Harbor Times. The Superintendent was well aware that extensive alterations of park natural landscape was occurring throughout the NPS system. Noninterference with nature was not strictly followed since "under Mather the service manipulated nature in the parks in two fundamental ways-through development and construction to accommodate tourism and by direct interference with flora and fauna." (Richard W. Sellars, "Manipulating Nature's Paradise: National Park Management Under Stephen T. Mather, 1916-1929, Montana 43 (1993) : 4) The Director hired engineers, landscape architects, and even biologists from other bureaus to optimize public appreciation of the parks. Their expertise would be utilized in the lengthy process of constructing the Summit Road. For MDI residents with a strict interpretation of the NPS mandate to conserve land unimpaired, the Summit Road and Rockefeller's carriage roads were evidence of NPS mismanagement. DORR1921 Page 4 of 28 Throughout the 1920's R.S. Yard and the NPA defined and redefined national park standards "in their efforts to confront a series of threats to the parks," insisting-along with Dorr's public statements-- that parks be scenically magnificent and sites of national importance. The scenic component emphasized "grand geological and biological forces", "processes rooted in deep time, not dynamic ecological processes." (Sutter, Driven Wild, p. 113) His second cornerstone was the principle of complete conservation, keeping commercialism (timer, mineral, and water extraction) out of the parks. Curiously, on December 10th Rockefeller writes that work on the Beech Hill property should not be put in the hands of Mr. Savage [Fred?] since Mr. Dorr does not personally know him. (RAC III. .76. f. 781) On the eve of his sixty-eighth birthday, Dorr writes to JDR Jr. from the Somerset Club (Boston) where he arrived December 26th and will return to MDI by the end of the year. He endorses William Miller's wood cutting at Beach Hill [sic] but suggests that Rockefeller': employee be "under my direction." Dorr asks this as a concession to his early forestry work since he has concerns that ill-designed cutting would result in diminished fire protection; moreover, should a fire begin poorly exercised forest management would hamper park efforts to control the blaze. (RAC III. B. 76. f. 781) 1922 In late January Rockefeller writes to his legal counsel in Maine, Harry Lynam, on a theme that will recur for more than a decade--park boundaries and some "doubtful" properties. He offers to again, "as this last year, the survey of these uncertain properties-subject to Dorr's approval--showing his thoroughness in grasping the pace of park development. (RAC 2. I. B. 86. f. 847) Rockefeller had relied on Lynam to make certain that his carriage road system did not cross public or private property lines, contracting with him for "all of his services, expenses and incidentals in connection with the work that he has done with me and for the Park aside from such work as he is regularly employed by the Park for." (July 12, 1922 letter to Charles O. Heydt. RAC. III. 2. I. B.74. (767) Lynam showed remarkable finesse in managing the legal affairs of Dorr and Rockefeller, and as the years turned into decades neither gave any written indication that their personal and professional relationship with Lynam was anything other than highly satisfactory. Since 1913, engineer Charles P. Simpson (1848-1928) had responsibility for development of the first carriage roads around Rockefeller's Seal Harbor property and its later extension into the park. Following the debilitating illness of his father, Mr. Rockefeller transfer engineering responsibility for building carriage roads and bridges to his son, Paul Dyer Simpson (1876-1963). For the next 18 years until the work was completed-a the administration of the system was turned over to Acadia National Park--he would be chief engineer. (See 'Profiles' in RAC. Simpson Family Papers. IV.3A.10. B.1.f.1) In late May Rockefeller sends two letters to Dorr at the Somerset Club urging him to do what he can to secure approval from Washington for the construction of the road along the west side of Jordan Pond, the connecting link between Seal and Bar Harbor for horses; at Dorr's suggestion Rockefeller is not in Seal Harbor when the Washington officials arrive, both fearful of suggesting to some of the public an impression of untoward influence. Both Mather and Acting Director Arno DORR1921 Page 5 of 28 Cammerer visit the three year old national park during the first week of June as Old Farm guests (ANPA. B.45., f. 1) the Cammerer's nine-page confidential report of June 10th details his full findings following Mather's departure on the third day, focusing on the original road and trail system plan that Dorr had outlined at the home office several months earlier. Mr. Mather had earlier directed all park superintendents to prepare maps, estimate costs, and provide supportive documentation covering road projects. Cammerer's report drew a distinction between the rugged appeal of the trail system and the need for accessibility to "features of special interest and beauty for the older, the less strong and active, or less strenuously inclined, who are the vast majority." While it may appear that less rigorous trails could address the needs of this "vast majority," Cammerer's remarks are clearly intended as an endorsement of the expanding carriage road system. Cammerer proves to be receptive to motor road development in large part on security grounds since roadways serve as barriers to wildfire that threatens island residences. While no attempt was made "to follow the route of the proposed motor road to the top of Cadillac Mountain [it is] the sure conviction that a road for motorists should lead to the top of at least one of the mountains SO that those who cannot climb may get opportunity to receive the inspiration and feel the exaltation of spirit that come with an hour spent on the breeze-swept hills In my opinion a road up Cadillac Mountain will not be equaled anywhere in the United States.' Two weeks after these promising remarks were sent to Director Mather, Dorr sent Hill's summit road survey to NPS Director accompanied by his justification for this 3.98 mile roadway to the highest summit on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The Acting Director concludes his official inspection report with unreserved praise for the park administrator: "No one can appreciate, until he has been on the ground and viewed the immense tracts of valuable lands turned over to the Government through his [Dorr's efforts, and the detailed construction work already done, what a stupendous undertaking it has been. This achievement is quite without parallel elsewhere In reviewing these achievements the conclusion is inevitable that no one else than Supt. Dorr could have accomplished what has been done and is being done and will be done He has done this modestly and inconspicuously, with whole- hearted endeavor toward one end.' (ANPA. B. 24. f. 10) On July 26th he informs Dorr that following a "thorough review" of the project with Assistant secretary of the Interior Finney, they are both convinced "that the project is well thought out," especially regarding keeping both roads and trails as inconspicuous as possible. Two years later the approved road work was challenged by some summer residents led by Pennsylvania Senator, and summer resident, George Wharton Pepper. During a winter 1924 Washington hearing before Secretary Work this report was made public, and subsequently published in its entirety in The Bar Harbor Times (March 26, 1924) Six weeks later Rockefeller still awaited official permission to work on carriage roads that crossed park lands. To prompt the NPS, he drafted a letter on July 15th to himself that he intended to ask Dorr to sign. It very succinctly states his vision, his objectives, and the standards to be followed. While Dorr agreed to sign it, Rockefeller wisely withdrew the letter for additional assurances were unnecessary. (RAC. III.: I. B. 83. f. 823) DORR1921 Page 6 of 28 On that same date, Dorr posted a lengthy response to Cammerer's telegram requesting structural information on the park office. This facility will function as park Headquarters well beyond the administration of Mr. Dorr Dorr and nearly eighty years later it was relocated to the College of the Atlantic where it now functions fittingly as the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History. But in 1922 Dorr is at pains to explain that the 206 X 81 foot property at the corner of Main Street and Park Road was not secured at government expense. Rather it was donated in 1916 by the newly created Wild Gardens of Acadia, the corporate alter-ego of Mr. Dorr formed to cooperate with the NPS in transitioning the new national monument into a national park. That same corporation built the 1,944 square foot facility (exclusive of the 887 square feet taken by the carpenter shop and adjacent garage) that served as park headquarters, rented for $1,000 annually. Dorr takes pains to explain why this location was selected, stressing the advantages of proximity to town services. CCF. 1907-39. B4. f. 121, pt. 1) The following Summer he elaborates that the Park main office building, " is a story and a half building under which a commodious cellar [supporting]the ground floor reception room for visitors, the administrative office room of the Superintendent, a hall way, a small room for hanging wraps and small storage and a room used by the Park Engineer as a drafting room. On the floor above is a hall way, dressing room, toilet, and a spare room used for filing At the back of the same lot is located the garage, tool house and carpenter shop essential for the storage of automobiles and tools belonging to the Park. (NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia. Miscellaneous Rpts. Annual) It is curious that no accommodations are specified for park rangers, especially since Benjamin Hadley was promoted this year to position of Chief Ranger. In a few years he will be appointed Assistant Superintendent, taking on many administrative tasks and preparing to assume Dorr's position that he would be offered- and accept-following his death in 1944. [The Prince of Altruists) In late July as Dorr waits in Boston for his train to Bar Harbor-which he left two days earlier-he writes to Cammerer that he journeyed to Boston to see if he could secure a photographer should the President "come to Bar Harbor and pay the Park a visit.' He also mentions the establishment of the Appalachian Mountain Club Echo Lake Camp on park land not yet formally accepted by the government. Nonetheless, Dorr musters park resources to construct a rough road, prepare the site, and construct a cabin which served as a kitchen for more than a hundred guests. Judge John A. Peters and his house party were the guests of honor at a luncheon hosted by the AMC and the Park, in recognition of his close association with the establishment of the Lafayette National Park. Dorr proudly pulled the flag up the new liberty pole prior to extended remarks by Judge Peters who described Mr. Dorr as "our own prince of altruists." He reminded AMC members of the public intent of the Trustees when started the process of donating this land to the Federal government: "I was asked to welcome you to this luncheon as guests. On Reflection I think it is entirely improper. It is your Park-not mine, nor Mr. Dorr's, but yours.' (Bar Harbor Times. August 9, 1922) Following remarks by notable members of acquaintances of Judge Peters, Mr. Dorr left the camp as three cheers echoed throughout the campsite in his honor. So began the AMC investment in the natural and cultural benefits of Mounmt Desert Island which continues to this day. The annual gathering was judged successful by both Club and Park officials, and by 1925 control of the camp passed to the AMC. DORR1921 Page 7 of 28 On this same date at Asticou, surrounded by two grandsons, two grandsons-in-law, and five grand-daughters, eight-eight year old Charles W. Eliot writes to Mr. Rockefeller to congratulate him on "the good things that you have recently done for this Island and the public. But also to celebrate Dorr's success in "getting from Mr. Thomas Lawson the gift of a very important piece of land he has long owned between Robinson and Dog Mountains and running through from the Sound to Echo Lake [closing] a bad breech in the holdings for the public on the western side of Somes Sound." (RAC B59. f. 441 referring to HCTPR lot #52) Dorr was involved in hundreds of land acquisitions spanning three decades. His annual reports are conspicuously silent on such matters and the few surviving accounts of the strategies he employed are in the Park archives and the Dorr Papers. One such account is the acquisition of Man War Brook Valley on Somes Sound. (Lot 52, "Record of the Derivation and Transfer of the Holdings of the Trustees," Samuel A. Eliot, Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, 1939) This is the valley that separates St. Sauveur and Acadia Mountains, owned by Thomas W. Lawson, a stock exchange speculator. Dorr had been interested in this property since he turned his attention to the Southwest Harbor area several years earlier. St. Sauveur and Acadia Mountains were now secured and SO Dorr eyes the bridge land between the two. The Park Archives contain Dorr's account of how Man o' War Brook Valley was acquired from stock market speculator Lawson, how Dorr's restraint commingled with persistent curiosity about Lawson's character resulted in this significant gift. (ANPA. B3. f. 6) Dorr describes his initial outreach strategy with Lawson and the circumspect tactic that he adopted when the two met for the first time. Dorr says that "I said nothing of why I wished to see him, but asked him to tell me how he started in his financial career." " Dorr recounts at length this tale of Lawson's entrance into Boston's State Street business, the evolution of his widely circulated book on Frenzied Finance-all the while, Dorr said nothing. Finally, Lawson looked at his watch and revealing the true purpose of the meeting said: "I know what you want; you want that land. There's just one question that I would like to ask: `Has all this land you have been given?' 'Yes, I told him, 'every acre that we have. The Government has purchased nothing.' 'Well,' he said,' you ought to have that land and I am going to give it to you. Dorr had the wisdom to be a most interested listener but now he was a proactive administrator. His attorney drew up the papers within hours that Lawson signed the next day. The two men never met again and shortly thereafter Lawson died-but the park acquisition had been secured. (ANPA. Sawtelle Archives. B3. f6) There are some who may be tempted to believe that Dorr's extensive familiarity with the island natural landscape and Bar Harbor was secured at the expense of other island communities. One indication that this was not the case is revealed in an encouraging letter he writes on July 11th th to Mr. Cammerer in response to the acting director's request for additional information about Northeast Harbor residents. (NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia) Dorr attached a hand-drawn map marking prominent resident properties, supplemented by three pages of remarks about more than a dozen residents, many of whom were likely invited to a gathering at the Northeast Harbor home of Mrs. Huntington Williams. The development of Mount Desert Island and the "changes in this beautiful island which the establishment of Lafayette National Park may be expected to produce" were discussed by Eliot, NPS Assistant Director DORR1921 Page 8 of 28 Arthur B. Demary, widely published Harvard botanist Frederick V. Coville, and Park Ranger Benjamin Hadley. Mr. Dorr had been invited but declined. President Eliot weighed in publicly on this issue at this time in what is his most complete and final account of Trustee activities. (The remarks of Eliot alone were subsequently published in the Bar Harbor Times, August 30, 1922) Whereas much public comment has focused on the passive role of the Trustees in accepting gifts from conservation-minded donors, Eliot lays bare the very active roles for corporation members: "The Trustees raised money to buy land in all sorts of ways, by concerts, lectures, public subscriptions, solicitations of residents at their own houses and solicitation from persons who came to the hotels for short visits." Even when 5,000 acres had been acquired the Trustees could not raise enough money to buy the remaining areas which "ought to be preserved for future generations.' Lacking funds, the Trustees were "obliged to be content with merely holding lands without any effort to save the existing stand of forest from fire or to improve the wild flora and fauna." It was this bitter realization that led to transfer of ownership to Federal authorities. Eliot clearly attributes to Dorr the leadership for converting the Monument into a National Park. A month later Cammerer will respond (September 27th) to a letter that is critical of Lafayette National Park management from Boston armchair historian Allen Chamberlain. Very likely bolstered by information secured as a result of Demary's recent visit, the Acting Director aligns himself with Dorr in emphasizing the ongoing legal problem of insuring that local deeds conform to federal standards, a challenge that Dorr faces as he did three years earlier when the establishment of the Sieur de Mont National Monument was being legislatively considered. (NARA. RG79. CCF. 1907-39. Acadia) That August, Dorr sends Rockefeller an undated eight item memo detailing his understanding of what Washington has endorsed-and what modifications might be necessary following their June visit. For example, Mather and Cammerer were not pleased with the horse rental rates and suggest- anticipating Wildwood Stables-the establishment of a center "where horses may be kept and rented at reasonable prices to visitors to the Park." (Note: Within three weeks Rockefeller purchases 25.6 acres of land to the north of Wildwood Farm Road, RAC III.2.I. B. 127. f. 1267) On all eight items, Rockefeller concurs (August 14), emphasizing that there is "no misunderstanding between us" even as he reaffirms his formal commitment "to nothing except as such commitments have been made or may be made in writing." (RAC. III.2.1 B. 85. f. 839) Several weeks later Dorr again sends him (Sept. 12th) a more conceptual letter that emphasizes the parks "passage from the period of commencement and the overcoming of initial difficulties to one of attainment, and I write this letter to mark it and in recognition of that cooperation from you which has made it possible." To be sure Dorr recognizes that "problems on a greater scale face us now" but is confident that during this "creative period of the Park's existence" the two of them can further develop it collaboratively. (ANPA. B45. f.1) While dining at Jordan Pond House in the colorful September woods above Seal Harbor, Dorr is offered the possibility of adding significantly to Park holdings. Unlike the Thomas Lawson negotiation, this process is more protracted and complicated by family relationships. This impressive landscape is situated on a Frenchman Bay peninsula across from Bar Harbor. A one-third interest in the Schoodic Peninsula if offered by Mrs. Warner Leeds, the widow of Gouldsborough Land and Improvement Company financier John Godfrey Moore, the developer of Winter Harbor as DORR1921 Page 9 of 28 a coastal resort. (The Story of Acadia National Park, pp. 104 f. and Allan Smallidge. "Schoodic's John Godfrey Moore," Friends of Acadia Journal 10, #1 [2005]) Dorr verbally accepts the Leeds gift offer and boards her yacht to sail across to the Schoodic to assess the property. Mrs. Leeds departs for England to visit her step-daughters, who control the other two-thirds of the Point, hoping to convince them to follow suit. It is Dorr's misfortune when Mrs. Leeds dies suddenly and her widower rescinds the gift, instead offering the point for sale to the Trustees. (See Victoria K. Andrilenas et. al. Finding Aid for U.S. Naval Security Group Activity. Winter Harbor Records, 1915-2002. Boston: Northeast Museum Services Center, 2007) Charles W. Eliot is not indifferent to this opportunity to add several thousand acres to the Park. He encourages Dorr (Sept. 14, 1923) and recalls events fifty years earlier when he "became very familiar with the shores of the Bay and all its passages and inlets which were safe for a good-sized sailing yacht [and] during these years I repeatedly climbed Schoodic Head." Eliot concludes that the Peninsula should be added to the Park and "the Head itself should be preserved in all its own beauty of geologic structure and forest decoration for the enjoyment of future generations. (Dorr Papers, B.1, f.6) At this time Dorr and Eliot are not on the same page regarding the intended beneficiary of large tract of land for he states quite clearly that the Moore reservation is "not for the Park but for the Public Reservations whose field lies wider.' (December 23, 1923, RAC III. 2. I. B.85.f.839) In due course, Dorr convinces the daughters to donate their portion of the peninsula. However, there is an "unforeseen complication," the Trustee charter prevented use of their limited funds. As was the case in 1910 when John S. Kennedy's gift of funds enabled the Trustees to secure the summit of Cadillac Mountain, SO too here an unidentified benefactor steps forward and the Trustees acquire the elusive third from Leeds' widower, thereby securing Schoodic Head. It was not until early 1927 that the legal transfers were completed, thereby momentously extending the activities of the Trustees to the mainland. As was too often the case with the Trustees, the 1922-26 Minutes of the HCTPR omit any reference to this acquisition process even though it was clearly an issue of ongoing discussion and continuing negotiations. Finally, at the March 14, 1927 meeting it is recorded that a memorial to John G. Moore has been sited on Schoodic Point and that the land has been transferred to the United States of America. Beavers presented to Park by State Fish and Game Commission. The fulsome annual reports submitted by Dorr are now limited by new requirements applied system-wide that limit its size to one page and introduce other restrictive formalities. Over the next several years Dorr's enthusiasm for the achievements of the park will put him at odds with the developing NPS bureaucracy. (Memo dated May 12th, NARA. RG79. CCF 1907-39. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports. Reports) SHVIS Minutes for 1922 report the deaths of two of the most prominent men of Seal Harbor, George B. Cooksey and Edward Dunham. President Eliot writes a note of condolence to Mrs. Dunham on 26 April. He recognizes that "no summer resident had anything resembling his influence with the native people of Seal Harbor. Although Eliot's Presidency at Harvard had ended in 1909, it is likely that he exerted influence in the establishment in 1924 of the Edward K. Dunham lectureship for the DORR1921 Page 10 of 28 promotion of medical science. (Smith College Library. Dunham Papers. B. 21. f. 9; B. 23. f. 6) Renown photographer Herbert Wendell Gleason has spent four years as a Department of the Interior NPS inspector. At the direction of his friend Stephen Mather, he visit many national parks, undertakes site surveys of areas that are candidates for park status, and most importantly photographs landscape that could be serve Interior Department promotional purposes (in exhibits, lectures, and publications) A President of the New England Conference for the Protection of National Parks wrote to the Director of the National Park Service reporting on Gleason's Yosemite lecture before a Boston audience of 1,200. Harlan P. Kelsey characterized it as "the best lecture and exhibition of nature I have ever seen or heard. If this lecture could be put on the road SO that everyone in the United States could hear it I believe it would revolutionize National Park affairs." (March 7, 1924 letter to S.T. Mather. NARA. RG79. CCF. NPS. CCF. Acadia. Misc. Rpts. In August, Gleason "was called to undertake some special work for the government down on Mt. Deseret Island, and we stayed there three months, not returning home until November." (Library of Congress. Papers of Luther Burbank. B. 5. January 11, 1923 letter) Not only did Gleason photograph the celebration at AMC Camp at Echo Lake, (Bar Harbor Times Aug. 8, 1922, p. 1) during his stay 1,100 photographs of gardens, residences, and the natural landscape were composed during his stay. To this day they form the bulk of the largely unknown Herbert Wendell Gleason collection preserved at the Sawtelle Research Center, Acadia National Park) In Gleason's photographs we find little evidence of his beginnings, his 1877 divinity degree from Andover Theological Seminary and his years as a Minnesota cleric and the editor of religious serial publications. (See Finis Dunaway. Natural Visions, chapter 1) Shortly before the turn of the century, however, he relocated his family to Massachusetts and began his career as a professional landscape photographer. We poorly appreciate the difficulties involved in photography at this time. But we know from his highly popular lectures that he recounted tales of rugged adventures with cumbersome photographic equipment, traversing the hills of nearby Sudbury as well as the mountainous peaks of the western United States and Canada. Indeed, the Boston Transcript said that he combined the qualities of the "indefatigable mountaineer and explorer, the scientific observer, the philosopher of rare artistic discrimination and technical skill and a brilliantly entertaining lecturer." (Dunaway, 17) Not a member of the picturesque school, at times he photographed evidence of human threats to that landscape and encourage his audience to embrace the principles of conservation. His photographs were increasingly appreciated as visual expressions of the Emersonian narrative tradition. Nature was a holy text offering spiritual enlightenment and landscape photography was a form of religious observance. In 1906 the Houghton Mifflin publishing house used more than one hundred Gleason photographs to illustrate the twenty-volume Walden edition of Thoreau's writings. For more than three decades Gleason continued to walk the byways of Concord and the Merrimack Valley observing its nature with his camera. His treks were based on thousands of quotations drawn from the writings of Emerson and Thoreau; with painstaking care he selected and photographed sites that reflected either the letter or the spirit of the musings of the Concord sages. (See the Special Collections, Concord Free Library, for the most substantial Gleason archive) Since the turn of the century Gleason had photographed a few DORR1921 Page 11 of 28 of the most appealing locales but it was not until 1922 that he produced such an extensive quantity of images. Indeed, we know of no locale that he SO heavily documented other than Concord. Mr. Dorr had no doubt that Gleason's new Mount Desert images would improve the narrative content of the widely circulated Sieur de Mont Publications-and he used them extensively. The distinctive combination of words and images used by The National Geographic Magazine would be mimicked in this series. In time, the National Park Service and other conservation organizations would recognize the importance of visual advocacy. Although many writers have commented on the relationship between Dorr and Rockefeller, few examined the archival record. As Dorr approaches the end of his seventh decade of life, it is wise to heed his own words regarding the first decade of this relationship. Close examination of the surviving Dorr manuscripts shows for the first time that the Rockefeller Archive Center contains the largest collection of extant Dorr correspondence. More importantly, despite the loss of apparently vast numbers of personal and professional letters to Mr. Dorr from friends and acquaintances, close inspection of extant documents reveals that Dorr corresponded more often with Mr. Rockefeller than any one else. To be sure, the number of written exchanges does not alone reveal the quality of the relationship. In numerous letters both Dorr and Rockefeller escape the formal constraints of their respective stations to disclose their feelings for one another. Dorr's appreciation for Mr. Rockefeller is revealed in unrivaled detail in a letter written to him on September 12th It is prompted by Dorr's desire to mark the passage of the Park from its initial difficulties to "one of attainment." Citing his own Park work and referring to his own mistakes, Dorr lauds Rockefeller's work as "of the highest order in its thoroughness, its forward vision, and its attention to the details that make or break the beauty of a road or landscape. What Rockefeller has already accomplished in less than a decade "will add to the happiness of generations" as Dorr clearly means to acknowledge that Rockefeller has contributed to his own happiness "in this and in all other ways." (RAC III.2.I. B. 85. f. 839) There is evidence in late 1922 of a new turn in Dorr's continuing interest in ancestry issues. Rather than attending the mid-November Sixth National Park Conference at Yosemite National Park, his interests turn to the conservation of the family historical documents in his possession. He is listed as being elected in early October to resident membership in the New England Historic Genealogical Society. (Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1923, p. 77) He will retain this membership until 1939, as he continued even after this date to revisit these documents, rewrite biographical and contextual essays on Dorr family ancestors, and consider when Dorr and Ward family papers should receive the professional care afforded through institutional preservation. 1923 In mid-January Dorr leaves the Somerset Club for Bar Harbor, sending off to Horace Albright a letter indicating that Maine political issues again required more than a stopover in Augusta. He was scheduled to meet with Governor Percival Baxter and the Highway Commission about Park matters but also plans to meet again with representatives of the Great Northern Paper Company regarding "the Katahdin matter." (NARA. RG 79. CCF. 1907- 39. Acadia.) Unfortunately, there is no supportive documentation regarding the issues involved; nonetheless, Dorr appears to exercise DORR1921 Page 12 of 28 caution here in order to avoid being drawn into the middle of a contentious struggle between the forces of conservation and the entrenched lumber industry. Since 1917 Percival Baxter had lobbied vigorously for legislative approval to establish Mount Katahdin State Park, but his efforts not only failed the year after Sieur de Monts National Monument was established but also in 1919, and 1921. As governor, Baxter was again unsuccessful due to formidable opposition by the enormously influential Great Northern. (See both publications by Neil Rohde. The Interrupted Forest. 1981. Pp. 304 f. and The Baxters of Maine, 1997, chapter 12) In 1923 the Great Northern allied itself with executives at the Central Maine Power Company to create the Kennebec Reservoir Company to build dams on the Dead River, resulting in the more constant flow of water for power, manufacturing, and log transport. Baxter unsuccessfully resisted this effort to lay claim to public land owned by the State of Maine but in the end the land was not sold; instead, it was leased for a forty year period, suggesting to some that the uncertainties that Hancock County public lands faced more than a decade earlier were still limiting conservation efforts outside Hancock County. Baxter disliked federal programs yet he publicly expressed support for Lafayette National Park during his terms as Governor. Despite the inclination to align himself with other like-minded conservationists, Dorr was wise enough to realize that remaining focused on the development of the Park was a paramount imperative. His letter to Rockefeller (Jan. 25th) is an indirect affirmation of this commitment, expressing his strong sense of accomplishment at securing at no expense the "ownership of Duck Brook Gorge with its old trail, including that of the Witch Hole Pond brook.' In 1922 Dorr had a deed drawn up for the hundred acres of land owned by John Henderson and his mother. In yet another instance of the unforeseen, the son who wanted to gift the land encountered maternal resistance. Dorr let the matter rest and could not foresee John Henderson untimely death following surgery. Following Dorr's return from Henderson's funeral, he received the deed with Mrs. Henderson's signature duly attached "to honor his wishes and memory.' (RAC. III. B. 85. f. 839; see also G.M. Grindle memo dated Jan. 27, 1923 in B. 86. f.847) Charles W. Eliot recognized the importance of this acquisition (letter dated 29 January, Dorr Papers, B. 1, f. 6) of land long desired by Henderson's neighbors and Dorr and Rockefeller also implicitly recognized that this property firmed up the park boundary, provided opportunities for carriage road development between Eagle Lake and Hulls Cove-not to mention the eventual carriage road link resulting from the construction of the magnificent Duck Brook bridge. As Winter wanes, Dorr is again in Washington where an important change has occurred within the Department of the Interior. The March 1923 resignation of unpopular Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall-who had advocated the exploitation of land, timber, and minerals--enabled President Harding to appoint U.S. Post-master general Hubert Work into this position. The Teapot Dome scandal will lead to his October imprisonment for a year, the first cabinet member SO disgraced. Former Southern Illinois University historian Eugene P. Trani details the challenges faced by the new secretary who "inherited a department beset by infighting and assaulted from the outside because it was considered corrupt and inefficient as well as the enemy of conservation." (Hubert Work and the Department of the Interior, 1923-28," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 61 [1970] 31-40). In his six years of public service in the Cabinet of both Harding and Coolidge, the physician turned Interior Secretary reorganized the department, modified methods, and educated the public about the need for conservation as a 'controlling national DORR1921 Page 13 of 28 Norman T. Newton. Design on the Land: The Development of Landscape Architecture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. Pgs. 535-536) With Dorr's tacit consent, their visit produced a park development plan, a general management strategy "to include essential extensions of the park, plans for roads and trails, utility sites and other developments." ("Memorandum on a Development Plan for Lafayette National Park." September 28, 1927. ANPA. B. KW. f. 24) Cammerer and Vint rejected the possibility of defining park boundaries since park growth must remain open to donation from private sources. To be sure, they addressed the concerns articulated a year earlier by the BHVIA and discussed with Charles W. Eliot II this past summer. However, since their "aim [is] not only consideration of the possible development of the park but of the entire island," the park service officials affirmed for Director Mather that under existing law the park service cannot partner with the BHVIA, it cannot "prescribe in what direction future enlargements or expansion into privately owned lands should take place." The ambitious scope of the BHVIA inquiry is simply beyond park jurisdiction. (op.cit., p. 14) While Dorr is frequently mentioned in this report, on the issue of wilderness preservation there is no direct reference to him. This omission is understandable for Acadia National Park has never promoted itself as a wilderness, nor does it appeal to the same motivations that attract visitors to the wild animals in the western national parks. Yet Dorr's earlier publications and public pronouncements are clearly the source for the policy recommendation. Under current park policies the entire park area is considered wilderness subject only to improvements that enable accessibility to the public. More to the point "there are in fact no primeval areas on the Land, --that it has in fact been cut over and burned for centuries." (op. cit., p. 31) Since the vast majority of the public --"the older, the less strong and active, or the less strenuously inclined"-are motivated to experience the full beauty of the park, "means must be provided for making reasonably accessible the special features of interest." (op. cit., p. 27) Mather endorsed the plan. The major park road initiative was the Cadillac Mountain Road, still three miles from the summit. When completed several seasons later, there would be demands to provide a summit tea house in the Jordan Pond House style or a hotel-and concession issues would have to be addressed since at this time no concessions were operating within the park. (R. Quin and N. Maher. Acadia National Park. Washington, DC: National Park Service HABS/HAER ME-58, 1994. p. 58) This discussion marks the loss of a certain innocence for park management since the later establishment of the Acadia Corporation will bring the park limitations on park concession entrepreneurialism to the forefront--where it remains to this day. Death of Charles S. Sargent SHVIS Minutes report that beavers presented to the Park by the State Fish & Game Commission in 1921 and 1922 have multiplied to such an extent that control measures are now necessary to prevent their spread. Dr. Little makes clear that he thinks it unwise to assume that the National Park Service will finance this scheme. We unfortunately lack proof that Mr. Dorr "heartily approves this whole project" since he makes no reference to it in his monthly reports to Washington or elsewhere. Little argues that the project would be undertaken in cooperation with the NPS but should rest in the hands of "a group of DORR1925 Page 15 of 37 public spirited and disinterested people who have the vision and idealism to carry the matter forward." For more than a year there discussions have taken place concerning the consolidation of the two island laboratories. Speaking as a MDIBL Trustee, Bumpus argues that a substantial input of funds to support the Salisbury Cove facility might "induce a vitalizing influence over the latent enterprise [of Dr. Little]. (MDIBL Archives) A month later Bumpus reports that little activity is taking place at the Maine Biological Station whereas the Salisbury Cove facility has "abundantly fulfilled its purpose," attracting distinguished faculty who produce results of scientific merit. A separate unattributed memo refers to a MDIBL reorganization following Dr. Proctor's resignation and the elevation of Dr. Bumpus to President of the Board. There is renewed discussion of cooperation with the Maine Biological Laboratory, including a survey by of island scientific facilities and educational oipportunities by a joint committee. But in a letter later that fall Bumpus clearly advocates instead a "fusion of interests and resources with the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole." (Bumpus to Thomas B. Appleget. November 30, 1927. RAC III. 3.75. f. 770). The fate of the Marine Biological station was never more uncertain, yet the new year would bring dramatic news of Dr. Little's resignation of the University of Michigan presidency, signaling the start of a new laboratory in Bar Harbor that is neither a seasonal student-centered learning facility nor one committed to the superiority of field-based inquiry. The Rockefeller acquisition of island properties continues. Previously Dorr had his own island properties to manage with an eye to new acquisitions, sale, and donation through the Trustees to the federal government. Beginning in October 1927 Dorr begins a new form of land stewardship. He sells Rockefeller the first of nearly two hundred properties that will pass from Dorr to Rockefeller during the next decade. That is not to say that Dorr owned hundreds of properties at any given time. Instead, Dorr negotiates, purchases, and later transfers real estate that fit their vision of the national park. The National Park Service left the two to work out such arrangements on their own. (Hancock County Registry of Deeds. Revised Index. January 1, 1927 to December 31, 1936. 215 deeds are recorded under the grantor name of George B. Dorr; John D. Rockefeller Jr. is the grantee for 185 of these deeds) While many properties Dorr had acquired since 1921, sixty percent were quietly secured after 1927 at the request of Rockefeller. In some cases Dorr was made aware of a property that suited Rockefeller's plans; in other cases Dorr suggested properties that suited Rockefeller's carriage and road development. In still other cases Dorr urged the acquisition of a property because of its landscape value. He did not have the capital to make such purchases-this was provided by Mr. Rockefeller. With rare exception all involved the superintendent acting as grantee (purchaser) in order that the price would not be inflated because of Rockefeller's interest in the property. One should not underestimate the fidelity issues involved in such a third-party arrangement, compounded-if not at times compromised-- by the involvement of attorneys, land surveyors, and real estate agents. Underlying this deed transfer process was their shared understanding that these lands would ultimately be transferred to the federal government. Shortly before Thanksgiving he writes to Dorr requesting a full explanation as to the merits and failings of the Abbot property adjacent to Charles W. Eliot's Asticou property. Four days later Dorr responds at DORR1925 Page 16 of 37 length offering abundant evidence documenting the completeness of his property appraisal, detailing issues arising from the impact of the sea on the land, laying bear the botanical challenges of the tidal environment, and forecasting the short and long term recreational potential of the property. (26 November 1927. RAC. II. I. B. 74. f. 765) Few documents survive that better represent the array of landscaping talents that Dorr had mastered. Dorr surely was at ease moving around the wintry streets of Boston on Christmas Eve. Yet his life could have at 1:30 that afternoon when he approached Charles Street from the Common side. Dorr stopped at the curb and then walked in front of a moving Willys-Knight sedan operated by another Boston resident. He was taken unconscious and in shock to the Phillips House, Massachusetts General Hospital, with a five-inch skull laceration and a questionable fracture of his skull (later confirmed as a concussion) He was placed on the "danger list." While undergoing diagnosis, police arrested the 24 year old driver for operating an unregistered car. Since no additional charges were filed it is likely that the witnesses verified that Dorr stepped into moving traffic. (City of Boston Police Record. December 24, 1927. ANPA. B. 2. f. 1) William and Louisa Endicott were among those who visited him during his hospital convalescence, urging him to recouperate at their nearby Marlboro residence. On his 74th birthday he was visited by his Harvard College class secretary who congratulated him for "his miraculous escape from more serious injuries. Later Dorr visited friends in Boston." (HUA. Class of 1874. 14 Report. 1928) Endicott family guest books record that Dorr took advantage of the Endicott hospitality, recovering his strength in their good company through March 4th when he left for Washington on park business. (Massachusetts Historical Society. Endicott Family Papers. B. 34. f. 14) One positive outcome of the injury is that for several years thereafter, Dorr spent his birthday and the Christmas holidays with Endicott family relatives. On a larger scale, what might the fate of the Park have been if Dorr had not survived the accident? 1928 The most speculative topic of conversation on Mount Desert Island in early April 1928 was the possibility that President Calvin Coolidge might be spending his summer in Bar Harbor. Maine Governor Ralph Brewster, who had climbed Katahdin with Dorr two years earlier, contacted the White House in the hope that the Vermont born chief executive might favor a summer vacation in his own New England. The historical record offers us little guidance into whether Brewster or Dorr was the first to suggest Oldfarm as the summer White House. An editorial in the Bar Harbor Times gives us a glimpse into the condition of Dorr's residence nearly a half century after its completion. The very name Oldfarm "suggests the mellow atmosphere of an earlier New England, a New England that built spacious, rambling houses and furnished them with the best that its ships brought home across the seven seas. Oldfarm is such a house and is SO furnished. Its balconies and many windows command the most inspiring views of mountains and sea. Its grounds and spacious and broad lawns and lovely gardens would assure the President of being always protected from the gaze of the merely curious [none of the Bar Harbor estates] appeals to us as being SO strikingly suited to use as the summer home of a New England President of the United States as does Oldfarm." (April 11, 1928) The President-who asked many questions about the property--seemed very pleased that the Presidential yacht could be moored in Compass Harbor DORR1925 Page 17 of 37 within arms reach. Many thought that Coolidge would find the "beautiful isolation" of Oldfarm most appealing, set amid the "great growing gardens of the Mount Desert Nurseries' flowers, plants, and trees that is peculiar to its location, unparalleled upon the Island.' (A companion article on "The Garden at Oldfarm Manor" appeared in the Times a week later detailing the origin of many of the plants from stock that Mary Dorr transplanted from her Massachusetts residence) The Times article gives us the only extant narrative snapshot of the "beautiful interior" of the cottage as each room is described. All three floors were fitted with tasteful family furnishings relocated from the Commonwealth Avenue home which he sold several years earlier. The U.S. Secret Service investigated the merits and failings of protecting President Coolidge during his proposed stay at Oldfarm. Colonel Edmund W. Starling (1874-1944) had responsibility for guarding the lives of five Presidents, from Wilson to Roosevelt. His input would have weighed heavily on Coolidge's decision. During the tenure of the Vermont Republican in the White House, he had previously summered in his Plymouth birthplace, in 1925 at Swampscott, Massachusetts, and the following year at White Pine Camp in the Adirondacks near Paul Smiths Hotel. In 1927, following the dedication of Mt. Rushmore, he stayed for three months at the State Game Lodge. The invitation from Maine was not accepted. Instead, Coolidge opted during the last months of his presidency for the H.C. Pierce five thousand acre estate on Wisconsin's Brule River. "Their entourage included 60 soldiers, 10 Secret Service men, 14 servants, and 75 newsmen who arrived by train." (Ellyn R. Kern. "Calvin Coolidge and Summer White Houses.' (www.calvin-lidge.org/html/summer white houses. html) What came to light later was the poor health of both Calvin and Grace Coolidge, especially in the final months of his presidency. Colonel Starling took climate into consideration and following a trip through the West selected Cedar Island Lodge on an island in the middle of the Brule River. An "ideal spot. The air was soft and saturated with the odor of pine resin-perfect for Mrs. Coolidge," though the isolation that was unavailable at Old Farm surely entered into the decision. (Thomas Sugrue. Starling of the White House. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946. Pp. 265-69; see also Ishbel Ross. Grace Coolidge and her Era. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1962. Pp. 242-245) Mount Desert also offered soft air saturated with pine-resin as Dorr surely knew-though his thoughts about this decision remain unknown. Michigan Congressman Louis C. Cramton, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and his wife visit Dorr at Old Farm. Cramton suggests that the Schoodic reservation be included in the park and tells Dorr that he would support a bill expanding the domain of the park beyond Mount Desert Island and changing its name to Acadia. Tenth National Park Conference, San Francisco, Feb. 15-21. In 1926 the BHVIA had set in motion a planning process that resulted in the 1928 publication of The Future of Mount Desert Island. Since some vocal summer residents believed that park development was not adhering to a plan that they had helped shape, the author of this report argued that park policy required greater local scrutiny-if not authorization. The namesake grandson of President Eliot, landscape architect Charles W. Eliot II argued that the future health of the whole island was bound up in the future of the park. Eliot was also a new Hancock County Trustee, having aligned himself with their interests in 1926, the same year that Boston attorney Richard W. Hale joined their ranks. DORR1925 Page 18 of 37 The report implied that park development was uncharted by Superintendent Dorr. This claim is contradicted by the fact that Dorr and Rockefeller had collaborated in the development of very explicit plans for park since 1921, "plans that had the very real approval of the National Park Service." (Roberts, op. cit., p. 99) Eliot advanced numerous arguments against road development, positions that stressed the negative environmental impact of road expansion. He also identified areas significant for their wilderness character and scenic, scientific, and historic features, making recommendations for their inclusion in the Park. (See "Statement for July 12, 1985 Hearing Senate 720 re Acadia National Park," ANPA. B. ET. f. 28). Eliot's Committee had moved forward with their plan and subsequent publication unaware of the internal planning document crafted by Cammerer and Vint the preceding September. Moving in directions unsupported by the NPS, Eliot's report fails to arouse public support- and "apparently just faded away." (Roberts, op. cit., p. 100) Yet over the next six decades Charles W. Eliot II scrutinizes the development of Acadia National Park with a degree of persistence that was worthy of the environmental attentiveness of his grandfather, Dorr, and Rockefeller. Eliot will repeatedly engage the NPS when its actions are perceived by him as violating the fundamental principle of his grandfather and Mr. Dorr: that the donation of land "In Trust in Perpetuity." (Up until the final establishment of boundaries for Acadia National Park, Eliot advocated additions to the park-outside existing boundaries-to "protect and conserve 'whole natural units. Nonetheless, during this period of controversy road work continued and moved northward under the Eagle Lake Bridge toward Paradise Hill. Rockefeller's influence sometimes expressed itself through organizations he had fostered. A case in point is a movement sponsored by the American Association of Museums in the mid-1920's that contributed to Mather and Albright's receptiveness to Robert S. Yard's advocacy of the educational potentialities within the lands administered by the National Park Service. A $10,000 grant from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fund, enabled Mather to create a committee to survey the educational possibilities of the National Parks, resulting in a new NPS position of assistant director in charge of education. Dr. Harold C. Bryant, well known for his field studies of Yosemite Grand Canyon, Sequoia, and Lassen Volcanic national parks, took up these duties. (Report of the Director of the National Park Service. 1930. Pp. 17-21) His report to the Fund work would be praised by Robert Sterling Yard who would remind him that the actual roots of education in the national parks predate the existence of the NPS by more than a decade, when universities began to use existing and future park sites as research and teaching opportunities. (See the important history traced by Yard in his letter to Bryant. June 29, 1931. Harpers Ferry Library Collection. RG19. 1936- 50. K1810, which refers to the expedition of Harvard's Professor Davis- which included Dorr-to the Grand Canyon) Despite the fact that additional Rockefeller funds soon followed, Albright and Mather adhered to a policy that educational facilities and programs existed to augment, not to shape, visitation. (Sutter. Driven Wild, p.124). Increasingly, Yard and his allies are seen as purists who are ill informed about the practical complexities of managing the system. On Mount Desert Island, Dr. Abbe did not live to see his museum completed. His death in March 1928 received worldwide news coverage. Two New York papers made passing mention of Dr. Abbe's role in the establishment of Lafayette National Park. The Bar Harbor Times announcement refers to Eliot, Dorr, and Abbe as "a notable trio" DORR1925 Page 19 of 37 responsible for the establishment of Sieur de Monts National Monument and their subsequent efforts to create Lafayette National Park; this claim echoes an earlier editorial which claimed that Dorr was "closely identified with Dr. Abbe's work, as Dr. Abbe was with Mr. Dorr's founding of Lafayette National Park." (Bar Harbor Times. July 11, 1928) The Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association that Abbe has served for decades would pay a more personal tribute recognizing the good doctor as " a lover of nature, a man of artistic sensitivity, a scientist, a surgeon, a gentleman of distinguished attainments, and a rarely lovable friend." (BHVIA. Minutes. 1928) The August 14, 1928 dedication of the museum was a commemoration of the life of Dr. Abbe, although it would be another nine years before the museum formally adopted Abbe's name. The newspaper report of the dedication acknowledged the 72 donors who supported the museum, but directed attention to Dorr who had "much to do with the Museum, especially since Dr. Abbe's death, carrying out the doctor's wishes." What is largely unknown is that six months prior to Abbe's death, he received from Mr. Rockefeller two checks totaling $15,000. to finance the museum "because of all you have done for the advancement of medical science and for the relief of suffering during a long, highly useful and most unselfish life." (September 15, 1927. RAC, III.2. B. 74. f. 760), Five thousand dollars was contributed in the name of Abbe's friend, Dr. Cornelius Woelfkin, the recently retired pastor of Rockefeller's own Park Avenue Baptist Church congregation, who was at that time beset with a sinister disease. After Abbe's death compelling evidence of the depth of the relationship between he and Dorr came to light. The telegram from Abbe's relatives informing the Bar Harbor community of his death was sent not to the local newspaper but to Old Farm in care of Mr. Dorr, his friend for nearly half a century. (Bar Harbor Times. March 7 & 14, 1928) When the Abbe estate was settled, the largest single bequest ($50,000) went to May Moon in recognition of her 32 years of service as secretary and caregiver of Dr. Abbe. The only significant gift to someone who was not a relative, employee, or an organization was the $10,000 bequest to George B. Dorr. Sixteen years later Dorr reciprocated when his executors directed one quarter of his estate to the Abbe Museum. Even in death his executors knew that Mr. Dorr wished to promote this little museum resting on granite secured from Dorr's quarry. Yet while both men lived there is a charming tale of the character of their relationship. Their professional associations were based on a personal relationship that was deep and broad-- a friendship based on shared values sustained over decades. They both were guided by an urge for permanency evident in the preservationist motive behind Abbe's museum and implicit in Dorr's effort to conserve on the Island its enduring beauty. Judith S. Goldstein lucidly expands on the power of landscape in satisfying Dorr's "urge for permanency" in her Majestic Mount Desert. Mount Desert, ME: Somes Pond Press, 1966) The benchmarks are their own words, their sustained actions to conserve "everything that was best" about Mount Desert Island, and their collaborative effort to create a museum that would continue to inspire future generations. One document best illumines their friendship. In 1921 Dr. Abbe was honored on his seventieth birthday with hundreds of birthday wishes. Expressions of affection were written by friends and professional colleagues; these messages were gathered in two handsome volumes and preserved in the Abbe Archives. Dorr's note is deserving of special mention because it employs uncharacteristic religious imagery to convey DORR1925 Page 20 of 37 an implicit message of enduring affection. Dorr states that he feels honored to count himself "among your friends. It is a credential that I shall present to St. Peter at the Heavenly Gate; and St. Peter will open wide! But should I get there first I shall not feel that it is all they've cracked it up to be until you come!" (Abbe Archives. Robert Abbe Birthday Correspondence. 2 Vols. April 12, 1921 handwritten letter from G.B. Dorr) As we know, Dr. Abbe predeceased Mr. Dorr by sixteen years. We do not know whether Dorr's "credential" was sufficient to "open wide" the Heavenly Gate. We do know with certainty that the Earthly Gate into Acadia was opened wide to all because of their collaborative efforts. Dorr continued to provide leadership as one of the museum directors for more than a decade following Abbe's death-even as he distanced himself from issues of control. He was pleased when Judge Luere B. Deasy was chosen President of the museum corporation, a position he held until he retired four years before his death in 1940. Dorr also encouraged Dr. Warren K. Moorehead, the leading authority on Maine archaeology, to continue his fieldwork on behalf of the museum and to prepare a publication on the Indians of Mount Desert Island, thereby carrying on Dr. Abbe's interest in deepening our scientific understanding of the Island native cultures. Dorr's interest in the dynamics of museum purpose, ownership, control, and financing was complex, especially since the NPS was only beginning to develop its own museum policies. Two key issues affected the development of the museum. Tension exists when any private non-profit corporation is legally situated within a public organization. John D. Rockefeller Jr. wrote in 1930 that it was "part of Dorr's contract with me" to effect the "transfer of the Abbe Museum and its endowment to the Park, to be owned and operated by the Park." (RAC. OMR. III. 2. I. B. 74. f. 760. July 8, 1930 letter to Fred Lyman) Several months later Horace Albright would publish the annual NPS report, referring to the "interesting Indian museum established near the Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park [that] was deed to the Government during August. A perpetual lease for its maintenance and operation was given the museum trustees by the Government." (Report of the Director of the National Park Service to the Secretary of the Interior. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930. Pg. 21) Yet as late as 1944, Museum trustees still struggled with competing interpretations of Museum ownership. They disputed the recurring official park service claim that the 2.3 acre museum property was "under complete [NPS] operative control". (Abbe Archives. Case III. f. 9. April 29, 1944 letter from NPS Director Newton B. Drury to Fletcher T. Wood) A more general issue involved the nature and control of museum educational activities. The organization in 1928 of the Committee on Educational Problems in the National Parks was charged by Director Mather "to make a study and to report" on "the delivery of lectures in various parks, establishment of nature trails and the nature guide services, and the development of museums [which] have proven a fertile field for adult education in these scenic reservations." Furthermore, the next year an NPS publication on the administration of educational programs stressed that the park visitor should be provided with the story of the park as a whole even as specialized exhibits were still informally discouraged. (Harpers Ferry Center Library. Historical Collection. RG19. B. K1810) In a letter to John D. Rockefeller Jr. the following year, Kate Ladd-- who provided the keystone endowment for the museum at Sieur de Mont- DORR1925 Page 21 of 37 answered Rockefeller's earlier query about museum management. For more than two decades she has believed that "smaller organizations are very useful" objects for philanthropy since they are guided by the personal touch. The issue is whether the new museum shall become be administered by the federal bureaucracy or be under private control. Mrs. Ladd says that Dr. Abbe agreed with her the benefits of private control. Of course, both Dorr and Rockefeller had experience with this contest between local interests and national policies. (RAC. OMR. III. 2. I. B. 74, f. 760) Rockefeller's reply to Mrs. Ladd was predictable. He refers to his interest and financial support for several western built and managed by the National Park Service where he says "the personal touch of which you speak is very much in evidence." Not only does he personally hold that this organization offers "the best permanent operation" for these museums, but the inquiries of a "professor at Brown when I was a student there" is "deeply impressed by the way in which the national parks are running their museums." Of course, that man was Dr. Harold Bumpus. When the transfer of the museum and its endowment to the federal government does not take place over the next two years, Mr. Rockefeller writes to the Assistant Superintendent asking Mr. Lyman to jog Dorr's memory about "his contract with me ...to use his best efforts to get the Museum given to the Park." (July 8, 1930. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 74. f. 760) With all this attention riveted on the Abbe Museum, little notice was given to the erection of a one-and-one-half story slate roofed brick and granite structure on Little Cranberry Island. Under the leadership of William Otis Sawtelle, the Islesford Historical Society Museum was established in this Georgian Revival structure behind the Blue Duck ships' store that had originally been the location of Sawtelle's maritime artifacts. In the years ahead there would be growing concern on the part of museum officials like H. C. Bumpus regarding the survival of this important collection of those who lived on the Cranberry Isles. (September 17, 1932 letter from Bumpus to Sawtelle. ANPA. B. 49. f. 8) Within two decades this museum as well would be incorporated into Acadia National Park. Continuing private doubts are expressed throughout the year about the viability of the Maine Biological Station. The issue comes to a head when Mr. Rockefeller informs Roscoe Jackson that since Dr. Little's relocation to Michigan the work of the Bar Harbor facility "has been seriously hampered and curtailed, if not practically abandoned. The Mt. Desert Laboratory in the meantime has undergone a reorganization," and since it is now properly managed he expects to "continue my contribution to the work and probably increase it." (June 18, 1927. RAC. III.2. B. 75. f. 770) None would fault Jackson for concluding that Dr. Little's grand plan had been laid to rest. Two months later the MDIBL Board reports to Mr. Rockefeller that it is "most sympathetic with President Little's enterprise" and has invited Little, Jackson, and several others to strengthen their Board by becoming Trustees. Jackson and others are assured that there is no unstated desire "to absorb or monopolize or control" those affiliated with the Maine Biological Station. (August 16, 1928. RAC. III.2.I. B. 75. f. 770) No longer do we hear of Dr. Little's natural history society proposal. His field work is amalgamated into MDIBL operations and the Maine Biological Station is renamed the Dorr Station. (E.K. Marshall, Jr. "A History of the Mount Desert island Biological Laboratory, 1898-1962." A Laboratory by the Sea. Ed. Franklin H. Epstein. Rhinebeck, NY: River Press, 1998. Pg. 59) DORR1925 Page 22 of 37 Dorr's decision nearly a decade earlier to import the first beavers onto MDI has become a matter of concern to Mr. Rockefeller. He is alarmed at the resulting flooding and the killing of trees that he writes to Arno Cammerer. For "these dead trees either stand as a constant blot on the landscape or if cut down to the surface of the water, show stumps when the water is low. (June 22, 1928. RAC. III.2 B. 83. f. 824) Local policies are inconsistent since Rockefeller has directed staff on his land to trap-and kill--beavers while Dorr has only agreed to trap them alive within the park and remove them from the Island. While not intending to interfere with park management, as a property owner he asks Cammerer to make a suggestion that beavers be eliminated from the Island. At this time, Dorr moves gradually away from the administrative matters required to manage park development and gives his attention to the classical texts and ideas that took root during his Harvard undergraduate years. One piece of evidence to this effect is found in a brief letter from author Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), a summer resident at his Seal Harbor home, Sylvanora, who graduated from Princeton University as Dorr completed his junior year at Harvard. He was a clergyman, professor of English literature at Princeton, diplomat, and a widely published author who wrote outdoor essays that are rightly situated in the tradition of Thoreau, Burroughs, and Muir. The only known extant correspondence between he and Dorr takes place this summer when he writes to inform Dorr that he has followed up on "our pleasant conversation" at dinner earlier in the week. The issue had nothing to do with the outdoors but with "our old friend Virgil in the Divine Comedy. (August 16, 1928. Dorr Family Correspondence. Temple University Libraries Special Collections) These few sentences about van Wyck's re- reading of Dante signal the return to classical literature and ideas increasingly evident in the Dorr memorabilia during the last decade of his life. Dorr's redirection of interest may well have come to the attention of his superiors in Washington. Arno Cammerer sends a private communication to Mr. Rockefeller regarding a late September visit to the park himself and Michigan Congressman (1913-1931) Louis C. Crampton and his wife. Among National Park Service historians, Crampton is revered for his memorable speech three months later in the House of Representatives on the occasion of the resignation of Stephen T. Mather due to serious health issues. (January 15, 1929. RAC. III. 2. I. B.83 f. 827) During their private talks, Cammerer and Crampton agreed that an Associate Superintendent position should be funded to "take all administrative burdens off the shoulders of Superintendent Dorr," who will hereafter have as "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 Federal retirement Act. Following their agreement on this strategy, Cammerer discussed the plan with Dorr "who was much pleased, and thoroughly in sympathy with the plans." (October 10, 1928. RAC. III.2.I B. 84. f. 835) Cammerer is not reluctant to inform Mr. Rockefeller of this matter and rephrases it more sensitively to him two months later, that Dorr "immediately agreed to an arrangement whereby [his] services could be made available indefinitely, without fear of retirement, until his most important work in connection with the extension of park areas could be concluded, or at least as far as his physical condition would at any time permit... [and] I felt that this would be a real solution of some of our vexing local problems, without hurting Mr. Dorr's feelings or standing, and Mr. Dorr appeared relieved when I told him of this plan." (December 8, 1928. RAC. III.2.I. B. 84. f. 835) DORR1925 Page 23 of 37 Cammerer explicitly refers to the continuation of Dorr's land acquisition efforts and "possibly the completion of the two roads projects which he has started and specially requested that he be permitted to finish." At this time the Part encompassed nearly 11,000 acres which Dorr enlarged to 27,870 acres at the time of his death, more than five times the size of the original monument in 1916. Dorr went to Washington in December at Cammerer's request to work on expanding the Park beyond the Mount Desert Island shoreline. Both wanted to extend Park boundaries "to permit the taking of various islands and headlands, such as Schoodic Head and the renaming of the park as Acadia National Park instead of Lafayette National Park.' (Ibid) Unable to resist an opportunity to assist the Mount Desert Island Biological laboratory, Dorr encounters its President (Dr. Harold Bumpus) at the Cosmos Club, a highly selective social club established by explorer John Wesley Powell, where Dorr had routinely lodged for the past three decades while in Washington. (See Wilcomb Washburn's The Cosmos Club of Boston: A Centennial History 1878-1978. Washington: Cosmos Club, 1978) The two developed there the rationale for enlisting Mr. Rockefeller's financial assistance to acquire the Karst land in Salisbury Cove. (December 6 & 13, 1928. RAC III.2. B. 75. f. 771) Cammerer certainly was well aware that Mr. Rockefeller's general practice was not only to acquire lands of personal interest for his expanding carriage road system. For more than a decade Dorr had written position papers for Mr. Rockefeller on the desirability of acquiring new properties as park additions, enabling the philanthropist to cooperate with the park service in realizing its land acquisition objectives. Freeing Dorr of administrative duties further contributed to this exceptional partnership. Dorr nowhere mentions the narrowing of his responsibilities. He neglects this administrative redirection in The Story of Acadia National Park, leaving readers with the mistaken impression that his administrative duties remained unaltered. In the years ahead, his associates will often act as if they were uninformed about the limited scope of his official responsibility. In October 1930 one of Dorr's allies six years earlier at the 1924 road construction hearings, Clarence Little, will complain to the new Secretary of the Interior about the "endless orgy of road building " that threatens the unique features of the Park. Therein, he will describe his fellow Jackson Laboratory incorporator George Dorr is blunt terms: "Mr. Dorr is a solitary worker [who] decides his own policies. Oddly enough, Little's critics at the University of Michigan had said much the same of him the year before. October 5, 1930. Acadia National Park Archives. B. 1. f. 121) To be sure, Cammerer recognizes that the park has doubled in size over the last decade, NPS policies and procedures had become increasingly complex, and Dorr's strengths in researching, negotiating, and developing the landscape remained undiminished. It is of no small matter that this success was accomplished over the last two years without Dr. Eliot's wise counsel. All in all, we should take his comments to Cammerer at face value. As we shall, see, off loading administrative tasks would not diminish the intensity or energetic involvement in the development of the park and both Mr. Rockefeller and Dorr's superiors would take great pains to ensure that Dorr was consulted in all important matters. But would Dorr honor the new limitations? For him there was a choice, for Stephen Mather that was not the case. In Washington the Interior Department administratively changed hands. Secretary of the Interior Work resigned in order that he might manage DORR1925 Page 24 of 37 Herbert Hoover's campaign for the Presidency, being succeeded by Secretary Roy O. West to whom the NPS Director now reported. On election eve, Stephen T. Mather suffered a stroke that left his vocal apparatus and entire right side paralyzed. His professional life was finished in the eyes of those who knew him best though it would take Mather a month to realize it. He expressed his preference for Horace Albright as his successor. "The national parks were now out of his hands forever." (Robert Shankland. Steve Mather of the National Parks. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1951. Chap. 20) By the end of the year it was clear that after fourteen years, the Mather era was over. Three days after Albright was appointed NPS Director, Congressman Crampton lauded Mather's achievements before the House of Representatives, concluding that "as he builded SO wisely, his work will stand. There will never come an end to the good that he has done. Can any man desire a more wonderful career?" (January 15, 1929. RAC. III.2. B. 83. f. 827) The Eagle Lake and Bubble Pond bridges are being completed. Rockefeller expressed interest in the footpaths north from Bubble Pond and in delineating the reasons for choosing the route selected, Dorr refers to Beatrix Farrand's involvement-it is possible that she was urged to do SO by Mr. Rockefeller (Dorr letter Dec. ,1928) When she did not honor an appointment to meet with him at the site, Dorr all but dismisses the necessity of her involvement by suggesting competence boundaries, informing Rockefeller of his "unlimited admiration for her knowledge and skill in the whole field of landscape gardening art but this, belonging to the woods and trails, seems different." (RAC III.2.I. .109. 1079) 1929 On January 19th President Coolidge authorizes the inclusion of non- island property (including Knox County islands "which complete the archipelago") in the National Park Service property on Mount Desert, which is renamed Acadia National Park. Dorr chooses the name "Acadia" as appropriate because of its historical associations and descriptive character. In Dorr's earlier publications, however, he wrote extensively about the migration of French culture under the leadership of Pierre du Guast, the Sieur de Monts, and Samuel de Champlain. Dorr repeatedly refers to de Monts commission received from Henry IV to colonize and Christianize the lands and territory of Acadia, "a name that first appears in this commission though the king states it was already familiar to him from accounts of fishermen and traders." (G.B. Dorr, "A Glorious Tribute to France," La France, September 1920, p. 590) Dorr's influence resonates with the official National Park Service annual report where it is now policy to employ "where possible only such names as are descriptive of a park region or are associated with it from earliest times. Acadia, the name once applied to the region in which the park is located, is of native origin, coming from an Indian word apparently describing the region that was in use among the early fishermen and traders from the sea and that was brought back by them to Europe before recorded explorations of the area by either the French or English." (Report of the Director of the National Park Service. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1929. Pg. 4. In our own day many claim that it derives from the native maritime Mi'kmaq term akadie.) The bill, entered by Hon. John E. Nelson of Augusta, includes a proviso to make Homans House-acquired in 1924 upon the death of Mrs. Charles D. Homans of Boston-as an official guesthouse for Park administrators and DORR1925 Page 25 of 37 visiting dignitaries. Dorr stays with friend and Bar Harbor neighbor Gist Blair at historic Blair House in Washington. Blair tells him that the land encompassing the approach to Sand Beach and bracketing Thunder Hole, leading to the rugged Otter Cliffs promontory, is available and that he has taken a six-month option on the property, hoping to raise money among Mt. Desert residents. Rockefeller steps in and takes the Blair option, simultaneously purchasing the cliffs themselves. At the University of Michigan the resignation of President C.C. Little has far reaching ramifications for Mount Desert Island. Divorse from his first wife of eighteen years was imminent and antagonism to his administration certainly entered into the decision to resign. (Jean Holstein. The First Fifty Years at The Jackson Laboratory, p. 11) Little wrote to Bumpus a confidential communication of his intent to secure donor funds to build a small laboratory near the Dorr Station, a year- round facility with a full-time staff of seven. Hudson Motorcar Company head Roscoe B. Jackson, his brother-in-law Richard S. Webber, and Edsel Ford provided the necessary capital for the first five years of the new cancer laboratory. When Dorr offered the 13 acres of land the donors reacted positively to his suggestion that the facility should memorialize his father, Charles Hazen Dorr. Unexpectedly, Roscoe Jackson's sudden death in March required some financial adjustments but also rethinking of the name of the institution. Apparently, Dorr took the initiative again since Dr. Little wrote to him that "it seems to be typically unselfish and fine of you to intimate that your previous suggestion concerning the land as a memorial for your father be disregarded if desirable." (Martha Harmon. "C.C. Little and the Founding of the Jackson Laboratory," The History Journal of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society III [2000] 1.36 & 41) Accordingly, on May 4, 1929, the Roscoe B. Memorial Laboratory was incorporated with Dr. Little as president. Dorr was one of several incorporators. The land transfer for the sum of one dollar was completed July 6, 1929. Dorr wisely inserts a provision that should the laboratory cease to operate then its land, structures, and equipment would be conveyed in turn to the Wild Gardens of Acadia; if the WGA no longer exists, then the residue is to conveyed to the State of Maine who may transfer the property to the federal government for inclusion in the national park. As Little completed his University of Michigan administrative responsibilities prior to the effective September 1 date of his resignation, in Bar Harbor laboratory construction took place, Summer students carried on field studies, and Little began serving half- time as managing director of an organization that would evolve into the American Cancer Society. Six weeks after the October 24th stock market crash, the laboratory opens and Little's staff begins the process of building mice colonies of several hundred thousand to experiment on the development of cancer. The possibilities of collaboration with the MDIBL in natural history field studies were expressed publicly but not carried out in practice. On the eve of the Great Depression, Dr. Little's grand project that had aroused the interest of Mr. Jackson, Dr. Bumpus, and Mr. Rockefeller was put aside in favor of "germanized" laboratory research in a controlled setting. MDIBL Executive Committee Chairman Hermon C. Bumpus informs Mr. Rockefeller that summer staff has doubled since last year to more than forty. He requests a twenty percent increase in Mr. Rockefellers annual support and quite wisely concludes his letter by reporting that the Secretary of the Interior asked Bumpus to report on the educational potential of Yellowstone and Acadia National Park. DORR1925 Page 26 of 37 A driving tour of the island with Dorr was arranged. Bumpus became "so enraptured with what Nature is ready to convey and SO conscious of your appreciation of this educational and inspirational opportunity that I resolved to make no formal report without first asking if I might discuss certain plans with you.' Dorr is not preempted, for should Mr. Rockefeller be unavailable "it will be quite sufficient for me to rely upon Mr. Dorr's advice and approval." The result of this inquiry was a specific report that praised the scientific inquiry and publication record associated with development of Acadia, while recognizing the need for an expanded educational program that the Secretary should consider: (1) establishment of a visitors center atop the Cadillac Mountain summit once the highway is completed; (2) oonstruction of a museum on Mount Desert Island animal and plant life where ranger naturalists would be headquartered; (3) scientific exploitation of the marine shoreline and the development of basins or pools to educate the public on marine life; (4) the publication of a trailside guide that linked the park with other areas of interest on the island; and (5) enlargement of the Ranger Naturalist Service and increased appropriation for park construction and maintenance. (Reports of Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus on Studies Made in 1929 on Educational Projects in Acadia National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Harpers Ferry Library Center. Historical Collection. RG19. Box K1810; see also the recommendations system-wide in the November 27, 1929 general report) It is probable that the visit of Dr. Bumpus motivated Dorr to write what can best be described as a tenth anniversary descriptive essay about the origin, development, management, and place of Acadia within the National Park Service. Fewer than a thousand words in length, the uplifting style of the essay is reminiscent of Dr. Eliot more so than any earlier Dorr publications. It is not notable for the claims that are made about Acadia's uniqueness-the only park in the territory of the original thirteen states, based on the coast where mountains reach the sea, exhibiting the flora and fauna of the northeastern coastline-and amassed by precedent setting public donations. What is notable is that Dorr openly situates Acadia within the continuing debate about the primary purpose of a national park, "whether its true function be conservational, recreational, or educational, or in what degree combined." In the case of Acadia, the "conservation beauty of inspiring quality and the safeguarding of free access to it by the public was the impelling motive, both on the part of those who gave and on that of those in authority who accepted." (Dorr Papers. B. 2. f. 4) Is this park of extrinsic or intrinsic value? While he does not discount the latter, he affirms here that this landscape is like a great work of art or a famous ruin. It should be preserved "for the enrichment of the world and its influence on the minds of men." He concludes, a visit to Acadia will leave impressions that will be "a leaven working through the land for nature conservation and the preservation of landscape beauty in all its many types and forms." Road development within the Park shifts gears by the Summer of 1929. The historic motor study undertaken by landscape architect H. Eliot Foulds demonstrates that Rockefeller's so-called containment of the motor roads broadened into a comprehensive system from Acadia's mountain tops to the seacoast. (Compliance Documentation for the Historic Motor Roads, Acadia National Park. Brookline: Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, 1993. Pp. 20 ff. Some of the inspiration for this expansion may have been derived from successful Rockefeller-sponsored roadside improvements and landscaping in Yellowstone National Park where Horace Albright was DORR1925 Page 27 of 37 Superintendent. We know as well that during this Summer Rockefeller financed a tour of western parks for Grosvenor Atterbury to research an architectural style for Acadia. In addition, Rockefeller felt "regret over the unbuilt unit in his original plan, approved by Secretary Lane in 1917, the amphitheater road, and on other to his purchase of the Seal Harbor Realty Company's lands along the shore to Otter Creek." If he could secure lands connecting the Cadillac Summit road with the new road along the oceanfront, he would carry the expense of building "the missing link in his horse-road system, and, purchasing the necessary lands, a motor road along the shore from the Sand Beach to Hunter's Brook, under conditions which he stipulated for the removal of the United States Naval radio Station to another site and the cessation to the Park by the Town of Bar Harbor of its Ocean Drive." (G.B. Dorr, "Early Road Systems and What They Led To,' 1939 typescript. ANPA. B. 3. f. .6) And yet, with such sizable projects at the forefront of his attention, Rockefeller alerts Dorr and Cammerer about a decade old threat to road construction, "the devastation made by the beavers." Rockefeller finds no merit in these rodents, expecting Dorr's rangers to attack beavers "until not a single beaver is known to remain on the island. " (July 29, 1929. RAC. III. B. 83. f. 824) While this might appear to be a staff administrative issue outside the restricted authority that resulted from Cammerer's visit the preceding year, the Superintendent makes clear that beaver extermination will not take place on his watch. In his official Monthly Report, it is clear that Dorr is still very much the onsite administrator, for he "spends the greater part of every day in the field, personally supervising work in progress [which] takes him into every section of the park." (NARA. RG79. CCF. Monthly Reports. Acadia. July 1929) He will do what he can to reduce their number while pointing out what he routinely observes in the field, the benefit of beaver-raised water levels which displaced mosquito-breeding pools without any road disfigurement. He will not use "barbarous" steel traps to exterminate the population, relying on "humane" traps to address problems where their activity is not of benefit. In a fulsome letter to Olmsted Brothers architect Henry Hubbard, Rockefeller acknowledges that "Mr. Dorr's projects and my projects, all in the interest of the park, are very intimately inter-related and inter-dependent. Neither of us can develop our ideas most fully or most satisfactorily without the complete cooperation of the other.' (See letters of September 18, 1929 and Dorr's December 4, 1929 response to Hubbard. RAC. III.2.I. B. 110. f. 1097; B. 85.f.839) Minor and significant disagreements between Dorr and Rockefeller about road design and routing would occur in the years ahead. Without exception, all were resolved because of the respect they shared for each other-and the intervention of a third party. More often than not, the external authority was .L. Olmsted Jr., "whose unique combination of talent, preparation, and family legacy provided the cornerstone for a career" that included defining the organic purposes of the National Park Service. (Susan L. Klaus. 'Such Inheritance as I can give you, The Apprenticeship of Frederick Law Olmsted, Junior." Journal of the New England Garden History Society 3 (1993) pg. 7) Olmsted's abilities in reconciling conflicting views was well known. One frequently cited example that arose involved the access to Sieur de Monts Spring and adjacent roadways. Dorr and Rockefeller differed about the Park entrance road, the track of a motor road around The Tarn, and DORR1925 Page 28 of 37 the line of access to the loop road. After resistance from both parties, in the end Olmsted's exhaustive study of alternate routes and the logic behind each resulted in a shared vision. (September 18, 24, October 2, 14, November 14, & December 23, 1929. RAC 110. f. 1097; B.119,f.1203) On August 20, 1929 The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations opened The Black House to the public. George Nixon Black, Jr. had bequeathed to the Trustees the historic house and original furnishings of Colonel John Black, who built this house in 1824 to 1827 on his 180 acre estate on the outskirts of Ellsworth. This promotion of a cultural facility signaled a Trustee departure from the land trust function of nearly three decades-and fourteen years of functioning as a land acquisition donor of land to the federal government. In the years ahead the Trustees would struggle with a fundamental change in their organizational mission, shifting from land conservation for the public good to property preservation and stewardship. On August 29, 1929 the Trustees minutes report that the corporation conveyed "to the United States all lands owned by the Corporation [the Trustees] on Mount Desert Island." (The was an exception. Reflecting the sanitation motives of Trustees during their earliest years, they retained control for the next two years of a one hundred and fifty foot wide strip "bordering the various lakes and their tributaries furnishing water to the various towns.' With the exception of two small lots in Seal Harbor [Barr Hill & Champlain Mountain sites] all lands east of Somes Sound were conveyed to the federal government by 28 August 1931) Within three decades from its inception, the acquisition era had ended! Was there now a new mission for the Trustees? Attorney Richard Waldron Hale, senior attorney with the prestigious Boston law firm of Hale and Dorr, had recently become a Trustee and accepted the Chairmanship of the Museum's House Committee. With the belief that few new properties would be gifted to them for transfer to the federal government, the acquisition of the Black House provided the Trustees with a new mission, its preservation and organization as a public museum dedicated to this day to education and research on the history of Downeast Maine. ("A Century of Trust," Ellsworth American Supplement, September 13, 2001) This organizational shift delighted Hale who much later described himself as "a malevolent hater of the substitution of the Federal Government for the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations and of the whole principle of domination by Rockefeller and the Federal authority from Washington." (May 9, 1942 to John A. Peters. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Given Hale's views, it is puzzling that his family plays such a critical role more than a decade later in Dorr's estate plans. What enabled Dorr to accommodate views in striking contract with his own principles? As we have seen, this is not the instance of Dorr's magnanimity and it will be tested again within the next year. Hale will challenge the renaming of Mount Desert mountains that Dorr had championed more than a decade earlier. The "exceedingly frank" Hale also spoke to Rockefeller about a myriad of matters, areas where he is at odds with the "domination of the Park and the Rockefeller interests on Mount Desert Island." (Letter to Olmsted. December 13, 1929. RAC. III.2.1 f. 1097) As fall approaches, the executive secretary of the Secretary of the Interior arrives for an inspection of the Park and is hosted by Dorr at Old Farm. The timing of his arrival likely influenced Dorr's decision not to attend the Eleventh Superintendent's Conference at Yellowstone National Park. His supervision of work on the Cadillac Summit Road DORR1925 Page 29 of 37 continues until severe Thanksgiving holiday weather forces the seasonal cessation of this project. The winter of 1929 finds Dorr in residence in Manhattan at the University Club, a Fifth Avenue and 54th Street private club for gentlemen designed by Stanford White and erected in 1899. Described to the day as the grandest clubhouse with its own library, reading room, and art gallery, Dorr lodged in this nine-story Italian Renaissance palazzo-style structure frequently during the years following World War I. Nearly opposite the Club was the residence of Mr. Rockefeller, and a contest of wills Dorr was about the unfold. The struggle would span two years and may speak to the best and worst in each man. It was well known to Dorr that the confidential Rockefeller road plan soon to be submitted to the National Park Service included the acquisition of the Great Meadow and the Sieur de Monts Spring, both owned by Dorr and intended for development along his own line of thought. Raymond Fosdick negotiated with Dorr at the University Club, and in due course Dorr agreed to the sale of the Great Meadow. For more than a decade Dorr had cultivated unrealized plans for the Spring site to be developed as a botanical exhibit. Dorr has given us the only version of this transaction. Convinced that "Rockefeller did not need it for his purpose but was bent on having it," when the ailing philanthropist heard of Dorr's refusal to sell the Springhouse he said he would sooner abandon the massive road building plan than not secure both properties. According to Dorr, Rockefeller simply could not understand that Dorr would have such an attachment to what he often referred to as the heart of the Park. 'Does not Mr. Dorr want me to go on with it?' he asked, 'If not, I will give it up. Perhaps I have undertaken too much.' According to Dorr, when Fosdick returned to Dorr with that question, 'I thought of the ocean front and sent him promptly back to tell Mr. Rockefeller that I did want him to go on with it and would give up the Spring, stipulating only for the transfer of the whole property to the Government when all was done." (G. Dorr. "Early Road System and What they Led on To,' typescript. ANPA. B. 3. f. Rockefeller agreed to these terms and delayed finalization of the property transfer for nearly two years. Rockefeller subsequently leased it to the government. This incident can be understood as Dorr's noble act of sacrifice of the Sieur de Monts property for the sake of shoring up Rockefeller's commitment to the road system. An alternative explanation is that Rockefeller knew Dorr well enough to anticipate Dorr's reaction should he play his trump card, their joint vision of the completed road system. What is not clear is whether he was aware of Dorr's emotional attachment to the place, rich with personal and historical associations. In the fall of 1931 Rockefeller was informed by Superintendent Dorr that the re-shingling expense of the roof of the pumphouse at Sieur de Mont Springs was now his cost to bear, Dorr having born costly pumphouse repair and renovation expenses in 1926. Was this a reasonable expectation on the part of a Park administrator or petty retribution for Dorr's loss of the Springhouse property? Rockefeller argued that since the government requested the lease of this property, the Superintendent who was interested in its upkeep before the sale "should think he would not only be equally interested to do SO now but [be] in a very much better position to meet the expense since the receipt of the very considerable sum paid by me in [its] purchase." Was this expectation consistent with the terms of the lease or was Mr. Rockefeller begrudging DORR1925 Page 30 of 37 the "considerable sum" paid for the property, especially since logic would require that as the leasee it was a park service repair expense, not Dorrs (Dorr to Lynam & Rockefeller to Lynam, October 22 & 27, 1931. RAC. III. 2. I. .98. f. 969) Symbolically, the Springhouse waters give life and wash away impurities. Ironically, both men appear soiled by this contest of wills. 1930 Despite some progress in managing his disability and profitable interactions with his NPS colleagues throughout 1928, on January 22nd the National Part Service's principal founder and first director suffered a second stroke and died in Boston. Like Dorr, Stephen T. Mather had devoted his professional skills and financial resources to national park development. It was he who "established the polices by which the parks were to be 'developed and conserved unimpaired' for the benefit of future generations," the claim that aroused the ire of Senator Pepper and others five years earlier. Sellars. "Manipulating Nature's Paradise: National Park Management under Stephen T. Mather, 1916-1929," Montana 43 (1993) p. 13) Dorr attended the funeral services. (NARA. RG 79. CCF. Monthly Reports. Acadia. January 1930) Even though the park service frowned on memorials, support from the office of Mrs. Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes insured that countless park visitors would see the plaques sculpted by Bryant Baker. Over the last eight decades how many have paused and reflected on the words placed beside Mather's bas relief profile on the thirty by thirty-five inch plaque atop the summit of Cadillac Mountain: "He laid the foundation for the National Park Service defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed for future generations. There will never come to an end to the good he has done." (Shankland, op. cit., pp. 287-291) Dorr used the winter months to catch up on scholarly reading, develop transcriptions of Ward and Dorr family papers, and whether his last will and testament reflected his current intent. His earliest surviving will is dated 1930 with yearly revisions through 1934--with the exception of 1932. The most conspicuous features of this estate plan are the omission of relatives as beneficiaries and the establishment of estate trustees to manage all that remains of his personal property in accordance with his stated wishes. In Dorr's view these distant cousins "are either sufficiently provided for in their own estates or SO distantly removed or out of touch with me and my affairs" that he reasons that there is no convincing argument for their inclusion. (August 1, 1933 G.B. Dorr Will. Third Clause. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Chief Ranger Benjamin Hadley submits for the first time the Monthly Report required of each Park manager, noting that in mid-March Dorr left for Washington to confer with NPS officials where he would remain until late April when seasonal work resumed. Before his departure, Dorr was much occupied with the kind of public service activity that is largely ignored, community improvement. In April, Dorr "personally recruits" Ardra Tarbell, who will serve as clerk and administrative officer to Acadia park superintendents for nearly forty years. (See Walter J. Hickel, Secretary of the Interior, Citation for Meritorious Service to Ardra Tarbell. Harpers Ferry Center Archives. Unreferenced copy provided by Archive Chief David Nathanson. August 2005) In the early years the tiny clerk, a business college graduate with retail experience, is responsible for the orderly maintenance of a massive number of land data records, title abstracts, deeds, and maps that were constantly required by attorneys and park staff. (See S. Herbert Evinson's Oral History DORR1925 Page 31 of 37 Interview with Ardra E. Tarbell. October 21, 1971. This transcript is the sole surviving park office view of Dorr as employer and gentleman. I am indebted to Tarbell's niece, Frances LaCourse, for this document) Ardra Tarbell offers interesting descriptions of Dorr's behavior in his later years. "I remember his looks very well. This something I think will never fade [for he had very distinguished look And when he was happy, of course, his mustache would curl up, you know When he was down in spirits, it sort of drooped." To her Dorr was the soul of courtesy and thoughtfulness and a great scholar with a command of "many languages that he spoke and read fluently." Moreover, Tarbell had learned from Dorr's secretary that Dorr always read himself to sleep reading the Classics in their language of origin. Tarbell and Grace Oakes, Dorr's secretary, lived in a cottage at Old Farm for several years. Although Dorr's jaunts around the estate would often involve crossing paths with Tarbell, "he just looks up and smiles and goes right along [for] he took long steps. And he carried a cane a lot of times, just for something to carry, I guess, and balance he was very happy to see somebody enjoying the estate, and for me to keep on. Go anywhere I wanted to. Dorr was " a very popular guest among the wealthy summer residents entertained by all of them he went to teas and luncheons and dinners almost every day, the weeks around, all summer long." (Ibid) Despite the company he kept the park was always on his mind, especially when Rockefeller initiatives were pushed to the foreground. That Spring, Rockefeller submits plans to Washington for a loop motor road connecting Cadillac Mountain with the ocean and extending the preexisting Ocean Drive. Plans are accepted. Rockefeller insists that the Otter Cliffs Naval Station be moved if there is to be a coastal drive. The military raises stern objections. A stalemate occurs as the time limit set by Rockefeller for accepting his offer draws near. Dorr forces an end to the stalemate by suggesting to the Navy Department that the newly-acquired Schoodic Peninsula would be as excellent a receiving station. From Boston, First Naval District Admiral Andrews gives his endorsement, as does NPS Director Horace Albright and Maine Senator Frederick Hale, chairman of the Senate Naval Committee. The Secretary of the Navy, Charles Francis Adams, an old Boston friend of Dorr's, supports the project, but feels he cannot go against the recommendations of his staff. After a successful trip to the Schoodic site (arranged and insisted upon by Dorr), the opposition changes its mind and reports favorably on the new site. On May 23rd the Park grew by nearly 641 acres when 229 acres of land included in the Seawall Naval Radio Station was transferred from the Navy Department to Interior and 412 acres was added through the acceptance of deeds donated by Dorr and the Trustees. The Park now comprised 16.72 square miles. By October "a real estate deal of considerable importance" took place in Southwest Harbor when Dorr acquired the Echo Lake Property and the Wonderland property at Seawall. Further progress in both land acquisition and road development during 1930 should leave no doubt in the Washington offices of the park service that Dorr continues to excel in carrying out his 'restricted' administrative responsibilities. Yet before Schoodic moves forward, Dorr and Rockefeller enter into complex negotiations at this time that revolve around the incorporation certificates and by-laws of three organizations that Dorr had created: Sieur de Monts Spring Co., The Wild Gardens of Acadia, and the Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities. Rockefeller is pressing for the transfer of a substantial number of parcels of corporate lands DORR1925 Page 32 of 37 to the federal government as one precondition for his commitment to spend a considerable sum of money on the Otter Cliffs roadway; the other being the removal of the Otter Cliffs radio station from its present location. Over the last decade Dorr's personal and corporate holdings were routinely deeded to Rockefeller. Between May 21, 1921 and December 2, 1929 nearly one-hundred and fifty properties changed hands, a most impressive number. Rockefeller had been long frustrated by what he perceives as Dorr's tendency to trust his memory in lieu of documentation. The road expansion strategy pursued by Rockefeller now calls for the transfer to the government of the cooperate-owned properties following their release by their incorporators-and in many cases, all that is needed is Dorr's consent. (Raymond B. Fosdick to Mr. Rockefeller. March 18, 1930. RAC III.2.I. B. 85. f. 840, and April 7, 1930. RAC III. I. B. 85. f. 839; Rockefeller to Cammerer. March 28, 1930. RAC III.2 B. 85. f. 835; March 28, 1930 .Olmsted Jr. - Rockefeller May 28, 1930 conference notes. RAC III.2. B. 119. f. 1203) If Dorr agrees to this he expects a quid pro quo in "the development and maintenance of a botanical exhibition garden attached to the Wild Gardens of Acadia [and the] creation of a small capital fund to cover the publishing expenses of the Wild Gardens of Acadia." (op. cit., April 7, 1930. Fosdick to Rockefeller) The agreement would be finalized after the arrival of some celebrated guests from Washington. (The Rockefeller Archive Center [III. 2. B. 86. f. 845] holds a chronological listing of Rockefeller's gifts of land to the government for Acadia National Park) Even though Dorr had frequently been visited by Department of the Interior administrators, the late Spring visit by Horace Albright and Arno Cammerer had a unique element to it. Despite his fifteen years in leadership positions with the park service, Albright had never been in Acadia National Park or the State of Maine. Dorr met them in Bangor and on June and drove them to the Island, giving them a good idea of the land approaches. They covered the new road built east of Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond, visited Seal Harbor and the Eyrie, and saw the Otter Cliffs radio station. The following day they covered all of Rockefeller's carriage roads except in the Amphitheatre district, explore Somes Sound in a motor boat, and guided by F.L. Olmsted Jr. they saw new roadways near the great meadow and the Tarn, climbing to the Beehive summit to get a comprehensive view of road route possibilities. (No contact was made at this time with Paul D. Simpson, Mr. Rockefeller's engineer. See Simpson Family Papers. Rockefeller Archive Center) On June their final day, Dorr and his guests visited Schoodic Head and considered alternative sites for the radio station. Much impressed, Albright details his trip and impressions in a letter to Rockefeller, approving Dorr's program for "road construction that is deemed necessary on the Schoodic Peninsula." (Letters of June 10 & 16, 1930. Worthwhile Places: Correspondence of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Horace M. Albright. Ed. J.W. Ernst. New York: Fordham University Press, 1991. Pgs. 101-108; See also June 20, 1930 Rockefeller letter to Director Albright. RAC. III. 2. B. 84. f. 835) Within the month funds are allocated from the Interior budget to the Bureau of Public Roads to survey road options for the Schoodic Peninsula and throughout the fall accountants, engineers, and landscape architects from Washington are on site evaluating park projects. One such expert evaluation was offered by engineer, L.H. Zach who reported on the Otter Cliff Road construction In the months ahead and the design of the roads proceeds, the architectural expertise of F.L. Olmsted Jr. will increasingly be relied upon by Rockefeller and the NPS. DORR1925 Page 33 of 37 Olsmted is especially attentive to protecting the future aesthetics by routing roadways SO that private holdings do not "form seriously unpleasant interruptions" in the scenic continuity of the scenic ride. (July 14, 1930. Olmsted to Rockefeller. RAC. B. 119. f. 1203) MDIBL Trustee Bumpus proposes a Rockefeller funded trailside museum at Salisbury Cove, a facility that would exhibit the extraordinary life of the Gulf of Maine" combined with additional research facilities." Rockefeller thinks the idea is if great merit but is unable to take on any additional responsibilities since the development of Acadia National Park will keep his hands full for the foreseeable future. (August 20 & 22, 1930. RAC. III.: I. B. 75. f. 770) In late Summer, Rockefeller accepts an invitation to speak at the Pot and Kettle Club, a Bar Harbor association of influential summer residents. His highly unusual public appearance was intended to clarify his role in executing the road development plan that had been posted for weeks in the Park office. This reassurance of the on site reviews by NPS Acting Director Cammerer and Mr. Olmsted resulted in "only pleasant comment on the part of one or two." His letter also noted that Dorr and Assistant Superintendent F. Lynam met with town selectmen the day before to fully discuss park road plans. (Rockefeller to Cammerer. August 29, 1930. RAC. III.2. B. 84. f. 835) Although the public announcement of these Rockefeller's plans were further delayed, islanders were surely excited by the September 10, 1930 front page announcement that "Rockefeller Offers to Build a $4,000,000 Motor Road for Park." The article described this "singularly magnificent project" as a new fourteen mile long scenic motor road connecting Cadillac Mountain with Frenchman Bay, Sand Beach to Hunter's Brook. Five hundred laborers over three years could be engaged in this project and two others, and one could result in a fifteen mile road encircling Penobscot and Sargent Mountains. (Bar Harbor Times. September 10, 1930; Worthwhile Places. Ed. J.W. Ernst. Pp. 110-111. See October and November issues of the Times for criticism of this plan) Included was a detailed description of the route written by Superintendent Dorr, leaving no doubt that this project was a partnership. While Dorr and Rockefeller were assessing public reaction to this dramatic announcement, Trustee Richard Hale led a cohort dissatisfied with what had transpired with former Trustee properties that were now under federal administration. Perhaps some felt that Mr. Dorr had violated some unstated Trustee approval process. The specific issue involved the mountains that were renamed under Dorr's watch, beginning in 1917. As a new federal administrator, Dorr was also trying to conform to the Board of Geographic Names principle of long standing usage, yet as a scholar Dorr was compelled to locate historic precedent for the conventional names. Where the historical roots were shallow, Dorr saw an opportunity to develop alternative historical arguments that emphasized the role of native American and French historical associations. In this process he pressed for a more ancient lineage than what was customary on Mount Desert Island. Hale tried to rally fellow Trustees in defense of the traditional mountain names more than a decade after the 1918 approvals. His January 2, 1931 letter to the editor of the Bar Harbor Times stated that at the August 28, 1930 annual meeting he entered a motion to fellow Trustees that at the next annual meeting they declare themselves in favor of the "well known names." An informal Trustees poll revealed that 28 of 36 favored the names in use before the Board approvals. Hale asked the Times to poll its readers. Over the next several weeks ballots were cast and the tally was overwhelming: 150 for the old names, three for the DORR1925 Page 34 of 37 new. Letters to the Times editor emphasized that place names are significant because of their ancestry and emotional power. There is no evidence that Hale re-entered his motion at the 1931 Trustee meeting; in fact, no minutes document the 1930 meeting that precipitated this issue. As late as 1932 the stubborn Hale was still trying to negate Dorr's renaming of the mountains, circumventing the NPS and writing directly to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, who referred him to the National Park Service. His son, Richard W. Hale Jr., took up his father's interest in the Trustees and ignoring the history of past overtures to Mr. Rockefeller, suggested to Mr. Rockefeller that he become a candidate for membership. Rockefeller declined, offering a most characteristic response. He stated that he has rigidly followed his own father's advice: "not to join any boards or committees other than those in which he had a predominant interest." (May 21, 1931. RAC. 2. 73. f. 756) Trustee Samuel Eliot Morison wrote to the Board on May 27, 1933 requesting that the names used prior to 1917 be restored. He argued that signage still reflected old usage, that the old names were reflected in American literature, and that the new names had not been popularly accepted. Morison concluded that if we can change the name of the park to "the old French name of the region," (L'Acadie) we can revert back to the old mountain names as well. (The Boston Herald published a letter from Morison advocating the traditional mountain names. May 30, 1933) Lacking support from the NPS, no action was taken by the Board. Both Hale and Morrison avoided making any reference to fellow Trustee Dorr--as did the letters to the Times. There is only one piece of evidence that Superintendent Dorr responded in any way to public questioning of his administrative recommendations. Perhaps in anticipation of Hale's inquiry, Dorr sent a five-page summary of the rationale for mountain name changes approved over the last fourteen years to the United States Board of Geographic Names. (BGN Archives, March 6, 1931) It would not have surprised Dorr that Trustee Lincoln Cromwell preferred the new names for "the old names had no meaning, and the new names are expressive of the history of the Island." On the other hand, since their disagreement about the naming of the park a decade earlier, the response of District Court Judge John A. Peters was not surprising. In 1919 Judge Peters "wanted to call it Mount Desert National Park, but Mr. Dorr, and I think President Eliot, insisted on the name Lafayette, which from my point of view had no natural connection with the Park." Since nomenclature disagreements die hard, it is no surprise that Peters would claim in late 1930 that if Green Mountain could be renamed Cadillac then logically Dorr "ought to call another one 'Buick' and certainly a peak near Seal Harbor ought to be called 'Ford' '' (after its celebrated resident, Edsel Ford). For four years the matter was unresolved. Finally, the matter is put to rest when a voice vote in 1934 defeated the motion that all Trustee officers use traditional mountain names in "all documents and correspondence." (R.W. Hale Jr. draft notation, HCTPR Archives.Sl.B.2.c.f.1) Additional parcels were accepted and then conveyed to the federal government over the next few years. Some Trustees, however, must have asked whether the organization had a future. Many founding members were either deceased or no longer involved, and new members-like Hale and Morison--were questioning the mission of the Trustees. Moreover, the Trustee who had been central to land acquisition ( i.e. , Mr. Dorr ) was DORR1925 Page 35 of 37 now also a park service administrator with considerable influence in the nation's Capitol. After three decades of active pursuit of property and the administration of lands available to the public, some members must have wondered--as John D. Rockefeller Jr. proposed-whether the Trustees should disband now that their mission had been realized. Instead, throughout the Depression Era without any formal declaration, the Trustees shifted from land acquisition for public recreation to the single-minded management of the Black House property. Land around Otter Creek, adjacent to Upper Hadlock Pond, and the Brown Mt. gate house are JDR Jr.'s first gifts to the Federal Government. Planning and construction underway for Aunt Betty's Pond and Day Mountain carriage roads; Bubble carriage road started. Cadillac Summit Road nears completion. G. Atterbury designs Eagle Lake Lodge. For the last two decades Dorr had repeatedly justified road construction as vital to fire protection, his concern often falling on deaf ears. Even though Park property would not be damaged, on October 13th, the "worst fire the Island has experienced broke out in the Town of Southwest Harbor, about a mile and a half north of the park's Sea Wall property... [it] burned uncontrolled through the 15th Rain arrived and checked but did not extinguish it. [The fire] burned until the 25th No one knows what the consequences would have been if that fire had broken out during tourist season, when 154,734 visitors toured Acadia. Yet while that fire still burned, the first trip by automobile to the summit of Cadillac Mountain was completed on October 15th Construction progress enabled a group of National Park Service officials, federal and state engineers, to ride to the summit with Superintendent Dorr on a road that would not be formally opened until 1932. Yet Dorr is not overly impressed by the unrivaled height of Cadillac. In Dorr's unpublished essay on "Champlain Mountain and the New Park Road," he states his preference for Champlain as "the most interesting mountain in the entire Mount Desert chain." His enthusiasm for Champlain's eastern flank is its "magnificent cliff, rising almost sheer eight hundred feet; then after passing through a stretch of open woodland and across a second meadowland the mountain terminating above in a splendid headland known as the Beehive and the mountain heights of Gorham, with wonderful surf-cut cliffs and caves showing how the coast has risen in the last and recent glacial invasion." (ANPA. B. 3. f. 6) The fifteenth Census of the United States (1930) for Bar Harbor reveals that Old Farm was valued at $50,000, an amount that greatly exceeded the value of the residences of his Main Street neighbors. Close examination of the census data for Dorr's immediate neighbors shows clusters of gardeners and laborers in inexpensive housing, men and women likely associated with the Mount Desert Nurseries at Dorr's Corner. As the year draws to a close, Mr. Rockefeller's road project is called into question by the publication of a series of summer resident letters in the Bar Harbor Times. The objections center on the claims that the road construction plans have been secretive, that the roads desecrate the scenery, and in the words of Trustee Edward S. Dana "the judgment of the summer residents should carry great weight for we have made the Island what it is to-day." (December 3 & 10, 1930) Other residents differ and point out that the roads will be a boon to tourism, that DORR1925 Page 36 of 37 construction will promote employment for year-round residents, and that the methods employed by Dorr and Rockefeller according to A. L. Higgins "should and will, stand as a lasting tribute to their memory for the present and future generations [for] their methods have been proved to improve and beautify.' " (December 17, 1930) Trustee Richard Hale weighed in on this issue at a meeting at Rockefeller's home with his aide Raymond B. Fosdick and F.L. Olmsted Jr. (December 30, 1930 Olmsted memorandum. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 119.f.1203) Hale claimed that though two-thirds of the people he consulted were agreed that "the programme of road construction as outlined is highly desirable, the plan should be postponed until "until there is a preponderant agreement among well-informed and thoughtful people appreciative of the scenic values of the Island." Olmsted remarks that Hale had only "vague and impractical" suggestions when asked for concrete specifics. Olmsted's concluding paragraph made his views quite clear: "Certainly disagreement with my conclusion by Tom, Dick and Harry among the summer residents of Mt. Desert means very little to me. " The best results can be obtained, he advises, if Mr. Rockefeller and the Park Service "hold in abeyance" a decision to move forward until further study is done of the motor road link between the Great Meadow and Ocean Drive. DORR1925 Page 37 of 37 GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. BEGIN 1925 (October 16, 2008) 1925 The Abbe Museum Archives contain a brief letter from Dorr to Dr. Abbe dated January 19th responding to several matters having to do with book plate design and painting. Dorr gives no indication of the ambitious museum project that lies before them remarking only that he is now involved with the "trying task" of "cleaning up old papers," a reference to the Dorr and Ward family papers that will on his death become part of the Ward and Dorr family papers that will eventually be gifted to the New England Historic and Genealogical Society and other regional archives. (Abbe Museum Archives. Case III. Pre-Museum Correspondence 1924-26) Dorr was still besieged with complaints about the so-called disfigurement caused by the park roadway program, much of it deflected from Rockefeller's road and bridge building. Dr. Abbe rallied to his defense, posting a February 9th letter to the New York Herald Tribune that was reprinted in the Bar Harbor Times. After reminding readers of his 45 years of familiarity with the Island he affirms that the alleged landscape "scarring" will in time "be like a delicate pencil line traced on the mountain side, as in thousands of miles of similar roads here and in Europe." Dr. Abbe praises the engineering of the Cadillac Mountain summit road, suggesting that critics of park road development do not understand how human design can be an instrument of preservation. As the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the national monument nears, Abbe employs a spiritual turn of phrase in concluding that "no one could love it more reverently than Superintendent George B. Dorr and his host of admirers.' Nearing the ten year anniversary of the service, Secretary Work releases on March 11th a restatement of the policy governing the administration of the system. It does not depart from the strictures of the organic act of 1916 establishing the Service but reaffirms the "paramount" importance of preserving designated land for posterity, land set aside for "the use, education, health, and pleasure of all the people." Finally, that the national interest takes precedence over all decisions "affecting public or private enterprise" within the parks. (www.cr.nps.gov/history/online books/anps/anps 2c.htm) It is clear that the controversies engendered in Lafayette National Park regarding the construction and improvement of roads, trails, and buildings were not uncommon in the expanding park system and were a large part of the reason for this reaffirming policy statement. Following congressional appropriations the work on the Cadillac Summit Road began the following month, an engineering project that would take seven years to complete. In Dorr's essay on this topic (ANPA. B3.f.7.12) he describes the commanding landscape of the Summit, offering us insight into the continuing power of his youthful travels abroad, his personal aesthetic, and the profound emotion evoked by what lies before his eyes: "Seaward, the horizon is SO far away that it merges with the sky and one may sometimes see ships sailing high-apparently among the clouds-on the distant sea, with patches of fogbanks between, resting on the ocean's DORR1925 Page 1 of 37 surface In summer the whole scene is one that accords wonderfully with Wordsworth's description in "Morning in the Mountains," from "The Excursion," of the Shepherd Boy growing up among his Cumberland hills. Such was the boy-but for the growing Youth What soul was his, when, from the naked top Of some bold headland, he beheld the Sun Rise up, and bathe the world in light! He looked - Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth And ocean's liquid mass, in gladness lay Beneath him: --Far and wide the clouds were touched, And in their silent faces could he read Unutterable love. (Dorr's text drawn from memory has been corrected to The Poetical Works of Wordsworth, ed. Thomas Hutchinson. New York: Oxford U.P., 1933) Dorr reports to Arno Cammerer that he has just returned from New York in late April and spent an hour with President emeritus Eliot whose interest-he stresses with the administrator Cammerer--in Lafayette National Park continues unabated. Dorr clearly relishes both the experiences he shares with Eliot and is discreet when he employs this relationship for larger purposes. He also knows the Cammerer-inspired preoccupation with conformity. As we shall see in the months ahead Dorr will be repeatedly pestered by NPS clerks because of his nonconformity with rapidly expanding park administrative policies and accounting practices. It is not a stretch to think that Dorr is impatient with so- called pencil pushers when such grand achievements have been realized and enormous conservation challenges yet lie ahead. Yet not all is well with the 90 year old President. A slight shock of paralysis strikes Charles W. Eliot immediately after their meeting and yet Eliot is sufficiently recovered by June to journey to Northeast Harbor, although he remains muscularly very feeble. "In August he was prostrated by an attack of shingles that lasted more than three months. Never in his life had he had an illness that remotely approached this in degree and duration of suffering" (H. James, CWE, v.2, 321-22) . Before his departure for a two month stay in Europe, Rockefeller sends a letter in early October to Eliot, recognizing more than casually how wretched he must be due to a "malady from which my dear mother suffered frightfully in her later years.' (RAC. OMR. B. 59. .441) Moreover, a disability in his right hand remained preventing him from using it to write. A son of William James, biographer Henry James, tells us that in these last years Eliot's thoughts reverted frequently to the people and scenes he had loved, finding comfort "in little evidences that his influence had been helpful and in little testimonials of respect for his fairness, wisdom, and public spirit" (CWE, V. 2, p. 326) We also learn from the biographer of his son Samuel A. Eliot, that his eyesight at this time "almost completely failed," an infirmity that he and Dorr shared. (Arthur Cushman McGiffert Jr. Pilot of a Liberal Faith" Samuel Atkins Eliot 1862-1950. Boston: Beacon, 1976. Pg. 150) Dorr continues to represent the Park when invited to meetings of the island village improvement societies, offering preliminary publicity more routinely than in the past. Road construction and future road plans are of great community interest; indeed, some residents believe that it is park policy to provide road access to every beautiful locale on the island. In an interview with a special committee appointed by the Northeast Harbor VIS, Dorr takes great pains to explain that in opening access to some obvious scenic splendors "it will only be the people who really care who will penetrate to the other [places], SO that these places will keep their very precious quality of remoteness." The Park Superintendent proposed instead that "the most important thing to do at DORR1925 Page 2 of 37 this moment is to acquire land to prevent forest fires or lumbering, to prevent the exploitation under private ownership of lands that should be public or their objectionable use of them such as the present motor camping on the Ocean Drive." (Northeast Harbor Library. Archives. 1925 NHVIA Executive Committee Report) A strenuous agenda faced the seventy-one year old Superintendent as tourists arrived on the Island for the tenth Summer since Trustee properties had been accepted by the federal government. Bar Harbor kicked off the season by hosting state executives in a Governor's Day program. The chief executives of many of these United States, their spouses, and the accompanying administrative and public relations support staff were taken on motor tours of the island, a procession that "swept triumphantly through an army of cheering people, amid waving flags and brilliant music." As one might expect, Dorr used this event as an opportunity to showcase park development. From the report appearing in The Bar Harbor Times, it is clear that public policy discussions were at best muted in the face of spirited fourth of July celebrations. Maine Governor Ralph O. Brewster was host of this annual administrative event as over the next several days as the party sailed south to Camden and beyond. He quickly disengaged himself to travel West to Millinocket to make what one newspaper called "a first hand inspection" of the Mt. Katahdin territory. (Daily Kennebar Journal, July 8, 1925) While claiming this was a private vacation trip, Brewster and his wife were joined on the July 8th trek to the summit of Mt. Katahdin by the state publicity director and six other guests, the eldest being Superintendent Dorr. (The state publicity director published in 1926 a first-hand account of this highly publicized ascent. Philip R. Shorey. "Maine Celebrities Climb to Katahdin's Peak," In the Maine Woods. Bangor: Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Co., 1926. Pp. 94-99) Dorr was more than casually familiar with Katahdin. While no evidence exists of an earlier climb, nearly a decade earlier the Wild Gardens of Acadia had published his article on "Mt. Katahdin as a Forest Reservation." (Sieur de Monts Publications XVIII [1916]) He discusses the dangers that face this forested area despite the benefits of the statesmanship and energy of Senator Weeks in neighboring New Hampshire. He claims that no eastern forest in the East is of greater national interest than the climatically distinct Katahdin. "And no more important biologic work could be accomplished than the establishment under Government protection of such a vast and splendid Bird and Wild Life Breeding Ground and Sanctuary at the heart of the greatest, the wildest, and the most shot-over game land in the East." The party that departed on the Appalachian Trail from the AMC leanto at Chimney Pond Camp was amused by the Dorr's footgear, "a low pair of very light moccasins"--others were equipped with the sturdiest foot gear. "Mr. Dorr, however, smiled a whimsical smile and allowed he thought he would be able to keep up. And SO the party started, Mr. Dorr in the lead." Three hours later the party reached the Great Basin Slide and then pressed toward the summit. "Although he lost a moccasin now and then, [Dorr] lead throughout the ascent and was the first on top." (Shorey, op. cit., p. 97) In nearly perfect weather their view encompassed more than 25,000 square miles. Contrary to accepted practice, but buoyed by the weather conditions, a decision is made to spend the night on the summit in order to be the first in America to see the sunrise. With the arrival of a storm at midnight, prudence required a speedy descent and "no mishaps were encountered on the trip down outside of Mr. Dorr losing one of his moccasins.' DORR1925 Page 3 of 37 Brewster's party included a Pathe News cameraman, retained for the purpose of promoting Maine tourism by documenting the ascent and distributing motion pictures throughout the country. (Daily Kennebec Journal. July 13, 1923) Despite international efforts to locate a copy of this historic film, none is inventoried in any film archive. Dorr makes only one reference to the event, disclosing Brewster's intent that had not been made public: "I am leaving this morning for Millinocket to connect with Governor Brewster in a trip up Mount Katahdin, whose conservation as a State park he is anxious to accomplish." (ANPA. B. 3. f. 5. July 7, 1925 letter to Mrs. Pine). All that remains to supplement the narrative account are the static images in Shorey's publication) This was not a singular accomplishment. According to then park office clerk Ardra Tarbell, during the early 1930's Hadley and another park ranger began the climb to the summit of Mount Katahdin with the superintendent. Part way up the rangers realized that Dorr was not with them. Assuming that the elderly man had tired, when he didn't reappear they initiated a search. Now they supposed that he "slipped off the regular trail and taken another one and gone around them. Well, this is exactly what he had done [the rangers went all the way up; and when they got up to the summit here he was waiting for them." (S. Herbert Evison. Oral History Interview of Ardra Tarbell. October 21, 1971. NPS Historical Collection. RG37.E1. Harpers Ferry, WV) Governor Brewster surely enjoyed Dorr's company on the ascent of 1925 for one month later he and Mrs. Brewster-and several administrative aids-accepted Dorr's invitation to be his houseguests for three days. (Bar Harbor Times. August 5, 1925) This was no casual courtesy extended by Dorr for the shared Katahdin experience. Old Farm was put center stage in the social life of the community to an extent not been seen in the last thirty years. A retelling of the weekend activities gives us insight into the extent to which the Island communities sought to engage Maine's chief executive. It also shows that Mary Dorr's reputation as an exceptional hostess was carried forth admirably by her son-but to serve a larger purpose, increasing awareness of the importance of conservation. Dorr hosted an informal luncheon for the Governor's party at Old Farm on this first full day of his visit. Afterward, the public component of Governor's Day began at the Bar Harbor Athletic Field where Brewster gave an address and tossed out the first ball of the game. Later that afternoon, at "one of the largest receptions ever held in Bar Harbor...Mr Dorr invited about 700 people to greet Governor Brewster at his home, where for many years distinguished guests have been entertained." (Bar Harbor Times. August 12, 1925) On the second day of the weekend visit, Brewster and Dorr spoke to the Appalachian Mountain Camp community at Echo Lake before departing for Somesville where the Superintendent had prepared a picnic for the Governor's party and forty summer residents on Pryor's Island, recently acquired Lafayette National Park property. (Dorr's July 7, 1925 letter to prospective donor Caroline Pine represents well his encouraging style of promoting conservation. ANPA. B. 3. f.5) Brewster visited President Eliot at his Northeast Harbor before heading back to Kenarden Lodge in Bar Harbor for a brief call on the wife of railroad entrepreneur, Mrs. John S. Kennedy. The planned activities were not complete until the party attended a concert at the Building of the Arts, dinner at the Pot and Kettle, and a Navy Ball at the Swimming Club. Before the Governor's party departed for Augusta on Sunday, Brewster and Dorr called at Brookend to examine the Island relief map that was being reworked by Dr. Abbe. (Bar Harbor Times. August 5 & 12, 1925) DORR1925 Page 4 of 37 Dorr had a brief six-week reprieve from these exceptional activities before his September 23rd departure for Colorado. The Eighth National Parks Conference was to take place at Mesa Verde National Park during the first week of October, National Park Service Director Mather presiding. Dorr travels to and from Mesa Verde by train to participate in his second Superintendent's Conference. The Conference Minutes indicate that Mather raised a new expectation for park superintendents-the need to expand their contextual familiarity with " a world of scenery outside tying in between our parks. It is doubtful that Mather had Dorr in mind in this effort to overcome a certain kind of administrative myopia since Dorr's conference report contained his commitment to "pick out certain exceptionally favorable areas and bring into them the plants they have lost, and make them wild gardens representing the native flora of a large region." On the related issue of communication between park superintendents, the extent of Dorr's collegiality with his peers is frustrated by the lack of surviving documentation. We do know Mather lauded campground utilization in Lafayette Park where Dorr located visitor byways in locations away from the most scenic areas, anticipating future problems as park visitation increases. Dorr took the opportunity to address the other superintendents on island biological research undertaken not at government expense but under the sponsorship of the Wild Gardens of Acadia, especially progress made at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and at the Mount Desert Nurseries where flora were being propagated to restore wild garden communities throughout the Park. Many engaging historic conference photographs were taken by NPS Assistant Director Arno Cammerer, showing Dorr and his colleagues situated in the dramatic structural remains of the native Americans who once inhabited Mesa Verde. (NPS Harpers Ferry Center Library. Historical Collection. Conferences. Box A40) R.S Yard writes to the new Interior Secretary (H. Work) expressing his concerns about how the outdoor recreation boom-spirited by the auto-was transforming the parks. He suggested that the NPA should give up its promotional role in exchange for an explicit educational role, finding an ally in John Campbell Merriam, a paleontologist who was head of the Carnegie Institution; both saw parks as 'Super-Universities of Nature, , "places for study of nature at its most magnificent." (Sutter, Driven Wild, p. 121). Welles Bosworth designed Waterfall and Deer Brook bridges built. SHVIS report notes LNP size at 8,000 acres. Massachusetts Trustees and 10 other groups organize a landmark conference ("The Needs and Uses of Open Space") beginning a long tradition of collaboration. 1926 Dorr provides updated personal information for the twelfth report of the Harvard University Class of 1874. The alumni publication acknowledges his gift to the government of land acquired in 1868 and 1872 by his father that enables access from Schooner Head Road to Champlain Mountain. (Harvard University Archives. See also "Two Gifts Made to the Government in 1926 and 1927," ANPA. B. 3. .7) DORR1925 Page 5 of 37 Dorr also gifted to the government the Great Meadow, a large tract of land that lay between Sieur de Monts Spring and downtown Bar Harbor. Dorr's plan for this land included a bisecting road "where the magnificent amphitheatre of mountains and hills surrounding it shall be given full effect and not be lost by being taken below its eastern [Sieur de Mont]rim...a second purpose that I had in mind when I made my gift was the utilization of the northeastern corner of the meadow as it bays into Strawberry Hill with flowing springs and peat deposits for a Wild Gardens development beneath the sheltering woods on Strawberry Hill." (ANPA. 9 & 11) Unfortunately, this plan was delayed by the promise given by the Secretary of the Interior to Harold Peabody and his friends--who were antagonistic to Mr. Rockefeller': road construction- that further road construction would be put on hold. The Meadow proper also offered the best footpath connection from Bar Harbor to the mountain chain, as was recently demonstrated by the trail restorative efforts of the Friends of Acadia. Rockefeller returns to Yellowstone with Mrs. R. and three younger sons and is impressed with the potential of the Teton Valley. Welles Bosworth designed Chasm Brook and Hadlock Brook bridges built. Clement discharged after dispute with the Committee. Since Mr. Rockefeller's success in expanding the size of the park and its road development depended SO much on his relationship with Mr. Dorr, it is understandable that such a forward thinking entrepreneur would wonder what would befall the park and his own carriage road system when Dorr no longer managed Lafayette National Park. Rockefeller was not alone in thinking along these lines. In August Arno Cammerer writes to Rockefeller thanking him for the invitation to be his Eyrie houseguest making clear that " one of the matters that I would like to touch upon while with you, since you mentioned it to me and I therefore know you are interested, is that of an eventual successor to Mr. Dorr. (August 17th letter. RAC. III.2.I B. 84. f. 835) Cammerer suggests several likely candidates, unaware that in several days the death of Dr. Eliot will make part management an even more pressing issue. Early in the year, Eliot's emphatic wish was that he would be strong enough to reach the coast of Maine, to spend his last days at his favorite home, Asticou, where his wife had died two years earlier. That desire was fulfilled and he spent several months there, largely confined to his residence. By mid-August he informed his son, Reverend Samuel A. Eliot, that he was going to die the following Saturday. "He now explained further that it would be best for him to die on Saturday because the family, and others who might like to Cambridge, would find the Sunday train more comfortable than a week-day train." (Henry James. Charles W. Eliot. Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930. Pg. 331) On Sunday, August 22nd, he said to an astonished nurse that he saw his parents and a moment later his head fell to his chest. He died on the Island where he had spent-with one exception when abroad--forty-six summers. Interment took place at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Harvard University paid tribute to Dr. Eliot on August 25th in services at Appleton Chapel. Six months later on Eliot's birthday at a Appleton Chapel commemorative service attended by 1,500 students, faculty, and alumni, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell remarked that "During the first twenty years of {Eliot's] regime, his changes caused the student enrollment to decrease. He appeared to be the underdog. Then, suddenly the county and the world began to realize what he had done. The harvest did not come for twenty-five years, but when it came it was magnificent. (NYT March DORR1925 Page 6 of 37 21, 1927) A similar conviction was expressed by his son in a letter to William C. Endicott Jr., when he writes from Northeast Harbor about "the penetrating and enduring quality of my father's influence." (September 15, 1926. Massachusetts Historical Society. Endicott Family Papers. B. 24. f. 34) So too, Eliot's death occurred several weeks shy of the silver anniversary of that first meeting of the Hancock Trustees in Seal Harbor and its conservation harvest was appreciated in similar terms. The Trustees acknowledged with "deep regret and personal sorrow" the death of their President, describing him as "unfailing in active interest and wise counsel. The strong influence of his personality, his broad vision and high public spirit will remain always as foundation stones built into the achievement of the Corporation and the history of Mount Desert Island." (HCTPR Archives. I.1.A.1) First Vice-President Dorr chose a different venue, a two paragraph notice published in the Bar Harbor Times. (August 25, 1926) With simple dignity he states unknowingly what others will say of Dorr at his memorial service eighteen years later. Namely, that it was Eliot's desire "to preserve in openness and freedom to the public the landscape that had SO entered into the happiness of his life His place in the world will be recorded in the nation's history. His life here is written in the hearts of friends." None of the newspaper accounts of Eliot's death mention the fact that August 22nd marked as well the tenth anniversary to the day of the formal celebration of the establishment of the Sieur de Monts National Monument. Dorr was surely aware of the significance of this date. As ironic, the passing of Judge John A. Peters-the other central figure in securing national monument status--would occur twenty seven years later on August 22, 1953. Eliot's Presidency of the Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations since 1905 received attention in the 1926 annual report. They point out that his qualifications for the office were not attributable wholly top his sympathy with the accomplishments of his son Charles, the founder of the organization. For it "may truly be said that the son inherited much of his peculiar ability and enthusiasm for Nature and her works from his parent." As in Maine, his presidency was not that of a figurehead, he attended every meeting-except two-over a span of twenty-two years. He was "a remarkable presiding officer-dignified, methodical, precise, alert; illuminating every subject that came before the meeting.' (Trustees of Reservations. 1926 Annual Report. Pgs. 8-10) Elsewhere on the Island, landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand is commissioned to design a highly distinctive garden for the Seal Harbor home that John and Abby Rockefeller had purchased in 1910. Working closely with the family, the Eyrie garden was designed as side- by-side sculpture and cutting gardens which included Oriental objects that the Rockefeller's gathered on their Asian trip. Patrick Chasse's The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden expertly documents the evolution of the garden and its stewardship over seventy years. (Seal Harbor: David Rockefeller, 1996; see also Rockefeller to Farrand. October 27, 1931. RAC III.2.1 B.73.f.749) President Eliot's death had little impact on the continuing concerns about the impact of motor and carriage road construction-except that another Eliot family member stepped to the fore to shape the development of the park-unfortunately, along lines that actually contributed to the divide. Secretary Work's recent requirements for approval of additional roads in the park did not allay the continuing concerns of some that Mr. Rockefeller's roads would encroach upon wilderness areas under the care DORR1925 Page 7 of 37 of the village improvement societies. The Bar Harbor VIA became very nervous about Eagle Lake Bridge construction and the possibility that Rockefeller's carriage roads seemed headed northward into Bubble Pond, Witch Hole, and Paradise Hill. That fall, National Capital Park and Planning Commission landscape architect Charles W. Eliot II, President Eliot's grandson, was enlisted to conduct the requisite research. It is intellectually troublesome that no reference is made in the forthcoming report of Charles W. Eliot's The Right Development of Mount Desert since its purposes, cultural standards, and implicit values are not unlike the elements of the plan his grandson will develop nearly a quarter century later. (An analytic comparison of these two planning documents has not been undertaken but merits serious attention, especially by park historians) At the same time BHVIA President William Lawrence tried to enlist Mr. Rockefeller's support for "a study of the whole island from the recreational point of view, hoping by this to rally support for their position and regain control of the course of development of the park and wilderness areas.' (For the most detailed published account of the process leading up to publication of The Future of Mount Desert Island, see Ann Rockefeller Roberts. Mr. Rockefeller's Roads. Camden: Down East Books, 1990, ch. 4) Rockefeller saw this effort as a deliberate action to disrupt his road construction and realign leadership for park development. His letter to Arno Cammerer speaks to what he sees as the fundamental flaw in Reverend Lawrence's proposal: "To undertake to get out of these diverse ownership interests of this island an agreement on a common plan for the development of the Island seems to me utterly impossible." (Rockefeller to Cammerer, September 7, 1926, quoted by Roberts, op. cit. p. 98) Cammerer agreed and despite the fact that neither Rockefeller or the NPS supported the underlying foundation of the proposed study, the project proceeded. In the late 1920's R.S. Yard objected more forcefully to NPS recreational priorities and he became the key spokesman for the "primitive" as the essential park standard, a concept that could be aligned with two other preservationist ideals: "the wilderness policy being tentatively implemented by the Forest Service and the 'natural conditions' ideal formulated by the Ecological Society of America" (Sutter, Driven Wild, 120). Focusing on the known and unknown resources available in park environments and the merits of increasing public awareness of the character of these assets, he and J.C. Merriam advocated development of a system of national park museums, modeled on the Yosemite museum created twenty years earlier. Mather, Albright, and Cammerer saw the museum concept as 'stuffy' and potentially unpopular which led Yard and Merriam to conclude that the NPS prioritized recreation, not education. The collaborative museum efforts of Dr. Abbe and Mr. Dorr over the past several years now required financial support to realize their museum vision. Since he was inexperienced in fund raising, Abbe relied on others for advice. Following the significant initial $25,000 endowment from Mrs. Walter G. Ladd, Reverend Lawrence offered Abbe nothing less than a short course in fund-raising involving community education, publicity, and extensive glad handing. (Abbe Archives. Case III. f. 2. Letters of August 28, 1926 and September 26, 1926) One important potential donor had already been approached. In April Abbe sent John D. Rockefeller Jr. both the newest relief map and a sketch of the proposed museum. Rockefeller replies that he is "delighted to have this map, for the boys sail a great deal on the Maine coast and will be DORR1925 Page 8 of 37 greatly helped by it." (RAC. II. 2 I. B. 77. f. 783) Even though the sketch was returned, the seed had been planted and Mr. Rockefeller contributed $10,000 in his name and another $5,000 as a memorial to Dr. Cornelius Woelfkin, a physician and friend. (Abbe Archives. Case II. F. 8. September 15, 1927 letter from Rockefeller to Abbe) On October 11th the first institution in Maine to support archaeological research is incorporated. Dorr is first president of the Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities-- clerk Ben Hadley is among the incorporators. This was not the first expression of Dorr's interest in a museum focused on Acadian regional culture and local artifacts. Over the last several years he had developed a relationship with Haverford Professor W. O. Sawtelle whose Islesford Museum was under development. So too, Sawtelle and Abbe began an acquaintance. Dorr sought to expand Abbe's familiarity with museum curatorship by introducing him to Sawtelle. Their spheres of interest in the history of the island overlapped, Abbe being focused on what we today refer to as prehistory. They agreed to share whatever the other unearthed. Dr. Abbe had the advantage of a supportive committee as he planned his museum whereas Sawtelle felt "very much alone working as a day laborer unloading brick, wielding pickaxe and shovel, wheeling dirt and keeping busy as the day is long, beginning at daylight and continuing until dusk." (ANPA. Sawtelle Collection. B. 1. Correspondence. f.A) Correspondence between Dorr and Abbe center on the establishment of a museum organizational structure, committee assignments, and finalization of the incorporator list required by the State of Maine. Over the winter months Dorr and Abbe planned the construction of the museum although it is unclear what roles each assumed. Despite Dorr's monumental efforts to develop a constructive relationship between the Island and the federal government, Dorr failed to report the use of Lafayette National Park resources for museum purposes in his monthly superintendent reports to the NPS. This nonconformity is yet another indication that Dorr may well be a "undisciplinable" candidate, William James's characterization of "true" Harvard graduate. Aware of Dr. Abbe's failing health, Dorr remained silent on construction reporting recognizing that NPS accountability concerns would surely have handicapped the timely completion of the project. Following the increasingly busy summer park season in a park that had grown in the last decade from 5,000 to 12,000 acres, Dorr represents the park at the Ninth National Parks Conference held in Washington DC. Over the six days, Director Mather, Assistant Director Cammerer, Assistant Director (Field) Horace M. Albright, and NPS Law Officer George A. Moskey lead sessions that deal principally with appropriations, personnel matters, the impact of the automobile, data collection, and a host of evolving regulations. As was the case with photographs taken at the prior conference in Mesa Verde, Superintendent Dorr is always beside or in close proximity to Director Mather, which some may infer is an indication of his standing in more than the literal sense. (Harpers Ferry Center. Historic Collection. Ninth Superintendents Conference. Washington DC. Director Mather arranged for a field trip in order to emphasize a policy point made at the preceding conference two years earlier; newly, that he expected senior park officials to adopt a broader view, to see their official domain in comparison with other parks. On November 21 twenty- DORR1925 Page 9 of 37 two of these officials-including Superintendent Dorr--traveled to New York to tour the parkway system and the Palisades Interstate Park. The national officials were impressed by the achievement at the state level. In the evening in front of a fire at the Bear Mountain Inn, Dorr was entertained by a talk on interstate trail development presented by newspaperman Raymond H. Torrey, one of the foremost conservationists on the eastern seaboard. He was a veteran Long Trail builder, a founding member of the AMC, and an officer of Appalachian Trail Conference as well as the Association for the Preservation of the Adirondacks. Like many of Dorr's friends, he too had written forceful protests against the automobile and the price it extracted from the hiker's solitude. Yet his greatest legacy in scouting the Appalachian Trail path through the Bear Mountain-Harriman parks. (Glenn D. Scherer. "The Life and Times of Raymond H. Torrey." Appalachian Trailway News. September/October 1998. Pgs. 9-11) The evening ended with a film of the development of the Park as a whole, surely anticlimactic to Mr. Dorr who certainly identified with Torrey's youthful accomplishments. Other praised the New York system and Horace Albright publicly noted the comparative importance of appropriations: "the entire annual appropriation for national parks seemed paltry compared to what Westchester [County] had poured out for its parkway development." (New York Times. November 22, 1926) Shortly before Dorr left for the Washington DC conference, a letter is sent to Mr. Rockefeller that provides evidence for Dorr's handiwork over the last several years in the establishment of yet another Island institutional enterprise that would not corrupt the natural splendor of the island-and might help us better understand the dynamics of this unique Island. Since 1924, University of Maine Presidsent and accomplished geneticist Clarence C. Little had made use of land west of Old Farm to conduct "flora and fauna" field studies. An old friend of Little's mother, the Park Superintendent saw this as another opportunity to support scientific inquiry and offered Little the use of several cabins on his property just off Schoodic Head Road--the site of the present Jackson Laboratories. (See archivist Martha Harmond's definitive "C.C. Little and the Founding of the Jackson Laboratory," The History Journal of the Mount Desert Historical Society III [2000] 1-20) The following year Little accepted the presidency of the University of Michigan though his summers were still devoted to field work on MDI. He also gave evening lectures in biology and cancer research that aroused the interest of summer residents Edsel Ford and Roscoe B. Jackson, head of the Hudson Motorcar Company in Detroit. His research prompted attention from Mr. Rockefeller as well. In the flurry of letters exchanged between Roscoe B. Jackson and Mr. Rockefeller's office during the last six months of 1926, most center on financial support for Dr. Little's Bar Harbor research station. Initially Jackson asked that Rockefeller, Edsel Ford, and Jackson each share the 1926 costs for supporting the facility. (June 16, 1926. RAC. III.2.I. B. 75. f. 770) After settling questions that had been raised about the non-existing relationship between the Bar Harbor and Salisbury Cove facilities, Rockefeller pledges his single year share of anonymous support but raises a four key questions about this biological enterprise, including "ought not this biological station to be related with the Harpswell Biological Station at Salisbury Cove." (August 21, 1926 to R.B. Jackson; see also November 5 letter from Jackson to Mr. Rockefeller. RAC. III. 2. B. 75. f. 770) Not what is the case but what ought to be the relationship between the two laboratories, a question that is timely more than eighty years later. DORR1925 Page 10 of 37 The issue of scientific inquiry in one or more locations on Mount Desert island is renewed when Jackson submits to Mr. Rockefeller that fall Little's response to Mr. Rockefeller's interest in the need for such a facility, its aim, and its relationship to other similar laboratories. What is offered is S highly ambitious seven page description of the laboratory communities envisioned by Little and the necessary components and costs associated with each. The proposed cornerstone of Little's plan is the acquisition of property currently leased from Dorr. Here a research facility and museum would be erected, containing offices and laboratories for ten and a request for funding to sustain 25 fellowships at that location. Six biological stations scattered throughout across Mount Desert and on offshore locations are also proposed, all with associated expenses for facilities, equipment, and staff (including boatmen, powerboats, chauffeurs, automobiles, etc.). The project was very expensive. Nearly two million dollars for land, buildings, and equipment, and annual personnel costs of one and one-half million dollars. (Undated. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 765. f. 770) A separate supportive document addressed Little's reasoning. He argued that the kind of science that is needed for meaningful progress is an alternative to the 'germanized' laboratory science that considers only what can be documented in a controlled setting. Relying heavily on figurative flights of language, Little claims that materialistic methods-as are practiced at Salisbury Cove-- yield incomplete results due to the scientists failure to have "contact with the greatness of Nature in her multiplicity and complexity.' Since "purely laboratory men" do not get the picture, Little claims that he and Dr. Bumpus are in agreement that Salisbury Cove should be subordinate to the Dr. Little's plan that would be administered by Trustees Dorr, Ford, Jackson, and Rockefeller. Furthermore, that the current Salisbury Cove staff be replaced since as individuals or collectively they lack "sufficient imagination to see the vision of the future." (Hermon Carey Bumpus was a professor of comparative zoology at Brown University, President of Tufts University, director of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and President of the American Museum of Natural History where established an education department and adapted this new discipline of environmental education to projects carried out as chairman of the National Park Advisory Board [1924-1931]) Little thinks that it is a misfortune that American biology "during the past fifty years has been confined almost exclusively to the laboratory," since facilities like Woods Hole and the developing MDIBL at Salisbury Cove "bring Nature to the table and do not go to Nature itself." The proposed research work undertaken would study biological life in the field, encouraging researchers-which he categorizes as "naturalists". to follow in the tradition of Darwin, Lamark, Aggasiz, and Audubon. Admitting that both scientific approaches have value, he argues that the proposed Society will encourage and foster the not only the training of naturalists but in turn the uniqueness of certain botanical, geological, and marine phenomena provides an opportunity to educate the visiting public and to guide them to sublime places of natural distinctiveness. Little's precursor for the Jackson Laboratory- The Mount Desert Island Natural History Society-envisions the entire island as a laboratory for scientists of his own kind. (There is no indication that Jean Holstein [The First Fifty Years at the Jackson Laboratories.Bar Harbor: Jackson Laboratories, 1979] was aware of these important Rockefeller Archive Center documents) DORR1925 Page 11 of 37 1927 As the new year begins a letter circulates stating that there is " a lack of confidence" in the current head of the MDIBL Board, William Proctor (1872-1951), one of the heirs of a founder of the Proctor and Gamble Company. Proctor's scientific standing would soar in the years ahead as a result of his seven volume Biological Survey of the Mount Desert Region. but at this time Trustees Dorr and Dr. Little are in agreement that new leadership is needed. (H.C Bumpus to Thomas B. Appleget. January 26, 1927. RAC. B. 75. f. 770) Trustee Bumpus sends Mr. Rockefeller's office his reservations about the extent of Little's familiarity with comparable field work elsewhere, pointing out that institutions built around a man are short lived. The most telling criticism is that "the magnitude of the enterprise suggested by Dr. Little and endorsed by Mr. Jackson is, I feel, quite beyond what good judgment would dictate." (January 27, 1927. RAC III. 2. B. 75. f. 770) Two Bostonians who influenced Dorr's professional development did not survive the winter. One was a celebrated architects, Guy Lowell, whom Dorr chose to design Bar Harbor's Building of the Arts and Harvard University's Emerson Hall, both projects involving important applications of Charles Singer Sargent's well known imperative to have the design plan be determined by the site landscape. His buildings adorn Brown University, Simmons College, and from Portland, Maine to Vicksburg, Mississippi public buildings memorialize his creativity. Lowell believed that American landscape architecture should import superior examples of European traditions and evolve its own unique models that reflect the currents of the American experience and its unique landscape. (Kimberly Alexander Shilland. "Guy Lowell," Pioneers of American Landscape Design. Eds. C.A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1999. Pgs. 230-233) Dorr would miss his companionship at the Somerset and Tavern clubs, yet Lowell's gifts would be conspicuously evident whenever Dorr walked the corridors of Lowell's most lasting work, the Museum of Fine Arts. Several days after Lowell's death, the issue of mortality appears very much on Dorr's mind. Responding to Rockefeller recent bout with a severe winter cold, Dorr sends him a lengthy handwritten letter which offers the most telling personal insight into Dorr's efforts to manage one of life's most common ailments-and SO it is quoted at some length. It also shows Dorr's openness to alternative physical therapies during the first decade of the 20th-century when he cultivated a liberal attitude toward the psychical research he engaged in with William James: I think it worthwhile to write to you of my own experience- Starting some twenty odd years ago [during] one of the then prevalent influenza epidemics. I had a series of heavy and persistent 'cold' attacks, two of which-one in Boston; the other on a trip abroad-resulted in pneumonia. A third time, afterward, I narrowly escaped it. Bacterial infections apparently got into my system and I had a series of similar colds, starting from slight apparent cause and hanging on persistently, with tendency to temperature conditions, until a year ago at Mesa Verde, I caught a fresh infection which rapidly developed into an ear attack and absess, which later broke fortunately-for I was out of reach of surgical aid but was long in healing after I had returned to Boston and put myself under an aurist's care-owing to the constant recurrence of the cold infection which had brought it on. Finally, seeing this my aorist advised me to try an antic-vaccine treatment [at which time] I was found DORR1925 Page 12 of 37 infected on examination with a number of influenzas, or cold producing species of bacteria-probably of gradual and long accumulation in my system. An anti-vaccine was prepared to treat the condition and I underwent [for] some weeks vaccination treatment, since then I have had no serious attack or development of the old condition. The letter concludes by stressing the newness of the therapy, identifying the Boston physician, and encouraging Rockefeller to "take my experience into consideration" to use as he best sees fit. (RAC. III.2.I. B. 85. f. 839. This February 14) letter makes reference to prevalent influenza epidemics "twenty odd years ago." The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1919 on worldwide influenza substantiates Dorr's recall for a date no earlier than 1906. "There were no [influenza] epidemics in 1903, 1904, or 1905. An epidemic of low magnitude and somewhat protracted duration occurred in December, 1906, and in January 1907. In 1908 a smarter epidemic occurred with maximum mortaliy in the ninth week of the year. A similar epidemic occurred in 1909. [and] no epidemic occurred in 1910,1911, or 1912. (www.history.navy.mil/library/onmline/influenza secnavpta.htm) ) Lowell's death and Rockefeller's illness are not the only reminders of human frailty. Guy Lowell had been married to Henrietta Sargent, daughter of America's foremost arborist. Six weeks after her husbands death in Madeira, Spain, her father-Charles Sprague Sargent-succumbs on March 22nd, following several weeks of intestinal pain that confined him to his Brookline home. The most well known and esteemed relative of Dorr had left the Arnold Arboretum as his monument, his Garden and Forest as the benchmark for all horticultural publications, and his fourteen volume Silva of North America as the standard against which modern dendrology is measured. But few knew how much of the landscape of Acadia National Park had been quietly shaped by the effects of these achievements on his step cousin, George Bucknam Dorr. Plans are developed for first park campground at Bear Brook behind Morrell Park where Dorr donated 24 acres of land. Mr. Rockefeller receives permission from the Maine legislature to erect a $500,000 bridge across tidewater at Otter Creek, "a region that the late Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, loved SO well. The suggestion is being pressed that the structure be named in memory of Dr. Eliot." (NYT April 3, 1927) Philadelphia architect Edmund B. Gilchrist is commissioned to design the museum at Sieur de Monts Spring. He meets Dorr in Boston and the two travel to Bar Harbor where they spend two full days discussing site and museum design as well as topics from grades of quarried stone to shades of roof tiles. They also visited Abbe's Brook End home to view artifacts from the collection. Dorr summarizes these preparations in a letter to Dr. Abbe, clearly pleased with the architectural parallels between the Sieur de Monts Springhouse and the proposed museum, an affinity recognized by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. (Abbe Museum Archives. Correspondence [1924-26]. F. 9/10. April 8, 1927 letter to Dr. Abbe. See also Facilities. C.1. f. 1. May 20, 1927 letter from Beatrix Farrand to Dorr) Architect Gilchrist wrote to Dorr that at Abbe's suggestion architectural invoices would be sent to Dorr to ensure payment by museum treasurer, Judge Deasy. The land transfer was officially deeded from Dorr's Sieur de Monts Spring Company-for the sum of one hundred dollars- to the Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities on July 22nd Nonetheless, construction began ten days earlier with granite stone for the structure footprint secured from a quarry owned by Dorr. DORR1925 Page 13 of 37 (Bar Harbor Times. November 2, 1927) To this day the foundation of the park museum rests on granite provided at Dorr's personal expense. NPS Director Stephen Mather was at this time promoting the establishment of park museums based on grander considerations An article in The New York Times focused attention on Mather as he explained why Americans would SO well to think of parks as more than playgrounds and expressions of scenic splendor. The national parks are now being appreciated "as a great out-of-doors university where nature is the 'supreme teacher as well as the master textbook," in the words Hubert Work, Secretary of the Department of the Interior." (NYT. April 24, 1924. Pg. X15) In "Our National Parks Become Universities," Mather articulates park policy as "ministering to the minds as well as the bodies and the emotions of the traveling millions. The rapid progression of the natural sciences in the last few decades has demonstrated to park officials that the national parks are rich fields for inquiry. Mather also emphasizes that an increasing number of colleges and universities use one or more of the nineteen national parks as laboratories for their faculty and students. The NPS now conceives itself as "a super- university of the natural sciences, [where] each college [park] presents a personality of its own, specializing on some particular natural endowment. To wit, anthropological studies at Mesa Verde, geophysical investigations at Yellowstone, marine studies on the shoreline of Lafayette. Finally, interpretative services are rapidly expanding through the interest of the American Association of Museums. Currently, site specific exhibits, museums, and collection 'libraries' are planned for parks like Lafayette, Zion, and elsewhere; full-fledged museums currently exist in Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Mesa Verde. This statement about Lafayette National Park was more a visionary than factual since neither the museum at Sieur de Mont Springs nor the new museum on Cranberry Island had been conveyed to the federal government. (ANPA. Box KW. F. 2. Deed of Acceptance. September 16, 1930) The scholarly and pioneering initiatives that Dorr championed over the last decade with the Harpswell Laboratory, Dr. Little's Biological Station, and Dr. Abbe's anthropological studies clearly anticipated what was now being advocated as new National Park Service policies. Since much Dorr's involvement with the establishment of the museum was not known in Washington, the fall arrival of Mr. Cammerer and NPS chief landscape engineer Thomas C. Vint (1894-1967) may have tempted Dorr to point them in other directions than the Sieur de Monts Spring. Dorr's contacts in the park service network surely had prepared him for the likely impact of Vint's inspection trip. Vint's career with the park service had begun in 1923 as an assistant landscape architect whose exceptional talent was quickly recognized and rewarded through promotions. Through close association with Mather and Albright, this Utah native had just been promoted to chief landscape architect, working out of the NPS Western Field Headquarters in San Francisco. Over the next three decades Vint would remain in command of NPS architecture, esteemed for his introduction of creating and maintaining a master development plan for each park. He brought efficiency and a degree of uniformity to the growing park system. "Through the use of an ingenious symbol system, devised by Vint, the master plan of an area could be brought up to date annually by simply changing 'proposed' components to 'existing' as work progressed." DORR1925 Page 14 of 37 Norman T. Newton. Design on the Land: The Development of Landscape Architecture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. Pgs. 535-536) With Dorr's tacit consent, their visit produced a park development plan, a general management strategy "to include essential extensions of the park, plans for roads and trails, utility sites and other developments. ("Memorandum on a Development Plan for Lafayette National Park." September 28, 1927. ANPA. B. KW. f. 24) Cammerer and Vint rejected the possibility of defining park boundaries since park growth must remain open to donation from private sources. To be sure, they addressed the concerns articulated a year earlier by the BHVIA and discussed with Charles W. Eliot II this past summer. However, since their "aim [is] not only consideration of the possible development of the park but of the entire island," the park service officials affirmed for Director Mather that under existing law the park service cannot partner with the BHVIA, it cannot "prescribe in what direction future enlargements or expansion into privately owned lands should take place." The ambitious scope of the BHVIA inquiry is simply beyond park jurisdiction. (op. cit. p. 14) While Dorr is frequently mentioned in this report, on the issue of wilderness preservation there is no direct reference to him. This omission is understandable for Acadia National Park has never promoted itself as a wilderness, nor does it appeal to the same motivations that attract visitors to the wild animals in the western national parks. Yet Dorr's earlier publications and public pronouncements are clearly the source for the policy recommendation. Under current park policies the entire park area is considered wilderness subject only to improvements that enable accessibility to the public. More to the point "there are in fact no primeval areas on the Land, -that it has in fact been cut over and burned for centuries." (op. cit., p. 31) Since the vast majority of the public --"the older, the less strong and active, or the less strenuously inclined"-are motivated to experience the full beauty of the park, "means must be provided for making reasonably accessible the special features of interest." (op. cit., p. 27) Mather endorsed the plan. The major park road initiative was the Cadillac Mountain Road, still three miles from the summit. When completed several seasons later, there would be demands to provide a summit tea house in the Jordan Pond House style or a hotel-and concession issues would have to be addressed since at this time no concessions were operating within the park. (R. Quin and N. Maher. Acadia National Park. Washington, DC: National Park Service HABS/HAER ME-58, 1994. p. 58) This discussion marks the loss of a certain innocence for park management since the later establishment of the Acadia Corporation will bring the park limitations on park concession entrepreneurialism to the forefront--where it remains to this day. Death of Charles S. Sargent SHVIS Minutes report that beavers presented to the Park by the State Fish & Game Commission in 1921 and 1922 have multiplied to such an extent that control measures are now necessary to prevent their spread. Dr. Little makes clear that he thinks it unwise to assume that the National Park Service will finance this scheme. We unfortunately lack proof that Mr. Dorr "heartily approves this whole project" since he makes no reference to it in his monthly reports to Washington or elsewhere. Little argues that the project would be undertaken in cooperation with the NPS but should rest in the hands of "a group of DORR1925 Page 15 of 37 public spirited and disinterested people who have the vision and idealism to carry the matter forward." For more than a year there discussions have taken place concerning the consolidation of the two island laboratories. Speaking as a MDIBL Trustee, Bumpus argues that a substantial input of funds to support the Salisbury Cove facility might "induce a vitalizing influence over the latent enterprise [of Dr. Little]. (MDIBL Archives) A month later Bumpus reports that little activity is taking place at the Maine Biological Station whereas the Salisbury Cove facility has "abundantly fulfilled its purpose," attracting distinguished faculty who produce results of scientific merit. A separate unattributed memo refers to a MDIBL reorganization following Dr. Proctor's resignation and the elevation of Dr. Bumpus to President of the Board. There is renewed discussion of cooperation with the Maine Biological Laboratory, including a survey by of island scientific facilities and educational oipportunities by a joint committee. But in a letter later that fall Bumpus clearly advocates instead a "fusion of interests and resources with the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole." (Bumpus to Thomas B. Appleget. November 30, 1927. RAC III. B. 75. f. 770). The fate of the Marine Biological station was never more uncertain, yet the new year would bring dramatic news of Dr. Little's resignation of the University of Michigan presidency, signaling the start of a new laboratory in Bar Harbor that is neither a seasonal student-centered learning facility nor one committed to the superiority of field-based inquiry. The Rockefeller acquisition of island properties continues. Previously Dorr had his own island properties to manage with an eye to new acquisitions, sale, and donation through the Trustees to the federal government. Beginning in October 1927 Dorr begins a new form of land stewardship. He sells Rockefeller the first of nearly two hundred properties that will pass from Dorr to Rockefeller during the next decade. That is not to say that Dorr owned hundreds of properties at any given time. Instead, Dorr negotiates, purchases, and later transfers real estate that fit their vision of the national park. The National Park Service left the two to work out such arrangements on their own. (Hancock County Registry of Deeds. Revised Index. January 1, 1927 to December 31, 1936. 215 deeds are recorded under the grantor name of George B. Dorr; John D. Rockefeller Jr. is the grantee for 185 of these deeds) While many properties Dorr had acquired since 1921, sixty percent were quietly secured after 1927 at the request of Rockefeller. In some cases Dorr was made aware of a property that suited Rockefeller's plans; in other cases Dorr suggested properties that suited Rockefeller's carriage and road development. In still other cases Dorr urged the acquisition of a property because of its landscape value. He did not have the capital to make such purchases-this was provided by Mr. Rockefeller. With rare exception all involved the superintendent acting as grantee (purchaser) in order that the price would not be inflated because of Rockefeller's interest in the property. One should not underestimate the fidelity issues involved in such a third-party arrangement, compounded-if not at times compromised-- by the involvement of attorneys, land surveyors, and real estate agents. Underlying this deed transfer process was their shared understanding that these lands would ultimately be transferred to the federal government. Shortly before Thanksgiving he writes to Dorr requesting a full explanation as to the merits and failings of the Abbot property adjacent to Charles W. Eliot's Asticou property. Four days later Dorr responds at DORR1925 Page 16 of 37 length offering abundant evidence documenting the completeness of his property appraisal, detailing issues arising from the impact of the sea on the land, laying bear the botanical challenges of the tidal environment, and forecasting the short and long term recreational potential of the property. (26 November 1927. RAC. B. 74. f. 765) Few documents survive that better represent the array of landscaping talents that Dorr had mastered. Dorr surely was at ease moving around the wintry streets of Boston on Christmas Eve. Yet his life could have at 1:30 that afternoon when he approached Charles Street from the Common side. Dorr stopped at the curb and then walked in front of a moving Willys-Knight sedan operated by another Boston resident. He was taken unconscious and in shock to the Phillips House, Massachusetts General Hospital, with a five-inch skull laceration and a questionable fracture of his skull (later confirmed as a concussion) He was placed on the "danger list." While undergoing diagnosis, police arrested the 24 year old driver for operating an unregistered car. Since no additional charges were filed it is likely that the witnesses verified that Dorr stepped into moving traffic. (City of Boston Police Record. December 24, 1927. ANPA. B. 2. f. 1) William and Louisa Endicott were among those who visited him during his hospital convalescence, urging him to recouperate at their nearby Marlboro residence. On his 74th birthday he was visited by his Harvard College class secretary who congratulated him for "his miraculous escape from more serious injuries. Later Dorr visited friends in Boston." (HUA. Class of 1874. 14th Report. 1928) Endicott family guest books record that Dorr took advantage of the Endicott hospitality, recovering his strength in their good company through March 4th when he left for Washington on park business. (Massachusetts Historical Society. Endicott Family Papers. B. 34. f. 14) One positive outcome of the injury is that for several years thereafter, Dorr spent his birthday and the Christmas holidays with Endicott family relatives. On a larger scale, what might the fate of the Park have been if Dorr had not survived the accident? 1928 The most speculative topic of conversation on Mount Desert Island in early April 1928 was the possibility that President Calvin Coolidge might be spending his summer in Bar Harbor. Maine Governor Ralph Brewster, who had climbed Katahdin with Dorr two years earlier, contacted the White House in the hope that the Vermont born chief executive might favor a summer vacation in his own New England. The historical record offers us little guidance into whether Brewster or Dorr was the first to suggest Oldfarm as the summer White House. An editorial in the Bar Harbor Times gives us a glimpse into the condition of Dorr's residence nearly a half century after its completion. The very name Oldfarm "suggests the mellow atmosphere of an earlier New England, a New England that built spacious, rambling houses and furnished them with the best that its ships brought home across the seven seas. Oldfarm is such a house and is SO furnished. Its balconies and many windows command the most inspiring views of mountains and sea. Its grounds and spacious and broad lawns and lovely gardens would assure the President of being always protected from the gaze of the merely curious [none of the Bar Harbor estates] appeals to us as being SO strikingly suited to use as the summer home of a New England President of the United States as does Oldfarm." (April 11, 1928). The President-who asked many questions about the property--seemed very pleased that the Presidential yacht could be moored in Compass Harbor DORR1925 Page 17 of 37 within arms reach. Many thought that Coolidge would find the "beautiful isolation" of Oldfarm most appealing, set amid the "great growing gardens of the Mount Desert Nurseries' flowers, plants, and trees that is peculiar to its location, unparalleled upon the Island." (A companion article on "The Garden at Oldfarm Manor" appeared in the Times a week later detailing the origin of many of the plants from stock that Mary Dorr transplanted from her Massachusetts residence) The Times article gives us the only extant narrative snapshot of the "beautiful interior" of the cottage as each room is described. All three floors were fitted with tasteful family furnishings relocated from the Commonwealth Avenue home which he sold several years earlier. The U.S. Secret Service investigated the merits and failings of protecting President Coolidge during his proposed stay at Oldfarm. Colonel Edmund W. Starling (1874-1944) had responsibility for guarding the lives of five Presidents, from Wilson to Roosevelt. His input would have weighed heavily on Coolidge's decision. During the tenure of the Vermont Republican in the White House, he had previously summered in his Plymouth birthplace, in 1925 at Swampscott, Massachusetts, and the following year at White Pine Camp in the Adirondacks near Paul Smiths Hotel. In 1927, following the dedication of Mt. Rushmore, he stayed for three months at the State Game Lodge. The invitation from Maine was not accepted. Instead, Coolidge opted during the last months of his presidency for the H.C. Pierce five thousand acre estate on Wisconsin's Brule River. "Their entourage included 60 soldiers, 10 Secret Service men, 14 servants, and 75 newsmen who arrived by train." (Ellyn R. Kern. "Calvin Coolidge and Summer White Houses." (www.calvin-lidge.org/html/summer white houses. html) What came to light later was the poor health of both Calvin and Grace Coolidge, especially in the final months of his presidency. Colonel Starling took climate into consideration and following a trip through the West selected Cedar Island Lodge on an island in the middle of the Brule River. An "ideal spot. The air was soft and saturated with the odor of pine resin-perfect for Mrs. Coolidge," though the isolation that was unavailable at Old Farm surely entered into the decision. (Thomas Sugrue. Starling of the White House. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946. Pp. 265-69; see also Ishbel Ross. Grace Coolidge and her Era. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1962. Pp. 242-245) Mount Desert also offered soft air saturated with pine-resin as Dorr surely knew-though his thoughts about this decision remain unknown. Michigan Congressman Louis C. Cramton, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and his wife visit Dorr at Old Farm. Cramton suggests that the Schoodic reservation be included in the park and tells Dorr that he would support a bill expanding the domain of the park beyond Mount Desert Island and changing its name to Acadia. Tenth National Park Conference, San Francisco, Feb. 15-21. In 1926 the BHVIA had set in motion a planning process that resulted in the 1928 publication of The Future of Mount Desert Island. Since some vocal summer residents believed that park development was not adhering to a plan that they had helped shape, the author of this report argued that park policy required greater local scrutiny-if not authorization. The namesake grandson of President Eliot, landscape architect Charles W. Eliot II argued that the future health of the whole island was bound up in the future of the park. Eliot was also a new Hancock County Trustee, having aligned himself with their interests in 1926, the same year that Boston attorney Richard W. Hale joined their ranks. DORR1925 Page 18 of 37 The report implied that park development was uncharted by Superintendent Dorr. This claim is contradicted by the fact that Dorr and Rockefeller had collaborated in the development of very explicit plans for park since 1921, "plans that had the very real approval of the National Park Service." (Roberts, op. cit., p. 99) Eliot advanced numerous arguments against road development, positions that stressed the negative environmental impact of road expansion. He also identified areas significant for their wilderness character and scenic, scientific, and historic features, making recommendations for their inclusion in the Park. (See "Statement for July 12, 1985 Hearing Senate 720 re Acadia National Park," ANPA. B. ET. f. 28) Eliot's Committee had moved forward with their plan and subsequent publication unaware of the internal planning document crafted by Cammerer and Vint the preceding September. Moving in directions unsupported by the NPS, Eliot's report fails to arouse public support- and "apparently just faded away. (Roberts, op. cit., p. 100) Yet over the next six decades Charles W. Eliot II scrutinizes the development of Acadia National Park with a degree of persistence that was worthy of the environmental attentiveness of his grandfather, Dorr, and Rockefeller. Eliot will repeatedly engage the NPS when its actions are perceived by him as violating the fundamental principle of his grandfather and Mr. Dorr: that the donation of land "In Trust in Perpetuity." (Up until the final establishment of boundaries for Acadia National Park, Eliot advocated additions to the park-outside existing boundaries-to "protect and conserve 'whole natural units.' Nonetheless, during this period of controversy road work continued and moved northward under the Eagle Lake Bridge toward Paradise Hill. Rockefeller's influence sometimes expressed itself through organizations he had fostered. A case in point is a movement sponsored by the American Association of Museums in the mid-1920's that contributed to Mather and Albright's receptiveness to Robert S. Yard's advocacy of the educational potentialities within the lands administered by the National Park Service. A $10,000 grant from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fund, enabled Mather to create a committee to survey the educational possibilities of the National Parks, resulting in a new NPS position of assistant director in charge of education. Dr. Harold C. Bryant, well known for his field studies of Yosemite Grand Canyon, Sequoia, and Lassen Volcanic national parks, took up these duties. (Report of the Director of the National Park Service. 1930. Pp. 17-21) His report to the Fund work would be praised by Robert Sterling Yard who would remind him that the actual roots of education in the national parks predate the existence of the NPS by more than a decade, when universities began to use existing and future park sites as research and teaching opportunities. (See the important history traced by Yard in his letter to Bryant. June 29, 1931. Harpers Ferry Library Collection. RG19. 1936- 50. K1810, which refers to the expedition of Harvard's Professor Davis- which included Dorr-to the Grand Canyon) Despite the fact that additional Rockefeller funds soon followed, Albright and Mather adhered to a policy that educational facilities and programs existed to augment, not to shape, visitation. (Sutter. Driven Wild, 124) Increasingly, Yard and his allies are seen as purists who are ill informed about the practical complexities of managing the system. On Mount Desert Island, Dr. Abbe did not live to see his museum completed. His death in March 1928 received worldwide news coverage. Two New York papers made passing mention of Dr. Abbe's role in the establishment of Lafayette National Park. The Bar Harbor Times announcement refers to Eliot, Dorr, and Abbe as "a notable trio" DORR1925 Page 19 of 37 responsible for the establishment of Sieur de Monts National Monument and their subsequent efforts to create Lafayette National Park; this claim echoes an earlier editorial which claimed that Dorr was "closely identified with Dr. Abbe's work, as Dr. Abbe was with Mr. Dorr's founding of Lafayette National Park." (Bar Harbor Times. July 11, 1928) The Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association that Abbe has served for decades would pay a more personal tribute recognizing the good doctor as " a lover of nature, a man of artistic sensitivity, a scientist, a surgeon, a gentleman of distinguished attainments, and a rarely lovable friend." (BHVIA. Minutes. 1928) The August 14, 1928 dedication of the museum was a commemoration of the life of Dr. Abbe, although it would be another nine years before the museum formally adopted Abbe's name. The newspaper report of the dedication acknowledged the 72 donors who supported the museum, but directed attention to Dorr who had "much to do with the Museum, especially since Dr. Abbe's death, carrying out the doctor's wishes." What is largely unknown is that six months prior to Abbe's death, he received from Mr. Rockefeller two checks totaling $15,000. to finance the museum "because of all you have done for the advancement of medical science and for the relief of suffering during a long, highly useful and most unselfish life." (September 15, 1927. RAC, III.2. B. 74. f. 760) , Five thousand dollars was contributed in the name of Abbe's friend, Dr. Cornelius Woelfkin, the recently retired pastor of Rockefeller's own Park Avenue Baptist Church congregation, who was at that time beset with a sinister disease. After Abbe's death compelling evidence of the depth of the relationship between he and Dorr came to light. The telegram from Abbe's relatives informing the Bar Harbor community of his death was sent not to the local newspaper but to Old Farm in care of Mr. Dorr, his friend for nearly half a century. (Bar Harbor Times. March 7 & 14, 1928) When the Abbe estate was settled, the largest single bequest ($50,000) went to May Moon in recognition of her 32 years of service as secretary and caregiver of Dr. Abbe. The only significant gift to someone who was not a relative, employee, or an organization was the $10,000 bequest to George B. Dorr. Sixteen years later Dorr reciprocated when his executors directed one quarter of his estate to the Abbe Museum. Even in death his executors knew that Mr. Dorr wished to promote this little museum resting on granite secured from Dorr's quarry. Yet while both men lived there is a charming tale of the character of their relationship. Their professional associations were based on a personal relationship that was deep and broad-- a friendship based on shared values sustained over decades. They both were guided by an urge for permanency evident in the preservationist motive behind Abbe's museum and implicit in Dorr's effort to conserve on the Island its enduring beauty. Judith S. Goldstein lucidly expands on the power of landscape in satisfying Dorr's "urge for permanency" in her Majestic Mount Desert. Mount Desert, ME: Somes Pond Press, 1966) The benchmarks are their own words, their sustained actions to conserve "everything that was best" about Mount Desert Island, and their collaborative effort to create a museum that would continue to inspire future generations. One document best illumines their friendship. In 1921 Dr. Abbe was honored on his seventieth birthday with hundreds of birthday wishes. Expressions of affection were written by friends and professional colleagues; these messages were gathered in two handsome volumes and preserved in the Abbe Archives. Dorr's note is deserving of special mention because it employs uncharacteristic religious imagery to convey DORR1925 Page 20 of 37 an implicit message of enduring affection. Dorr states that he feels honored to count himself "among your friends. It is a credential that I shall present to St. Peter at the Heavenly Gate; and St. Peter will open wide! But should I get there first I shall not feel that it is all they've cracked it up to be until you come!" (Abbe Archives. Robert Abbe Birthday Correspondence. 2 Vols. April 12, 1921 handwritten letter from G.B. Dorr) As we know, Dr. Abbe predeceased Mr. Dorr by sixteen years. We do not know whether Dorr's "credential" was sufficient to "open wide" the Heavenly Gate. We do know with certainty that the Earthly Gate into Acadia was opened wide to all because of their collaborative efforts. Dorr continued to provide leadership as one of the museum directors for more than a decade following Abbe's death-even as he distanced himself from issues of control. He was pleased when Judge Luere B. Deasy was chosen President of the museum corporation, a position he held until he retired four years before his death in 1940. Dorr also encouraged Dr. Warren K. Moorehead, the leading authority on Maine archaeology, to continue his fieldwork on behalf of the museum and to prepare a publication on the Indians of Mount Desert Island, thereby carrying on Dr. Abbe's interest in deepening our scientific understanding of the Island native cultures. Dorr's interest in the dynamics of museum purpose, ownership, control, and financing was complex, especially since the NPS was only beginning to develop its own museum policies. Two key issues affected the development of the museum. Tension exists when any private non-profit corporation is legally situated within a public organization. John D. Rockefeller Jr. wrote in 1930 that it was "part of Dorr's contract with me" to effect the "transfer of the Abbe Museum and its endowment to the Park, to be owned and operated by the Park." (RAC. OMR. III. 2. I. B. 74. f. 760. July 8, 1930 letter to Fred Lyman) Several months later Horace Albright would publish the annual NPS report, referring to the "interesting Indian museum established near the Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park [that] was deed to the Government during August. A perpetual lease for its maintenance and operation was given the museum trustees by the Government." (Report of the Director of the National Park Service to the Secretary of the Interior. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930. Pg. 21) Yet as late as 1944, Museum trustees still struggled with competing interpretations of Museum ownership. They disputed the recurring official park service claim that the 2.3 acre museum property was "under complete [NPS] operative control". (Abbe Archives. Case III. f. 9. April 29, 1944 letter from NPS Director Newton B. Drury to Fletcher T. Wood) A more general issue involved the nature and control of museum educational activities. The organization in 1928 of the Committee on Educational Problems in the National Parks was charged by Director Mather "to make a study and to report" on "the delivery of lectures in various parks, establishment of nature trails and the nature guide services, and the development of museums [which] have proven a fertile field for adult education in these scenic reservations." Furthermore, the next year an NPS publication on the administration of educational programs stressed that the park visitor should be provided with the story of the park as a whole even as specialized exhibits were still informally discouraged. (Harpers Ferry Center Library. Historical Collection. RG19. B. K1810) In a letter to John D. Rockefeller Jr. the following year, Kate Ladd-- who provided the keystone endowment for the museum at Sieur de Mont- DORR1925 Page 21 of 37 answered Rockefeller's earlier query about museum management. For more than two decades she has believed that "smaller organizations are very useful" objects for philanthropy since they are guided by the personal touch. The issue is whether the new museum shall become be administered by the federal bureaucracy or be under private control. Mrs. Ladd says that Dr. Abbe agreed with her the benefits of private control. Of course, both Dorr and Rockefeller had experience with this contest between local interests and national policies. (RAC. OMR. III. 2. I. B. 74, f. 760) Rockefeller's reply to Mrs. Ladd was predictable. He refers to his interest and financial support for several western built and managed by the National Park Service where he says "the personal touch of which you speak is very much in evidence." Not only does he personally hold that this organization offers "the best permanent operation" for these museums, but the inquiries of a "professor at Brown when I was a student there" is "deeply impressed by the way in which the national parks are running their museums. Of course, that man was Dr. Harold Bumpus. When the transfer of the museum and its endowment to the federal government does not take place over the next two years, Mr. Rockefeller writes to the Assistant Superintendent asking Mr. Lyman to jog Dorr's memory about "his contract with me ...to use his best efforts to get the Museum given to the Park." (July 8, 1930. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 74. f. 760) With all this attention riveted on the Abbe Museum, little notice was given to the erection of a one-and-one-half story slate roofed brick and granite structure on Little Cranberry Island. Under the leadership of William Otis Sawtelle, the Islesford Historical Society Museum was established in this Georgian Revival structure behind the Blue Duck ships' store that had originally been the location of Sawtelle's maritime artifacts. In the years ahead there would be growing concern on the part of museum officials like H. C. Bumpus regarding the survival of this important collection of those who lived on the Cranberry Isles. (September 17, 1932 letter from Bumpus to Sawtelle. ANPA. B. 49. f. 8) Within two decades this museum as well would be incorporated into Acadia National Park. Continuing private doubts are expressed throughout the year about the viability of the Maine Biological Station. The issue comes to a head when Mr. Rockefeller informs Roscoe Jackson that since Dr. Little's relocation to Michigan the work of the Bar Harbor facility "has been seriously hampered and curtailed, if not practically abandoned. The Mt. Desert Laboratory in the meantime has undergone a reorganization," and since it is now properly managed he expects to "continue my contribution to the work and probably increase it." (June 18, 1927. RAC. III.2.I B. 75. f. 770) None would fault Jackson for concluding that Dr. Little's grand plan had been laid to rest. Two months later the MDIBL Board reports to Mr. Rockefeller that it is "most sympathetic with President Little's enterprise" and has invited Little, Jackson, and several others to strengthen their Board by becoming Trustees. Jackson and others are assured that there is no unstated desire "to absorb or monopolize or control" those affiliated with the Maine Biological Station. (August 16, 1928. RAC. III.2.1 B. 75. f. 770) No longer do we hear of Dr. Little's natural history society proposal. His field work is amalgamated into MDIBL operations and the Maine Biological Station is renamed the Dorr Station. (E.K. Marshall, Jr. "A History of the Mount Desert island Biological Laboratory, 1898-1962." A Laboratory by the Sea. Ed. Franklin H. Epstein. Rhinebeck, NY: River Press, 1998. Pg. 59) DORR1925 Page 22 of 37 Dorr's decision nearly a decade earlier to import the first beavers onto MDI has become a matter of concern to Mr. Rockefeller. He is alarmed at the resulting flooding and the killing of trees that he writes to Arno Cammerer. For "these dead trees either stand as a constant blot on the landscape or if cut down to the surface of the water, show stumps when the water is low. (June 22, 1928. RAC. III.2.I B. 83. f. 824) Local policies are inconsistent since Rockefeller has directed staff on his land to trap-and kill--beavers while Dorr has only agreed to trap them alive within the park and remove them from the Island. While not intending to interfere with park management, as a property owner he asks Cammerer to make a suggestion that beavers be eliminated from the Island. At this time, Dorr moves gradually away from the administrative matters required to manage park development and gives his attention to the classical texts and ideas that took root during his Harvard undergraduate years. One piece of evidence to this effect is found in a brief letter from author Henry van Dyke (1852-1933), a summer resident at his Seal Harbor home, Sylvanora, who graduated from Princeton University as Dorr completed his junior year at Harvard. He was a clergyman, professor of English literature at Princeton, diplomat, and a widely published author who wrote outdoor essays that are rightly situated in the tradition of Thoreau, Burroughs, and Muir. The only known extant correspondence between he and Dorr takes place this summer when he writes to inform Dorr that he has followed up on "our pleasant conversation" at dinner earlier in the week. The issue had nothing to do with the outdoors but with "our old friend Virgil in the Divine Comedy. (August 16, 1928. Dorr Family Correspondence. Temple University Libraries Special Collections) These few sentences about van Wyck's re- reading of Dante signal the return to classical literature and ideas increasingly evident in the Dorr memorabilia during the last decade of his life. Dorr's redirection of interest may well have come to the attention of his superiors in Washington. Arno Cammerer sends a private communication to Mr. Rockefeller regarding a late September visit to the park himself and Michigan Congressman (1913-1931) Louis C. Crampton and his wife. Among National Park Service historians, Crampton is revered for his memorable speech three months later in the House of Representatives on the occasion of the resignation of Stephen T. Mather due to serious health issues. (January 15, 1929. RAC. III.2. I. f. 827) During their private talks, Cammerer and Crampton agreed that an Associate Superintendent position should be funded to "take all administrative burdens off the shoulders of Superintendent Dorr," who will hereafter have as "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 Federal retirement Act. Following their agreement on this strategy, Cammerer discussed the plan with Dorr "who was much pleased, and thoroughly in sympathy with the plans." (October 10, 1928. RAC. III.2.1 B. 84. f. 835) Cammerer is not reluctant to inform Mr. Rockefeller of this matter and rephrases it more sensitively to him two months later, that Dorr "immediately agreed to an arrangement whereby [his] services could be made available indefinitely, without fear of retirement, until his most important work in connection with the extension of park areas could be concluded, or at least as far as his physical condition would at any time permit.. [and] I felt that this would be a real solution of some of our vexing local problems, without hurting Mr. Dorr's feelings or standing, and Mr. Dorr appeared relieved when I told him of this plan." (December 8, 1928. RAC. III.2.I. B. 84. f. 835) DORR1925 Page 23 of 37 Cammerer explicitly refers to the continuation of Dorr's land acquisition efforts and "possibly the completion of the two roads projects which he has started and specially requested that he be permitted to finish." At this time the Part encompassed nearly 11,000 acres which Dorr enlarged to 27,870 acres at the time of his death, more than five times the size of the original monument in 1916. Dorr went to Washington in December at Cammerer's request to work on expanding the Park beyond the Mount Desert Island shoreline. Both wanted to extend Park boundaries "to permit the taking of various islands and headlands, such as Schoodic Head and the renaming of the park as Acadia National Park instead of Lafayette National Park.' (Ibid) Unable to resist an opportunity to assist the Mount Desert Island Biological laboratory, Dorr encounters its President (Dr. Harold Bumpus) at the Cosmos Club, a highly selective social club established by explorer John Wesley Powell, where Dorr had routinely lodged for the past three decades while in Washington. (See Wilcomb Washburn's The Cosmos Club of Boston: A Centennial History 1878-1978. Washington: Cosmos Club, 1978) The two developed there the rationale for enlisting Mr. Rockefeller's financial assistance to acquire the Karst land in Salisbury Cove. (December 6 & 13, 1928. RAC III.2. I. B. 75. f. 771) Cammerer certainly was well aware that Mr. Rockefeller's general practice was not only to acquire lands of personal interest for his expanding carriage road system. For more than a decade Dorr had written position papers for Mr. Rockefeller on the desirability of acquiring new properties as park additions, enabling the philanthropist to cooperate with the park service in realizing its land acquisition objectives. Freeing Dorr of administrative duties further contributed to this exceptional partnership. Dorr nowhere mentions the narrowing of his responsibilities. He neglects this administrative redirection in The Story of Acadia National Park, leaving readers with the mistaken impression that his administrative duties remained unaltered. In the years ahead, his associates will often act as if they were uninformed about the limited scope of his official responsibility. In October 1930 one of Dorr's allies six years earlier at the 1924 road construction hearings, Clarence Little, will complain to the new Secretary of the Interior about the "endless orgy of road building " that threatens the unique features of the Park. Therein, he will describe his fellow Jackson Laboratory incorporator George Dorr is blunt terms: "Mr. Dorr is a solitary worker [who] decides his own policies." Oddly enough, Little's critics at the University of Michigan had said much the same of him the year before. October 5, 1930. Acadia National Park Archives. B. 1. f. 121) To be sure, Cammerer recognizes that the park has doubled in size over the last decade, NPS policies and procedures had become increasingly complex, and Dorr's strengths in researching, negotiating, and developing the landscape remained undiminished. It is of no small matter that this success was accomplished over the last two years without Dr. Eliot's wise counsel. All in all, we should take his comments to Cammerer at face value. As we shall, see, off loading administrative tasks would not diminish the intensity or energetic involvement in the development of the park and both Mr. Rockefeller and Dorr's superiors would take great pains to ensure that Dorr was consulted in all important matters. But would Dorr honor the new limitations? For him there was a choice, for Stephen Mather that was not the case. In Washington the Interior Department administratively changed hands. Secretary of the Interior Work resigned in order that he might manage DORR1925 Page 24 of 37 Herbert Hoover's campaign for the Presidency, being succeeded by Secretary Roy O. West to whom the NPS Director now reported. On election eve, Stephen T. Mather suffered a stroke that left his vocal apparatus and entire right side paralyzed. His professional life was finished in the eyes of those who knew him best though it would take Mather a month to realize it. He expressed his preference for Horace Albright as his successor. "The national parks were now out of his hands forever." (Robert Shankland. Steve Mather of the National Parks. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1951. Chap. 20) By the end of the year it was clear that after fourteen years, the Mather era was over. Three days after Albright was appointed NPS Director, Congressman Crampton lauded Mather's achievements before the House of Representatives, concluding that "as he builded SO wisely, his work will stand. There will never come an end to the good that he has done. Can any man desire a more wonderful career?" (January 15, 1929. RAC. III.2.I B. 83. f. 827) The Eagle Lake and Bubble Pond bridges are being completed. Rockefeller expressed interest in the footpaths north from Bubble Pond and in delineating the reasons for choosing the route selected, Dorr refers to Beatrix Farrand's involvement-it is possible that she was urged to do SO by Mr. Rockefeller (Dorr letter Dec. 1928) When she did not honor an appointment to meet with him at the site, Dorr all but dismisses the necessity of her involvement by suggesting competence boundaries, informing Rockefeller of his "unlimited admiration for her knowledge and skill in the whole field of landscape gardening art but this, belonging to the woods and trails, seems different." (RAC B.109.f 1079) 1929 On January 19th President Coolidge authorizes the inclusion of non- island property (including Knox County islands "which complete the archipelago") in the National Park Service property on Mount Desert, which is renamed Acadia National Park. Dorr chooses the name "Acadia" as appropriate because of its historical associations and descriptive character. In Dorr's earlier publications, however, he wrote extensively about the migration of French culture under the leadership of Pierre du Guast, the Sieur de Monts, and Samuel de Champlain. Dorr repeatedly refers to de Monts commission received from Henry IV to colonize and Christianize the lands and territory of Acadia, "a name that first appears in this commission though the king states it was already familiar to him from accounts of fishermen and traders." (G.B. Dorr, "A Glorious Tribute to France, La France, September 1920, p. 590) Dorr's influence resonates with the official National Park Service annual report where it is now policy to employ "where possible only such names as are descriptive of a park region or are associated with it from earliest times. Acadia, the name once applied to the region in which the park is located, is of native origin, coming from an Indian word apparently describing the region that was in use among the early fishermen and traders from the sea and that was brought back by them to Europe before recorded explorations of the area by either the French or English." (Report of the Director of the National Park Service. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1929. Pg. 4. In our own day many claim that it derives from the native maritime Mi'kmaq term akadie.) The bill, entered by Hon. John E. Nelson of Augusta, includes a proviso to make Homans House-acquired in 1924 upon the death of Mrs. Charles D. Homans of Boston-as an official guesthouse for Park administrators and DORR1925 Page 25 of 37 visiting dignitaries. Dorr stays with friend and Bar Harbor neighbor Gist Blair at historic Blair House in Washington. Blair tells him that the land encompassing the approach to Sand Beach and bracketing Thunder Hole, leading to the rugged Otter Cliffs promontory, is available and that he has taken a six-month option on the property, hoping to raise money among Mt. Desert residents. Rockefeller steps in and takes the Blair option, simultaneously purchasing the cliffs themselves. At the University of Michigan the resignation of President C.C. Little has far reaching ramifications for Mount Desert Island. Divorse from his first wife of eighteen years was imminent and antagonism to his administration certainly entered into the decision to resign. (Jean Holstein. The First Fifty Years at The Jackson Laboratory, p. 11) Little wrote to Bumpus a confidential communication of his intent to secure donor funds to build a small laboratory near the Dorr Station, a year- round facility with a full-time staff of seven. Hudson Motorcar Company head Roscoe B. Jackson, his brother-in-law Richard S. Webber, and Edsel Ford provided the necessary capital for the first five years of the new cancer laboratory. When Dorr offered the 13 acres of land the donors reacted positively to his suggestion that the facility should memorialize his father, Charles Hazen Dorr. Unexpectedly, Roscoe Jackson's sudden death in March required some financial adjustments but also rethinking of the name of the institution. Apparently, Dorr took the initiative again since Dr. Little wrote to him that "it seems to be typically unselfish and fine of you to intimate that your previous suggestion concerning the land as a memorial for your father be disregarded if desirable." (Martha Harmon. "C.C. Little and the Founding of the Jackson Laboratory," The History Journal of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society III [2000] n.36 & 41) Accordingly, on May 4, 1929, the Roscoe B. Memorial Laboratory was incorporated with Dr. Little as president. Dorr was one of several incorporators. The land transfer for the sum of one dollar was completed July 6, 1929. Dorr wisely inserts a provision that should the laboratory cease to operate then its land, structures, and equipment would be conveyed in turn to the Wild Gardens of Acadia; if the WGA no longer exists, then the residue is to conveyed to the State of Maine who may transfer the property to the federal government for inclusion in the national park. As Little completed his University of Michigan administrative responsibilities prior to the effective September 1 date of his resignation, in Bar Harbor laboratory construction took place, Summer students carried on field studies, and Little began serving half- time as managing director of an organization that would evolve into the American Cancer Society. Six weeks after the October 24th stock market crash, the laboratory opens and Little's staff begins the process of building mice colonies of several hundred thousand to experiment on the development of cancer. The possibilities of collaboration with the MDIBL in natural history field studies were expressed publicly but not carried out in practice. On the eve of the Great Depression, Dr. Little's grand project that had aroused the interest of Mr. Jackson, Dr. Bumpus, and Mr. Rockefeller was put aside in favor of "germanized" laboratory research in a controlled setting. MDIBL Executive Committee Chairman Hermon C. Bumpus informs Mr. Rockefeller that summer staff has doubled since last year to more than forty. He requests a twenty percent increase in Mr. Rockefellers annual support and quite wisely concludes his letter by reporting that the Secretary of the Interior asked Bumpus to report on the educational potential of Yellowstone and Acadia National Park. DORR1925 Page 26 of 37 A driving tour of the island with Dorr was arranged. Bumpus became "so enraptured with what Nature is ready to convey and SO conscious of your appreciation of this educational and inspirational opportunity that I resolved to make no formal report without first asking if I might discuss certain plans with you." Dorr is not preempted, for should Mr. Rockefeller be unavailable "it will be quite sufficient for me to rely upon Mr. Dorr's advice and approval." The result of this inquiry was a specific report that praised the scientific inquiry and publication record associated with development of Acadia, while recognizing the need for an expanded educational program that the Secretary should consider: (1) establishment of a visitors center atop the Cadillac Mountain summit once the highway is completed; (2) construction of a museum on Mount Desert Island animal and plant life where ranger naturalists would be headquartered; (3) scientific exploitation of the marine shoreline and the development of basins or pools to educate the public on marine life; (4) the publication of a trailside guide that linked the park with other areas of interest on the island; and (5) enlargement of the Ranger Naturalist Service and increased appropriation for park construction and maintenance. (Reports of Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus on Studies Made in 1929 on Educational Projects in Acadia National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Harpers Ferry Library Center. Historical Collection. RG19. Box K1810; see also the recommendations system-wide in the November 27, 1929 general report) It is probable that the visit of Dr. Bumpus motivated Dorr to write what can best be described as a tenth anniversary descriptive essay about the origin, development, management, and place of Acadia within the National Park Service. Fewer than a thousand words in length, the uplifting style of the essay is reminiscent of Dr. Eliot more SO than any earlier Dorr publications. It is not notable for the claims that are made about Acadia's uniqueness-the only park in the territory of the original thirteen states, based on the coast where mountains reach the sea, exhibiting the flora and fauna of the northeastern coastline-and amassed by precedent setting public donations. What is notable is that Dorr openly situates Acadia within the continuing debate about the primary purpose of a national park, "whether its true function be conservational, recreational, or educational, or in what degree combined." In the case of Acadia, the "conservation beauty of inspiring quality and the safeguarding of free access to it by the public was the impelling motive, both on the part of those who gave and on that of those in authority who accepted." (Dorr Papers. B. 2. f. 4) Is this park of extrinsic or intrinsic value? While he does not discount the latter, he affirms here that this landscape is like a great work of art or a famous ruin. It should be preserved "for the enrichment of the world and its influence on the minds of men." He concludes, a visit to Acadia will leave impressions that will be "a leaven working through the land for nature conservation and the preservation of landscape beauty in all its many types and forms." Road development within the Park shifts gears by the Summer of 1929. The historic motor study undertaken by landscape architect H. Eliot Foulds demonstrates that Rockefeller's so-called containment of the motor roads broadened into a comprehensive system from Acadia's mountain tops to the seacoast. (Compliance Documentation for the Historic Motor Roads, Acadia National Park. Brookline: Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, 1993. Pp. 20 ff.) Some of the inspiration for this expansion may have been derived from successful Rockefeller-sponsored roadside improvements and landscaping in Yellowstone National Park where Horace Albright was DORR1925 Page 27 of 37 Superintendent. We know as well that during this Summer Rockefeller financed a tour of western parks for Grosvenor Atterbury to research an architectural style for Acadia. In addition, Rockefeller felt "regret over the unbuilt unit in his original plan, approved by Secretary Lane in 1917, the amphitheater road, and on other to his purchase of the Seal Harbor Realty Company's lands along the shore to Otter Creek." If he could secure lands connecting the Cadillac Summit road with the new road along the oceanfront, he would carry the expense of building "the missing link in his horse-road system, and, purchasing the necessary lands, a motor road along the shore from the Sand Beach to Hunter's Brook, under conditions which he stipulated for the removal of the United States Naval radio Station to another site and the cessation to the Park by the Town of Bar Harbor of its Ocean Drive." (G.B. Dorr, "Early Road Systems and What They Led To, 1939 typescript. ANPA. B. 3. f. 6) And yet, with such sizable projects at the forefront of his attention, Rockefeller alerts Dorr and Cammerer about a decade old threat to road construction, "the devastation made by the beavers." Rockefeller finds no merit in these rodents, expecting Dorr's rangers to attack beavers "until not a single beaver is known to remain on the island." (July 29, 1929. RAC. III.2 B. 83. f. 824) While this might appear to be a staff administrative issue outside the restricted authority that resulted from Cammerer's visit the preceding year, the Superintendent makes clear that beaver extermination will not take place on his watch. In his official Monthly Report, it is clear that Dorr is still very much the onsite administrator, for he "spends the greater part of every day in the field, personally supervising work in progress [which] takes him into every section of the park." (NARA. RG79. CCF. Monthly Reports. Acadia. July 1929) He will do what he can to reduce their number while pointing out what he routinely observes in the field, the benefit of beaver-raised water levels which displaced mosquito-breeding pools without any road disfigurement. He will not use "barbarous" steel traps to exterminate the population, relying on "humane" traps to address problems where their activity is not of benefit. In a fulsome letter to Olmsted Brothers architect Henry Hubbard, Rockefeller acknowledges that "Mr. Dorr's projects and my projects, all in the interest of the park, are very intimately inter-related and inter-dependent. Neither of us can develop our ideas most fully or most satisfactorily without the complete cooperation of the other. (See letters of September 18, 1929 and Dorr's December 4, 1929 response to Hubbard. RAC. III.2.I B. 110. f. 1097; B. 5.f.839) Minor and significant disagreements between Dorr and Rockefeller about road design and routing would occur in the years ahead. Without exception, all were resolved because of the respect they shared for each other-and the intervention of a third party. More often than not, the external authority was .01msted Jr., "whose unique combination of talent, preparation, and family legacy provided the cornerstone for a career" that included defining the organic purposes of the National Park Service. (Susan L. Klaus. 'Such Inheritance as I can give you, The Apprenticeship of Frederick Law Olmsted, Junior." Journal of the New England Garden History Society 3 (1993) pg. 7) Olmsted's abilities in reconciling conflicting views was well known. One frequently cited example that arose involved the access to Sieur de Monts Spring and adjacent roadways. Dorr and Rockefeller differed about the Park entrance road, the track of a motor road around The Tarn, and DORR1925 Page 28 of 37 the line of access to the loop road. After resistance from both parties, in the end Olmsted's exhaustive study of alternate routes and the logic behind each resulted in a shared vision. (September 18, 24, October 2, 14, November 14, & December 23, 1929. RAC f. 1097; B.119,f.1203) On August 20, 1929 The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations opened The Black House to the public. George Nixon Black, Jr. had bequeathed to the Trustees the historic house and original furnishings of Colonel John Black, who built this house in 1824 to 1827 on his 180 acre estate on the outskirts of Ellsworth. This promotion of a cultural facility signaled a Trustee departure from the land trust function of nearly three decades-and fourteen years of functioning as a land acquisition donor of land to the federal government. In the years ahead the Trustees would struggle with a fundamental change in their organizational mission, shifting from land conservation for the public good to property preservation and stewardship. On August 29, 1929 the Trustees minutes report that the corporation conveyed "to the United States all lands owned by the Corporation [the Trustees] on Mount Desert Island." (The was an exception. Reflecting the sanitation motives of Trustees during their earliest years, they retained control for the next two years of a one hundred and fifty foot wide strip "bordering the various lakes and their tributaries furnishing water to the various towns." With the exception of two small lots in Seal Harbor [Barr Hill & Champlain Mountain sites] all lands east of Somes Sound were conveyed to the federal government by 28 August 1931) Within three decades from its inception, the acquisition era had ended! Was there now a new mission for the Trustees? Attorney Richard Waldron Hale, senior attorney with the prestigious Boston law firm of Hale and Dorr, had recently become a Trustee and accepted the Chairmanship of the Museum's House Committee. With the belief that few new properties would be gifted to them for transfer to the federal government, the acquisition of the Black House provided the Trustees with a new mission, its preservation and organization as a public museum dedicated to this day to education and research on the history of Downeast Maine. ("A Century of Trust," Ellsworth American Supplement, September 13, 2001) This organizational shift delighted Hale who much later described himself as "a malevolent hater of the substitution of the Federal Government for the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations and of the whole principle of domination by Rockefeller and the Federal authority from Washington." (May 9, 1942 to John A. Peters. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Given Hale's views, it is puzzling that his family plays such a critical role more than a decade later in Dorr's estate plans. What enabled Dorr to accommodate views in striking contract with his own principles? As we have seen, this is not the instance of Dorr's magnanimity and it will be tested again within the next year. Hale will challenge the renaming of Mount Desert mountains that Dorr had championed more than a decade earlier. The "exceedingly frank" Hale also spoke to Rockefeller about a myriad of matters, areas where he is at odds with the "domination of the Park and the Rockefeller interests on Mount Desert Island." (Letter to Olmsted. December 13, 1929. RAC. III. 2. I. 1097) As fall approaches, the executive secretary of the Secretary of the Interior arrives for an inspection of the Park and is hosted by Dorr at Old Farm. The timing of his arrival likely influenced Dorr's decision not to attend the Eleventh Superintendent's Conference at Yellowstone National Park. His supervision of work on the Cadillac Summit Road DORR1925 Page 29 of 37 continues until severe Thanksgiving holiday weather forces the seasonal cessation of this project. The winter of 1929 finds Dorr in residence in Manhattan at the University Club, a Fifth Avenue and 54th Street private club for gentlemen designed by Stanford White and erected in 1899. Described to the day as the grandest clubhouse with its own library, reading room, and art gallery, Dorr lodged in this nine-story Italian Renaissance palazzo-style structure frequently during the years following World War I. Nearly opposite the Club was the residence of Mr. Rockefeller, and a contest of wills Dorr was about the unfold. The struggle would span two years and may speak to the best and worst in each man. It was well known to Dorr that the confidential Rockefeller road plan soon to be submitted to the National Park Service included the acquisition of the Great Meadow and the Sieur de Monts Spring, both owned by Dorr and intended for development along his own line of thought. Raymond Fosdick negotiated with Dorr at the University Club, and in due course Dorr agreed to the sale of the Great Meadow. For more than a decade Dorr had cultivated unrealized plans for the Spring site to be developed as a botanical exhibit. Dorr has given us the only version of this transaction. Convinced that "Rockefeller did not need it for his purpose but was bent on having it," when the ailing philanthropist heard of Dorr's refusal to sell the Springhouse he said he would sooner abandon the massive road building plan than not secure both properties. According to Dorr, Rockefeller simply could not understand that Dorr would have such an attachment to what he often referred to as the heart of the Park. 'Does not Mr. Dorr want me to go on with it?' he asked, 'If not, I will give it up. Perhaps I have undertaken too much.' According to Dorr, when Fosdick returned to Dorr with that question, `I thought of the ocean front and sent him promptly back to tell Mr. Rockefeller that I did want him to go on with it and would give up the Spring, stipulating only for the transfer of the whole property to the Government when all was done." (G. Dorr. "Early Road System and What they Led on To,' typescript. ANPA. 6) Rockefeller agreed to these terms and delayed finalization of the property transfer for nearly two years. Rockefeller subsequently leased it to the government. This incident can be understood as Dorr's noble act of sacrifice of the Sieur de Monts property for the sake of shoring up Rockefeller's commitment to the road system. An alternative explanation is that Rockefeller knew Dorr well enough to anticipate Dorr's reaction should he play his trump card, their joint vision of the completed road system. What is not clear is whether he was aware of Dorr's emotional attachment to the place, rich with personal and historical associations In the fall of 1931 Rockefeller was informed by Superintendent Dorr that the re-shingling expense of the roof of the pumphouse at Sieur de Mont Springs was now his cost to bear, Dorr having born costly pumphouse repair and renovation expenses in 1926. Was this a reasonable expectation on the part of a Park administrator or petty retribution for Dorr's loss of the Springhouse property? Rockefeller argued that since the government requested the lease of this property, the Superintendent who was interested in its upkeep before the sale "should think he would not only be equally interested to do SO now but [be] in a very much better position to meet the expense since the receipt of the very considerable sum paid by me in [its] purchase." Was this expectation consistent with the terms of the lease or was Mr. Rockefeller begrudging DORR1925 Page 30 of 37 the "considerable sum" paid for the property, especially since logic would require that as the leasee it was a park service repair expense, not Dorrs. (Dorr to Lynam & Rockefeller to Lynam, October 22 & 27, 1931. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 98. f. 969) Symbolically, the Springhouse waters give life and wash away impurities. Ironically, both men appear soiled by this contest of wills. 1930 Despite some progress in managing his disability and profitable interactions with his NPS colleagues throughout 1928, on January 22nd the National Part Service's principal founder and first director suffered a second stroke and died in Boston. Like Dorr, Stephen T. Mather had devoted his professional skills and financial resources to national park development. It was he who "established the polices by which the parks were to be 'developed and conserved unimpaired' for the benefit of future generations," the claim that aroused the ire of Senator Pepper and others five years earlier. (R.W. Sellars. "Manipulating Nature's Paradise: National Park Management under Stephen T. Mather, 1916-1929," Montana 43 (1993) p. 13) Dorr attended the funeral services. (NARA. RG 79. CCF. Monthly Reports. Acadia. January 1930) Even though the park service frowned on memorials, support from the office of Mrs. Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes insured that countless park visitors would see the plaques sculpted by Bryant Baker. Over the last eight decades how many have paused and reflected on the words placed beside Mather's bas relief profile on the thirty by thirty-five inch plaque atop the summit of Cadillac Mountain: "He laid the foundation for the National Park Service defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed for future generations. There will never come to an end to the good he has done." (Shankland, op. cit. pp. 287-291) Dorr used the winter months to catch up on scholarly reading, develop transcriptions of Ward and Dorr family papers, and whether his last will and testament reflected his current intent. His earliest surviving will is dated 1930 with yearly revisions through 1934--with the exception of 1932. The most conspicuous features of this estate plan are the omission of relatives as beneficiaries and the establishment of estate trustees to manage all that remains of his personal property in accordance with his stated wishes. In Dorr's view these distant cousins "are either sufficiently provided for in their own estates or so distantly removed or out of touch with me and my affairs" that he reasons that there is no convincing argument for their inclusion. (August 1, 1933 G.B. Dorr Will. Third Clause. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Chief Ranger Benjamin Hadley submits for the first time the Monthly Report required of each Park manager, noting that in mid-March Dorr left for Washington to confer with NPS officials where he would remain until late April when seasonal work resumed. Before his departure, Dorr was much occupied with the kind of public service activity that is largely ignored, community improvement. In April, Dorr "personally recruits" Ardra Tarbell, who will serve as clerk and administrative officer to Acadia park superintendents for nearly forty years. (See Walter J. Hickel, Secretary of the Interior, Citation for Meritorious Service to Ardra Tarbell. Harpers Ferry Center Archives. Unreferenced copy provided by Archive Chief David Nathanson. August 2005) In the early years the tiny clerk, a business college graduate with retail experience, is responsible for the orderly maintenance of a massive number of land data records, title abstracts, deeds, and maps that were constantly required by attorneys and park staff. (See S. Herbert Evinson's Oral History DORR1925 Page 31 of 37 Interview with Ardra E. Tarbell. October 21, 1971. This transcript is the sole surviving park office view of Dorr as employer and gentleman. I am indebted to Tarbell's niece, Frances LaCourse, for this document) Ardra Tarbell offers interesting descriptions of Dorr's behavior in his later years. "I remember his looks very well. This something I think will never fade. [for he had very distinguished look And when he was happy, of course, his mustache would curl up, you know When he was down in spirits, it sort of drooped." To her Dorr was the soul of courtesy and thoughtfulness and a great scholar with a command of "many languages that he spoke and read fluently." Moreover, Tarbell had learned from Dorr's secretary that Dorr always read himself to sleep reading the Classics in their language of origin. Tarbell and Grace Oakes, Dorr's secretary, lived in a cottage at Old Farm for several years. Although Dorr's jaunts around the estate would often involve crossing paths with Tarbell, "he just looks up and smiles and goes right along... [for] he took long steps. And he carried a cane a lot of times, just for something to carry, I guess, and balance he was very happy to see somebody enjoying the estate, and for me to keep on. Go anywhere I wanted to. Dorr was a very popular guest among the wealthy summer residents entertained by all of them he went to teas and luncheons and dinners almost every day, the weeks around, all summer long." (Ibid) Despite the company he kept the park was always on his mind, especially when Rockefeller initiatives were pushed to the foreground. That Spring, Rockefeller submits plans to Washington for a loop motor road connecting Cadillac Mountain with the ocean and extending the preexisting Ocean Drive. Plans are accepted. Rockefeller insists that the Otter Cliffs Naval Station be moved if there is to be a coastal drive. The military raises stern objections. A stalemate occurs as the time limit set by Rockefeller for accepting his offer draws near. Dorr forces an end to the stalemate by suggesting to the Navy Department that the newly-acquired Schoodic Peninsula would be as excellent a receiving station. From Boston, First Naval District Admiral Andrews gives his endorsement, as does NPS Director Horace Albright and Maine Senator Frederick Hale, chairman of the Senate Naval Committee. The Secretary of the Navy, Charles Francis Adams, an old Boston friend of Dorr's, supports the project, but feels he cannot go against the recommendations of his staff. After a successful trip to the Schoodic site (arranged and insisted upon by Dorr), the opposition changes its mind and reports favorably on the new site. On May 23rd the Park grew by nearly 641 acres when 229 acres of land included in the Seawall Naval Radio Station was transferred from the Navy Department to Interior and 412 acres was added through the acceptance of deeds donated by Dorr and the Trustees. The Park now comprised 16.72 square miles. By October "a real estate deal of considerable importance" took place in Southwest Harbor when Dorr acquired the Echo Lake Property and the Wonderland property at Seawall. Further progress in both land acquisition and road development during 1930 should leave no doubt in the Washington offices of the park service that Dorr continues to excel in carrying out his 'restricted' administrative responsibilities. Yet before Schoodic moves forward, Dorr and Rockefeller enter into complex negotiations at this time that revolve around the incorporation certificates and by-laws of three organizations that Dorr had created: Sieur de Monts Spring Co., The Wild Gardens of Acadia, and the Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities. Rockefeller is pressing for the transfer of a substantial number of parcels of corporate lands DORR1925 Page 32 of 37 to the federal government as one precondition for his commitment to spend a considerable sum of money on the Otter Cliffs roadway; the other being the removal of the Otter Cliffs radio station from its present location. Over the last decade Dorr's personal and corporate holdings were routinely deeded to Rockefeller. Between May 21, 1921 and December 2, 1929 nearly one-hundred and fifty properties changed hands, a most impressive number. Rockefeller had been long frustrated by what he perceives as Dorr's tendency to trust his memory in lieu of documentation. The road expansion strategy pursued by Rockefeller now calls for the transfer to the government of the cooperate-owned properties following their release by their incorporators-and in many cases, all that is needed is Dorr's consent. (Raymond B. Fosdick to Mr. Rockefeller. March 18, 1930. RAC III.2. B. 85. f. 840, and April 7, 1930. RAC III. B. 85. f. 839; Rockefeller to Cammerer. March 28, 1930. RAC III. B. 85. f. 835; March 28, 1930 ..L.Olmsted Jr. - Rockefeller May 28, 1930 conference notes. RAC III.2. B. 119. f. 1203) If Dorr agrees to this he expects a quid pro quo in "the development and maintenance of a botanical exhibition garden attached to the Wild Gardens of Acadia [and the] creation of a small capital fund to cover the publishing expenses of the Wild Gardens of Acadia." (op. cit., April 7, 1930. Fosdick to Rockefeller) The agreement would be finalized after the arrival of some celebrated guests from Washington. (The Rockefeller Archive Center [III. B. 86. f. 845] holds a chronological listing of Rockefeller's gifts of land to the government for Acadia National Park) Even though Dorr had frequently been visited by Department of the Interior administrators, the late Spring visit by Horace Albright and Arno Cammerer had a unique element to it. Despite his fifteen years in leadership positions with the park service, Albright had never been in Acadia National Park or the State of Maine. Dorr met them in Bangor and on June 4th and drove them to the Island, giving them a good idea of the land approaches. They covered the new road built east of Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond, visited Seal Harbor and the Eyrie, and saw the Otter Cliffs radio station. The following day they covered all of Rockefeller's carriage roads except in the Amphitheatre district, explore Somes Sound in a motor boat, and guided by F.L. Olmsted Jr. they saw new roadways near the great meadow and the Tarn, climbing to the Beehive summit to get a comprehensive view of road route possibilities. (No contact was made at this time with Paul D. Simpson, Mr. Rockefeller' engineer. See Simpson Family Papers. Rockefeller Archive Center) On June 6th their final day, Dorr and his guests visited Schoodic Head and considered alternative sites for the radio station. Much impressed, Albright details his trip and impressions in a letter to Rockefeller, approving Dorr's program for "road construction that is deemed necessary on the Schoodic Peninsula." (Letters of June 10 & 16, 1930. Worthwhile Places: Correspondence of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Horace M. Albright. Ed. J.W. Ernst. New York: Fordham University Press, 1991. Pgs. 101-108; See also June 20, 1930 Rockefeller letter to Director Albright. RAC. III.2.I. B. 84. f. 835) Within the month funds are allocated from the Interior budget to the Bureau of Public Roads to survey road options for the Schoodic Peninsula and throughout the fall accountants, engineers, and landscape architects from Washington are on site evaluating park projects. One such expert evaluation was offered by engineer, L.H. Zach who reported on the Otter Cliff Road construction In the months ahead and the design of the roads proceeds, the architectural expertise of F.L. Olmsted Jr. will increasingly be relied upon by Rockefeller and the NPS. DORR1925 Page 33 of 37 Olsmted is especially attentive to protecting the future aesthetics by routing roadways SO that private holdings do not "form seriously unpleasant interruptions" in the scenic continuity of the scenic ride. (July 14, 1930. Olmsted to Rockefeller. RAC. B. 119. f. 1203) MDIBL Trustee Bumpus proposes a Rockefeller funded trailside museum at Salisbury Cove, a facility that would exhibit the extraordinary life of the Gulf of Maine" combined with additional research facilities." Rockefeller thinks the idea is if great merit but is unable to take on any additional responsibilities since the development of Acadia National Park will keep his hands full for the foreseeable future. (August 20 & 22, 1930. RAC. III. 2. B. 75. f. 770) In late Summer, Rockefeller accepts an invitation to speak at the Pot and Kettle Club, a Bar Harbor association of influential summer residents. His highly unusual public appearance was intended to clarify his role in executing the road development plan that had been posted for weeks in the Park office. This reassurance of the on site reviews by NPS Acting Director Cammerer and Mr. Olmsted resulted in "only pleasant comment on the part of one or two." His letter also noted that Dorr and Assistant Superintendent F. Lynam met with town selectmen the day before to fully discuss park road plans. (Rockefeller to Cammerer. August 29, 1930. RAC. III.2.I B. 84. f. 835) Although the public announcement of these Rockefeller's plans were further delayed, islanders were surely excited by the September 10, 1930 front page announcement that "Rockefeller Offers to Build a $4,000,000 Motor Road for Park." The article described this "singularly magnificent project" as a new fourteen mile long scenic motor road connecting Cadillac Mountain with Frenchman Bay, Sand Beach to Hunter's Brook. Five hundred laborers over three years could be engaged in this project and two others, and one could result in a fifteen mile road encircling Penobscot and Sargent Mountains. (Bar Harbor Times. September 10, 1930; Worthwhile Places. Ed. J.W. Ernst. Pp. 110-111. See October and November issues of the Times for criticism of this plan) Included was a detailed description of the route written by Superintendent Dorr, leaving no doubt that this project was a partnership. While Dorr and Rockefeller were assessing public reaction to this dramatic announcement, Trustee Richard Hale led a cohort dissatisfied with what had transpired with former Trustee properties that were now under federal administration Perhaps some felt that Mr. Dorr had violated some unstated Trustee approval process. The specific issue involved the mountains that were renamed under Dorr's watch, beginning in 1917. As a new federal administrator, Dorr was also trying to conform to the Board of Geographic Names principle of long standing usage, yet as a scholar Dorr was compelled to locate historic precedent for the conventional names. Where the historical roots were shallow, Dorr saw an opportunity to develop alternative historical arguments that emphasized the role of native American and French historical associations. In this process he pressed for a more ancient lineage than what was customary on Mount Desert Island. Hale tried to rally fellow Trustees in defense of the traditional mountain names more than a decade after the 1918 approvals. His January 2, 1931 letter to the editor of the Bar Harbor Times stated that at the August 28, 1930 annual meeting he entered a motion to fellow Trustees that at the next annual meeting they declare themselves in favor of the "well known names." An informal Trustees poll revealed that 28 of 36 favored the names in use before the Board approvals. Hale asked the Times to poll its readers. Over the next several weeks ballots were cast and the tally was overwhelming: 150 for the old names, three for the DORR1925 Page 34 of 37 new. Letters to the Times editor emphasized that place names are significant because of their ancestry and emotional power. There is no evidence that Hale re-entered his motion at the 1931 Trustee meeting; in fact, no minutes document the 1930 meeting that precipitated this issue. As late as 1932 the stubborn Hale was still trying to negate Dorr's renaming of the mountains, circumventing the NPS and writing directly to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, who referred him to the National Park Service. His son, Richard W. Hale Jr., took up his father's interest in the Trustees and ignoring the history of past overtures to Mr. Rockefeller, suggested to Mr. Rockefeller that he become a candidate for membership. Rockefeller declined, offering a most characteristic response. He stated that he has rigidly followed his own father's advice: "not to join any boards or committees other than those in which he had a predominant interest." (May 21, 1931. RAC. III. 2. I. 73. f. 756) Trustee Samuel Eliot Morison wrote to the Board on May 27, 1933 requesting that the names used prior to 1917 be restored. He argued that signage still reflected old usage, that the old names were reflected in American literature, and that the new names had not been popularly accepted. Morison concluded that if we can change the name of the park to "the old French name of the region," (L'Acadie) we can revert back to the old mountain names as well. (The Boston Herald published a letter from Morison advocating the traditional mountain names. May 30, 1933) Lacking support from the NPS, no action was taken by the Board. Both Hale and Morrison avoided making any reference to fellow Trustee Dorr--as did the letters to the Times. There is only one piece of evidence that Superintendent Dorr responded in any way to public questioning of his administrative recommendations. Perhaps in anticipation of Hale's inquiry, Dorr sent a five-page summary of the rationale for mountain name changes approved over the last fourteen years to the United States Board of Geographic Names. (BGN Archives, March 6, 1931) It would not have surprised Dorr that Trustee Lincoln Cromwell preferred the new names for "the old names had no meaning, and the new names are expressive of the history of the Island." On the other hand, since their disagreement about the naming of the park a decade earlier, the response of District Court Judge John A. Peters was not surprising. In 1919 Judge Peters "wanted to call it Mount Desert National Park, but Mr. Dorr, and I think President Eliot, insisted on the name Lafayette, which from my point of view had no natural connection with the Park." Since nomenclature disagreements die hard, it is no surprise that Peters would claim in late 1930 that if Green Mountain could be renamed Cadillac then logically Dorr "ought to call another one 'Buick' and certainly a peak near Seal Harbor ought to be called 'Ford' " (after its celebrated resident, Edsel Ford) For four years the matter was unresolved. Finally, the matter is put to rest when a voice vote in 1934 defeated the motion that all Trustee officers use traditional mountain names in "all documents and correspondence." (R.W. Hale Jr. draft notation, HCTPR Archives.Sl.B.2.c.f.1) Additional parcels were accepted and then conveyed to the federal government over the next few years. Some Trustees, however, must have asked whether the organization had a future. Many founding members were either deceased or no longer involved, and new members-like Hale and Morison--were questioning the mission of the Trustees. Moreover, the Trustee who had been central to land acquisition ( i.e. , Mr. Dorr ) was DORR1925 Page 35 of 37 now also a park service administrator with considerable influence in the nation's Capitol. After three decades of active pursuit of property and the administration of lands available to the public, some members must have wondered--as John D. Rockefeller Jr. proposed-whether the Trustees should disband now that their mission had been realized. Instead, throughout the Depression Era without any formal declaration, the Trustees shifted from land acquisition for public recreation to the single-minded management of the Black House property. Land around Otter Creek, adjacent to Upper Hadlock Pond, and the Brown Mt. gate house are JDR Jr.'s first gifts to the Federal Government. Planning and construction underway for Aunt Betty's Pond and Day Mountain carriage roads; Bubble carriage road started. Cadillac Summit Road nears completion. G. Atterbury designs Eagle Lake Lodge. For the last two decades Dorr had repeatedly justified road construction as vital to fire protection, his concern often falling on deaf ears. Even though Park property would not be damaged, on October 13th, the "worst fire the Island has experienced broke out in the Town of Southwest Harbor, about a mile and a half north of the park's Sea Wall property... [it] burned uncontrolled through the 15th Rain arrived and checked but did not extinguish it. [The fire] burned until the 25th " No one knows what the consequences would have been if that fire had broken out during tourist season, when 154,734 visitors toured Acadia. Yet while that fire still burned, the first trip by automobile to the summit of Cadillac Mountain was completed on October 15th Construction progress enabled a group of National Park Service officials, federal and state engineers, to ride to the summit with Superintendent Dorr on a road that would not be formally opened until 1932. Yet Dorr is not overly impressed by the unrivaled height of Cadillac. In Dorr's unpublished essay on "Champlain Mountain and the New Park Road," he states his preference for Champlain as "the most interesting mountain in the entire Mount Desert chain." His enthusiasm for Champlain's eastern flank is its "magnificent cliff, rising almost sheer eight hundred feet; then after passing through a stretch of open woodland and across a second meadowland the mountain terminating above in a splendid headland known as the Beehive and the mountain heights of Gorham, with wonderful surf-cut cliffs and caves showing how the coast has risen in the last and recent glacial invasion." (ANPA. B. 3. f. 6) The fifteenth Census of the United States (1930) for Bar Harbor reveals that Old Farm was valued at $50,000, an amount that greatly exceeded the value of the residences of his Main Street neighbors. Close examination of the census data for Dorr's immediate neighbors shows clusters of gardeners and laborers in inexpensive housing, men and women likely associated with the Mount Desert Nurseries at Dorr's Corner. As the year draws to a close, Mr. Rockefeller's road project is called into question by the publication of a series of summer resident letters in the Bar Harbor Times. The objections center on the claims that the road construction plans have been secretive, that the roads desecrate the scenery, and in the words of Trustee Edward S. Dana "the judgment of the summer residents should carry great weight for we have made the Island what it is to-day." (December 3 & 10, 1930) Other residents differ and point out that the roads will be a boon to tourism, that DORR1925 Page 36 of 37 construction will promote employment for year-round residents, and that the methods employed by Dorr and Rockefeller according to A. L. Higgins "should and will, stand as a lasting tribute to their memory for the present and future generations [for] their methods have been proved to improve and beautify.' " (December 17, 1930) Trustee Richard Hale weighed in on this issue at a meeting at Rockefeller's home with his aide Raymond B. Fosdick and F.L. Olmsted Jr. (December 30, 1930 Olmsted memorandum. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 119.f.1203) Hale claimed that though two-thirds of the people he consulted were agreed that "the programme of road construction as outlined is highly desirable," the plan should be postponed until "until there is a preponderant agreement among well-informed and thoughtful people appreciative of the scenic values of the Island." Olmsted remarks that Hale had only "vague and impractical" suggestions when asked for concrete specifics. Olmsted's concluding paragraph made his views quite clear: "Certainly disagreement with my conclusion by Tom, Dick and Harry among the summer residents of Mt. Desert means very little to me. " The best results can be obtained, he advises, if Mr. Rockefeller and the Park Service "hold in abeyance" a decision to move forward until further study is done of the motor road link between the Great Meadow and Ocean Drive. DORR1925 Page 37 of 37 GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. BEGIN 1931 (November 5, 2008) 1931 The first month of the New Year brought forth a large volume of letters to The Bar Harbor Times on the proposed Rockefeller road system. Plans for Spring road work moved forward, including studies for extension of the Amphitheater Road begun twelve years earlier and stopped in deference to the objections of George Pepper and other summer residents. Northward expansion of the road system was being considered by his engineer, Paul Simpson, who exchanged sketches with his employer on the proposed outlet for the Paradise Hill roads at Hulls' Cove; further south studies were undertaken for the Amphitheater road bridge site at the Little Harbor Brook crossing. (January 2 & 13, 1931. P. Simpson Collection. E. Winterberg Database) Despite such normal winter planning activities, the public throughout the country was not prepared for the announcement that appeared in the January 29th New York Times: "J.D. Rockefeller Jr. Drops Park Project." Mr. Rockefeller asked the Director of the National Park Service to release him from his offer that the government accepted the prior September. He stated that he did not want to be the cause of ongoing criticism and had "no desire to be put in the position of forcing upon even a small minority of the people who frequent Mount Desert Island something that they do not want." An outpouring of public support for the road project resulted. A large and enthusiastic gathering of businessmen met immediately with Dorr as their guest to unanimously approve the road building program prior to his departure for Washington to consult with NPS officials. The Bar Harbor Times editorial of February 3rd reaffirmed its conviction that "a considerable majority of the island's summer residents" urge Rockefeller to resume his road building as approved by the Park Service. The newspaper also published a letter received prior to Rockefeller's withdrawal from Harvard theologian and philosopher, Rev. Francis G. Peabody, a summer resident for more than sixty years and the agent who secured pivotal funding in 1903 for the erection of Emerson Hall. The newspaper characterized Peabody's letter as "the finest and fairest thing that has been written in this or any other newspaper on this subject Read it for what it can teach us all, not only on the Rockefeller road matter, but of tolerance, of breadth of viewpoint, of fairness and unselfishness in thought and deed." Upon learning that 7.5 million dollars had been allocated to western parks for road construction, Dorr requests $200,000 for the road at Schoodic. Lacking Dorr's optimism, the NPS has not reserved any funds for the project. The disagreement between Rockefeller and Dorr on the route connecting the Kebo Mountain section with Ocean Drive receives public scrutiny. Olmstead favored Dorr's route which ran the road north of the Sieur de Monts Spring area and along the east side of the Tarn, not Rockefeller's intrusive route at the foot of Dry (later Dorr) Mountain and along the west side of the Tarn. Many cottagers were concerned that their concerns on either side of the issue would cause Rockefeller to abandon other motor road projects, depreciating the work force amid rising concerns about the depths of the Depression. The Town of Bar Harbor voted to DORR1931 Page 1 of 24 donate that portion of Ocean Drive to the federal government SO that Rockefeller could rebuild the ocean-front motor road. Community pressure had the effect of uniting Rockefeller and Dorr in their desire to redirect the roadway away from the Tarn and toward Ocean Drive. As the months went by Rockefeller had both official and private conversations about the reversibility of the late January announcement. Regarding the withdrawn offer, the study of Mr. Rockefeller's Roads by his granddaughter offers insight into his strategy. Mr. Rockefeller "calmly withstood the controversy and remained steadfast in his views of how Ocean Drive should be built. As he said to Cammerer, `I am simply not interested except on the terms of my original offer People are interested in blocking something which they think I have my heart set on doing. If they know I am indifferent, then the proposal begins to be considered on its merits; and when, as in this case, the merits are found to be very considerable, like all other blessings they brighten as they take their flight." (Ann Rockefeller Roberts quoting the letter of September 24, 1932, pg. 107) Having planned the project carefully, Mr. Rockefeller would stay the course despite the obstacles put in his path. In late Spring, landscape architect V. Roswell Ludgate arrived to assist Dorr with landscape issues associated with road construction. Some of his attention was likely directed at the Cadillac Mountain Road which was being prepared for surfacing. Dorr is obviously pleased when he submits his monthly report and describes this assistance as "the first practical contact this park has had with the Landscape Division of the National Park Service. (May 1931. NARA. RG79. National Park Service. Superintendent Monthly Reports. Acadia.) As work on the Summit Road nears completion, newly hired NPS landscape architect Charles E. Peterson arrives to assist Dorr in development of a updated road and trail development plan. Subterfuge is not a commonly applied to Dorr's methods and yet the arrival of Peterson resulted in its amusing application. Ardra Tarbell recalled that Dorr "didn't want anybody messing around with the trail system." He devised a diversion where Peterson was taken around and introduced by Dorr to every young woman, all in the name of hospitality. These females were impressed and "started calling him to entertain him, to go swimming and one thing or another, golfing and tennis, and they kept him so busy, we know he never saw a trail and he was here a couple of months." (S. Herbert Evison. Oral History Interview of Ardra Tarbell. October 21, 1971. NPS Historical Collection. RG37.E1. Harpers Ferry Center) There are indications that both tried to incorporate the aesthetic visions of the village improvement societies and associations. Their so-called "picturesque style" emphasized the scenic splendors of the island. Yet application of any aesthetic value was subject to interpretation as the chairmen of the various path committees assumed responsibility and then handed it over to another. As might be expected the growing professionalism within the National Park Service aimed at consistency, application of formal landscape principles, and adaptation to the constraints of local topography. Acadia staff at ever level recognized that they were engaged in a balancing act. Applying the twin objectives of the National Park Service laid out in 1916 --preserve lands in their natural state and make them available for public use-was still risky business. A case in point was the customary bi-annual Bar Harbor Fourth of July Celebration. Growing visitation to the Park increased certain risks. In the summer of 1931 a Park float in the parade displayed the threat of DORR1931 Page 2 of 24 fire to the heavily forested landscape, a theme that is repeated in July Fourth celebrations to this day. Yet in 1931 what most occupied the attention of the community was the frigate Constitution moored in Frenchman Bay. Some who walked its deck were still on the Island July 21st when the first 3,500-foot section of the Summit road was opened to traffic. Yet as the season was winding down, Dorr was visited by Conrad L. Wirth, a NPS land planning official recently hired by Horace Albright. Dorr identified with Wirth knowing that his father was a horticulturist and park planner who had fostered in young Wirth similar passions. Dorr acquainted Connie Wirth with the challenges faced by the Park for the entire week, receiving useful input from a man who would implement forthcoming Civilian Conservation Corps programs, rising in the ranks to associate director several years after Dorr's death. There is nothing to suggest that this influx of expertise from Washington was intended to compensate for any age-related diminution of effectiveness on the part of Mr. Dorr. Indeed, not only had the number of support staff grown but the Washington NPS bureaucracy too had grown with additional levels of expertise. Acadia National Park was reaping the benefits. Visitations to the park were steadily increasing as well, growing five percent during the 1931 season. Some of this was likely due to growing public awareness that the Cadillac Summit Road was nearing completion. By October, the road project approved in 1922 was sufficiently completed that several hundred cars made the journey to the summit. At the annual meeting of the Trustees, Charles W. Eliot II suggested that a report summarizing the activities of the Trustees for the past thirty years be prepared. The Trustees learned that his father Samuel A. Eliot was preparing an early history which would include a complete record of the lands acquired, a membership list, and other legislative and financial information as may be deemed appropriate. (L. Deasy, September 28, 1931 and A.H. Lynam, September 28, 1931 to Rockefeller. RAC f. 756) A solicitation letter to cover publication expenses was prepared and distributed. This important 31-page land trust corporate history-including a property map by landscape architect Charles W. Eliot [I--will not be published until 1939. As far as can be determined, Mr. Dorr had no role in the development of this document. (The Smith College Archives contain what may be the only surviving copy of an earlier draft of the Hancock County Trustee of Public Reservations history. Edward Kellogg Dunham Papers. B.31.f.6) Landscape architect Charles E. Peterson revisits Acadia in late October and following his visit submits a detailed report to Director Albright, commenting on his discussions with Grosvenor Atterbury who has designed two entrance lodges and gateways to the carriage road system, one at Northeast Harbor and the other at Seal Harbor. Work had just begun on these expensive living quarters for those in charge of traffic on Rockefeller's road system. (See Bar Harbor Times. "Working on the New Gate Lodges," November 25, 1931) Dorr accompanied Peterson on the inspection tour and was pleased with the contextual appropriateness of the Romanesque style granite work. After all, the namesake of the original national monument, the Frenchman Sieur de Monts, had come from the same Le Puis district from which the Atterbury designs had been derived. (October 27, 1931. RAC .f.835 The application of this architectural style throughout the Park is recommended. The next day Director Albright informs Rockefeller the next day how Peterson finds Acadia to be "one of the loveliest bits of landscape in the National Park System, and is very happy that he has been assigned to work with Superintendent Dorr in preserving that landscape." (Ibid.) DORR1931 Page 3 of 24 Landscape issues were also being addressed separately by the arrangements Rockefeller had made with landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand. A summary of her involvement in extension of the carriage road system is documented in a letter sent to her by Mr. Rockefeller in late October where he acts as the spokesperson for Abby Rockefeller's objectives for her Eyrie gardens. As the Winter approaches Dorr adapts content of an earlier article for a distinctive publication in its day. A new monthly serial was launched by the Home Geographic Society of Worcester whose purpose was "to create and promote interest in geography among children." The HGS incorporators and members were predominantly academics affiliated with Harvard, Columbia, and Clark universities. Seemingly modeled on National Geographic Magazine, the articles are not written for a juvenile audience as is apparent from the language, style, and narrative content that Dorr employed in "Acadia, the Seacoast Park." (I am indebted to Frances LaCourse, the aunt of clerk Ardra Tarbell, for uncovering this publication in her aunt's memorabilia. Home Geographic Monthly 2, #1 (1932) : 43-48) 1932 No year in the early history of the Acadia National Park rivals 1932 for the frequency of visitation by National Park Service officials-and the public expression of appreciation for its Superintendent. Yet for Dorr, this year will also mark the threat of loss of sight, a concern that persisted since his visual difficulties during his college days, nor to mention his mother's glaucoma. As the year begins, only the naive would suspect that Dorr's mind would be focused on anything except the July dedication of the Cadillac Summit Road. (The best account of the history of the former "Green Mountain," its means of access, and the former Summit Tavern is Richard Quin's "The Cadillac Mountain Road," The Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record. memory.loc.gov/anmem/collections/habs_haer/hhquery,htm On the first day of the new year The Bangor Daily News had a full page article on what many believe will be Maine's greatest attraction, a scenic road to the highest point on the Atlantic coast between Labrador and Brazil. "This wonderful scenic highway has come into being as a monument to the foresight and hard work of one man-George B. Dorr, superintendent of Acadia National Park." Referring to the $350,000 summit road as an engineering marvel, the public is informed that the official opening of the road will be July 4th. Shortly thereafter, other issues draw Dorr to Washington, DC. In early February, Maine legislators, Dorr, and Secretary Wilbur meet to discuss a strategy for overcoming the impasse in Rockefeller's road proposal. When the House Appropriations Committee disapproved funding to remove the Otter Cliffs radio station, Dorr and others explored relocation options as well as redirection of the roadway. He also conferred with NPS officials about matters of administration and policy in the weeks ahead. The road development, trail maintenance, and accessibility planning sessions proved to be well worth the effort. By the end of the 1932 visitor season, 237,596 people visited Acadia, a 46 percent increase over 1931. Community leaders were pleased with these numbers. Indeed, the Bar Harbor Times headline says it all: "Park Attendance Believed to Have Topped Yellowstone. (October 26, 1932) DORR1931 Page 4 of 24 To ease his official duties a 1932 Nash automobile is purchased for the seventy-eight year old Superintendent; two months earlier Dorr donated a Ford truck to the Park for use as a long needed piece of fire equipment. Shortly after Dorr's return, Chief Ranger Benjamin Hadley stands in for Dorr at the 12th Superintendent's Conference held in Hot Springs, his return trip routed through the new Great Smokey Mountains National Park and NPS offices in Washington. The Spring presents Dorr with the welcomed renewal of life in the gardens of Old Farm, the Mount Desert Nurseries, and the refreshed flora throughout the Island byways. Reflecting the pains of the Depression, Dorr reports that the local work force was never more readily available, a fact that comes as no surprise to the parade of park service officials that arrive to review progress on the Schoodic peninsula and discuss alternative approaches and gateways to the Park. NPS engineers arrive to survey, map, and develop plans for road construction and expanded visitor parking. (Annual Reports of Field Divisions of the National Park Service. 1932. Harpers Ferry Center Library. Historical Collection. RG19. K1810) As the NPS landscaping division grew to twenty-four professional architects and landscape architects, Charles Peterson was available to return for landscaping discussions. In late May Director Albright arrived for wide ranging management discussions that included review of the preparations for the dedication of the Cadillac Summit Road and discussions with Mr. Rockefeller that involved "the two gate lodges [that] are the talk of the entire state. The Director was sufficiently impressed with the day spent with Rockefeller to remark that it "was one of the most interesting days of my national park career. (May 27, 1932. Rockefeller to Atterbury. RAC. III.2.I.B.73.f.755; Albright to Rockefeller. June 13, 1932. RAC. III. B.84.f.835) The parade of distinguished visitors was far from over. In June the community welcomes the first visit to Acadia National Park by the Interior Department Secretary. Ray Lyman Wilbur and his wife are Dorr's guests at Old Farm, the first Cabinet member to experience the Island landscape since Secretary Lane visited in 1917 when the federal lands were of monument status. (April to June 1932 Monthly Superintendent Reports. NARA. Interior Department. RG79. SMR. Acadia) Two days of perfect weather enveloped their stay at Old Farm. Following a thorough tour of Park property, Wilbur remarked that the number of Park visitors was bound to "greatly increase." Secretary Wilbur surprised more than a few by announcing during his visit his intent to develop the most ambitious of Department of Interior projects. That is, "an inter-park highway. Starting here we can go through to the other great parks of the East. [which] should measure up to the Western system which we hear SO much about." (Bar Harbor Times. June 22 and 29, 1932) The Eisenhower's Inter-State highways would later be constructed but not the National Park highway Wilbur envisioned. Following his return to Washington in late June he and Rockefeller exchanged letters. Wilbur's congratulatory letter to the philanthropist concluded that "your roads are admirable, your bridges beautiful, and your plans complete." Rockefeller's response makes implicit reference to the withdrawn loop road project. Thanking Wilbur for his offer to assist in "the consummation of the plans as yet in the formative stage," he makes clear that the achievement is not his alone. Wilbur's positive reactions "must gratify Superintendent Dorr, who is entitled to the credit therefore. (June 27 & June 29, 1932. RAC. III.2.I.B.83. f. 827) DORR1931 Page 5 of 24 Some may have wondered why the Secretary's visit did not coincide with the July 23rd dedication of the Cadillac Summit Road. A draft document prepared by an unidentified party for delivery by the First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Joseph M. Dixon, states that "Wilbur began to hear SO much about this park that he just could not wait until July 23 to get here and see it for himself.' (K. Ross Toole Archives. Manfield Library. University of Montana. Joseph M. Dixon Papers. B.67.f.13. Drafts 1 & 2; the draft was little modified from what was subsequently published in The Bar Harbor Times, July 27, 1932) Weekend rain and fog greeted the official party left downtown Bar Harbor at eleven a.m. with a gathering of a thousand individuals to dedicate the mountain road. The official party also included the Secretary of the Navy and thirty seven naval officers from vessels moored in Frenchman Bay, the governors of Maine and Rhode Island as well as United States Senators and Congressmen. Participation by hundreds of other prominent individuals from Island towns and beyond removed any thought that this was exclusively a Bar Harbor festivity. (A full list of the official party can be found in Bar Harbor Times July 27, 1932) Surrounded by the press corps and filmmakers, spirited march music greeted Superintendent Dorr as he cut a narrow silver ribbon at the entrance to the 3.86 mile mountain road. (Portland Sunday Telegram, July 24, 1932) John D. Rockefeller 3rd stood beside Dorr representing his ailing father who built the Eagle Lake road at the foot of the mountain from which the summit road makes its ascent. Later Dorr will learn that Rockefeller was painfully stricken with herpes zoster (shingles) which left him weakened for several months. (September 24, 1932. Rockefeller to Cammerer. RAC. III.2 B. 84. f. 835) Earlier that month historian Max Farrand wrote from Reef Point to Rockefeller thanking him and Dorr for the Summit road, well aware that Rockefeller repeatedly insisted that the credit for the summit road belongs entirely to the government. Dorr's "foresight and energetic devotion" made possible the preservation of "many of the best parts of Mt. Desert from desecration and desolation." (September 8, 1932. RAC III.2.I B. 110. f. 1093) In his response, the ailing Rockefeller provided the Yale intellectual with the kind of unequivocal statement SO rare in public discourse. That is, without Dorr "permanent preservation of the beauties of this island for the use of all the people would never have come to pass." Master of ceremonies Luere B. Deasy decided that the torrential downpour that greeted the party on the summit, necessitated relocation of the program to the Malvern Hotel. There President Eliot was honored with a moment of silence as successive speakers spoke of notable aspects of the park, its world class scenic mountain road, and the humans responsible for its conception, execution, and completion. While President Hoover could not be present, Charles Francis Adams, the grandson of the second President of the United States and currently Secretary of the Navy, represented him. Adams is reported to have greatly moved the audience when he recalled an incident fifteen years earlier when he stood with Acadia's founder on Schooner Head and heard his friend expand at length on what the Park should become. This anecdote surely reminded older members of the audience that Dorr secured from John S. Kennedy in 1908 the requisite funds to purchase the 85 acre Mountain House Lot atop Cadillac, what the National Park Service regarded as the first great achievement in attaining park status. Congressman John E. Nelson likened Dorr to Stephen Mather, stating that what Mather had been to the National Park Service SO Dorr is to Acadia National Park. "In truth, Acadia National Park is but the elongated DORR1931 Page 6 of 24 shadow of a man." If that were not praise enough, Secretary Dixon suggested that no time should be lost in erecting a bronze plaque to Mr. Dorr while other continued to speak of naming a mountain after him. Dorr's personal reaction to such testimonials is not known. While some preferred that the road had never been built, in the intervening years-due to Dorr's persistence and the commitment of the National Park Service-tens of millions of appreciative visitors have taken advantage of a unique opportunity to enjoy safe, dependable transportation to a unique landscape. Dorr's compass point narrative relates what the visitor will experience. "To the south, the view extends over a broad ocean plain, terminated only, fifty miles away by the curvature of the earth; nothing intervenes. To the east one looks up into the Bay of Fundy, receiving over it the first rays of the morning sun as it illuminates our coast; to the west the view is bounded by the Camden Hills beyond Penobscot Bay, as we stand at the crowning summit of Maine's eastern coast. Seaward, the horizon is SO far away that it merges with the sky." (ANPA. B. 3.f.7) On a more personal level, Dorr received congratulations from one who knew best what the completion of the summit road meant to Dorr. Yet in his letter, close family friend William C. Endicott Jr. puts Dorr's achievement and personality in a larger historical context ignored by public speakers. He also raises the vexing issue of mortality that prompts Dorr to make end of life plans. Endicott apologizes for missing the celebration. "You must have found it a very moving occasion for you have been a great public servant who in spite of opposition has accomplished great things and who has always been dignified and patient in the face of many trials. How proud your father and mother would have been to see the climax of your work completed, for the drive must always be one of the famous drives of the world. Much love from us both. [And] when the end comes you must make plans to be buried upon the Island in the midst of the nature which your thoughts and vision has rendered immortal. It means a great deal for you all to be buried on the Island; nothing to be buried at Mt. Auburn. (July 24, 1932 typescript, no signature, typed W.C. Endicott. Massachusetts Historical Society. Endicott Family Papers. B. 24. f. 41) Several local businessmen had discussed for several years the opportunities for profit atop Cadillac Mountain, an obvious notion given the precedent established decades earlier when a hotel and cog railway had drawn visitors to the summit. They reasoned that visitation need not involve deprivation. Since the opening of Yellowstone National Park sixty years earlier, private entrepreneurs argued that the public could be provided with essential services at no cost to conservation. Since the beginning of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather and his successors had opened the gates to segments of the hospitality industry "but they did not insist upon it or even necessarily advocate it. If private operators came in, how closely should they be watched? Should profits be regulated. [or should they have the] freedom to soak the citizens on the citizens' own recreation grounds?" (Robert Shankland's chapter on "Concessions and Concessioners" remains the definitive treatment of the topic. Steven Mather of the National Parks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951. Ch. 10) For nearly two decades, concessioners had been kept off Park land because visitors had easy access to the nearby island communities and their bountiful resort services on this 110 square mile island. Even closer was the hospitality and fine food available at the Jordan Pond DORR1931 Page 7 of 24 Tea House, which Mr. Rockefeller had purchased in 1924 and leased back to the McIntire family who operated it until the 1945. In 1933 the Acadia Corporation was formed. Mr. Dorr served ex-officio along with the five corporation members, who disclaimed motivation for profit. According to Acadia Corporation spokesperson Judge John E. Peters, the "high-class enterprise" was established by island residents "to cover the situation in a way acceptable to the Park people and others interested in proper development of that section. We don't want the concessions handled in any cheap, indifferent or objectionable way." " (Letter to Mr. Rockefeller. March 10, 1934. RAC III.2. I. B. 62. f. 619) Initially the Corporation hoped to build a tea house but when expenses exceeded corporation assets, a temporary refreshment stand was built that Rockefeller-a Corporation subscriber-faulted because it had "no view, no outlook and is difficult to find." (September 27 and 28, 1934 letter to John A. Peters. RAC III.2. B. 62. f. 619) Overcoming the instincts of a businessman, Rockefeller purchased stock in the Corporation to finance the new Summit Tavern which contained a gift shop adjacent to counter and table food service. Only later did he fully appreciate that Dorr and his own architect G. Atterbury had sound landscape considerations for insisting that any concession site would be located where it "could not be seen from the tourist top of the mountain or objectionably from any other point. When the demand for teas, lunches, and dinners atop had not materialized, Rockefeller recommended that the Tea House construction be indefinitely postponed. (Rockefeller's September 24, 1936 letter to David Rodick well summarizes the evolution of concessions atop Cadillac. RAC III. I. B. 62. f. 619) In the years ahead-as concessions opened at Thunder Hole and Sieur de Monts Spring-- there would be a persistent dynamic between the public making demands for park souvenirs and services and the concessioners pushing to create demand in order to optimize profit. Before the August 31st solar eclipse, which attracted three thousand people to Cadillac's summit, Associate Director Cammerer and Assistant Director H.C. Bryant made inspection visits. Dorr is clearly pleased at all this official interest. Indeed, he begins his July 1932 Monthly Report by stating that "The old order changeth ! No longer is Acadia an isolated number of the national park system, having no contact with it except by correspondence, or an occasional visit from officials from Washington and the field services." Once again, Dorr's administrative language is not what is customary, a matter that will annoy superiors. Bryant and his wife were first to make official use of the Homans House, the estate of Mrs. Eliza Lothrop Homans (1857-1914) whose 1908 gift to the Trustees of the Bowl and the Beehive prompted Dorr to approach John S. Kennedy for funds to secure the Cadillac Mountain summit. Adjacent to Schooner Head, her property was acquired by the Park and its renovation now permitted its use to accommodate official guests. (See Alice M. Long. "Homans' Gift Sparked Creation of Acadia," Mount Desert Islander. August 10, 2006) Following Bryant's departure, John and Abby Rockefeller were invited by Dorr to visit the rehabilitated Homans House on a day that the recovering Rockefeller describes as "dark and cloudy...[Yet] the views from the plaza were positively thrilling. We have not enjoyed anything more in a long time than we did our visit to that marvelous spot, and Mr. Dorr was greatly pleased at our enthusiasm." (September 24, 1932 letter to Cammerer. RAC. f. 835) Within seven years, the Homans House will become a point of controversy when Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes faces charges that he used this public property for private purposes. DORR1931 Page 8 of 24 Assistant Director Bryant is inquiring into Acadia's educational potential and to this end he is pleased with the favorable response to the efforts of ranger-naturalist whose Acadia's Nature Notes serial is well received. Though outside his domain, Bryant visits William Sawtelle's historical museum at Islesford. He later writes to the Haverford professor that he is "disturbed over the fact that valuable collections are uncatalogued, and that the valuable information which pertains to each remains only in one man's head." Documentation and preservation are needed while Sawtelle's "mind is still active and accurate," is a concern that was applied to Dorr six weeks earlier. (September 17, 1932. ANPA. Sawtelle Collection. B.49. f8) On Cammerer's return to Washington he sent a confidential memo to Director Albright raising questions about Dorr's administrative competence. Cammerer admits that the finances of the Park are "in far better shape than they ever have been [and] we need to have no fear that Mr. Dorr will get into trouble going counter to accounting practice, because of the fact that [Assistant Superintendent] Lynam is in control of the accounts." (August 9, 1932. NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports) Since Lynam has angina pectoris, Cammerer is concerned that Dorr will outlive his subordinate, he still recommends that should Dorr "relinquish that position by death, or otherwise" then Lynam should be appointed Superintendent for a period not to exceed six months. Ever sensitive to political issues, Cammerer mentions the favor Lynam enjoys with Mr. Rockefeller and remarks that Lynam has "a better knowledge of the park's administration requirements than Mr. Dorr, or anyone else up there." Having entered Federal Service in 1904 as bookkeeper in the Treasury Department, Cammerer had been a "by-the-book" bureaucrat, exceptionally committed to documenting every detail. (When tendering his May 1939 letter of resignation on the advice of his physicians, Cammerer noted with pride that "from 1933 to 1938 I took 13 days 1/2 hour of annual leave, 14 days of sick leave, but put in 5,327 and one-quarter hours or 222 days overtime, exclusive of overtime in the field." (RAC. III.2.I. B. 42. f. 380) Cammerer, Rockefeller, and Eliot were at times annoyed at Dorr's reliance on memory. But Albright also recalled his agreement with Dorr four years earlier, that Dorr relinquish administrative authority in order to focus on road development and land acquisition with no set timeframe. At this time others raised questions about transitional management issues. Harry Lynam had been placed in charge of park administrative matters by Cammerer in 1928 and responded once again to Rockefeller's recurring queries over the last decade about documentation for Dorr's personal property holdings and property held by corporations where he was chief executive officer. Lynam was frequently in such difficult positions, his loyalties pulled between his friend and superior and Rockefeller's long standing reliance on him as his legal counsel for all Downeast matters. He writes to Lynam that "both you and I know that Mr. Dorr really in the bottom of his heart wants to do the thing that will make the lands which he has taken such pleasure in acquiring and which he has SO enjoyed owning most useful to the public in the years to come. On the basis of these two premises, I feel you and I will only be showing the genuineness of our friendship for Mr. Dorr in seeking in any way we wisely can to help him reach a satisfactory solution to these two problems." Three weeks later Lynam informs him that Dorr "did not take kindly to the suggestion" that they discuss an alternative arrangement to the standing Wild Gardens of Acadia property arrangements. DORR1931 Page 9 of 24 Rockefeller suggested that they put the matter aside for the time being. Six months later he again urges Lynam to "help Mr. Dorr SO arrange his affairs that what he really desires to have done with his property after he passes on will be done. His lack of experience in matters of this kind may result in his not knowing how best to accomplish that end." November 7, 1932 & May 4, 1933. RAC. III.2. B. 85. f. .840) Dorr's mind was preoccupied with more immediate matters. He wanted to rebuild the trail beside the planned Rockefeller's Ocean Drive roadway, upgrade the Bear Brook and Sieur de Monts Spring areas, and extend park facilities and trails to newly acquired lands on the western side of the Island. Within a few months the enactment of the emergency acts of the new President would give him the chance to realize these goals and much more. (Margaret Coffin Brown. Pathmakers: Cultural Landscape Report for the Historic Hiking Trail System of Mount Desert Island. Brookline, MA: Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, 2007. Pg. 127) At the nation neared the third anniversary of the stock market crash, Albright wrote that "despite unemployment, and the national disinclination even of the employed to spend savings and despite a great decrease in travel by rail, the national parks and monuments were visited in the 1932 season by 3,754,596 persons, 5.9 per cent more than last year. (Annual Report of the Director of the National Park Service. 1932. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932. Pg. 1) After scraping together funds for the road, Dorr and Albright insert $250,000 for construction of a building at Schoodic into the fiscal year request with only one day to spare. Once more, Dorr claims victory in the last minute. Dorr is listed as one of five trustees of the MDIBL and as a corporation member for the period 1932-41. As the year comes to a close, Rockefeller's four million dollar scenic park road offer remains on hold. Discussions continue about an alternate location for the objectionable Otter Cliffs Radio Station, with Schoodic and Little Cranberry Island being advocated as acceptable alternatives. Officials in the Interior and Navy departments are not able to reach agreement. 1933 As the promise of Spring approached, the newly elected Roosevelt administration faced a country incapacitated by economic collapse. In the first few months before his March inauguration, four thousand banks failed. One in four employable men and women were without jobs. In the first one hundred days of the New Deal, profound changes were quickly felt throughout federal, state, and local venues, resonating throughout the country. Under the leadership of the relatively inexperienced Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes, the National Park Service would reap benefits that are unrivaled to this day. (See Donald C. Swain. "Harold Ickes, Horace Albright and the Hundred Days: A Study in Conservation Administration," Pacific Historical Review 34 (1965) : 455-465) Ickes considered himself a conservationist cut from the same cloth as Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, determined to rebuild and expand the authority of the Interior Department. The identification and acquisition of new parkland, infrastructure development, the elevation of landscaping and design values, and a phenomenal expansion of the labor force yielded changes that led Horace Albright in 1961 to characterize Ickes as the "greatest conservation DORR1931 Page 10 of 24 Secretary." (Conservators of Hope: The Horace M. Albright Conservation Lectures. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho Press, 1988. Pg. 24; see also Albright's "My Trips with Harold Ickes," Washington History 2, #1 [1990] 28-50) Ickes immediately made it clear that he wanted Albright to remain as park service director, despite his identification with the Republican Hoover administration. More so, he asked Albright to serve as his unofficial assistant in the rebuilding of nearly every facet of the Interior Department administration, shifting its mission to conservation if not in name then at least in function. (Swain, op. cit., p. 461) With such wide ranging responsibilities and the Interior Department representative on the New Deal Council that Roosevelt created to put unemployed young men to work in national forests and parks, Albright had little time for national park affairs. Fortunately, associate director Arno B. Cammerer took over many routine tasks. Dorr had been in Washington in January to lobby for the transfer of the radio station and meet with NPS officials. As the winter receded "two new developments took place whose importance to the Park I grasped at once: the establishment of C.C.C. camps and the purchase by the government of abandoned farmland." (The Dorr Papers. 2. see also ANPA. B.1.f.15) Hoping that this new federal program might be an opportunity to add as many as 5,000 acres to Acadia National Park, Dorr mapped out lands from Sea Wall to beyond Bass Harbor for consideration. However, the new FDR administration's Director of the Budget, Lewis Douglas, impounded all appropriations not secured by contract, including the Schoodic Point funds. After a long series of discussions, Dorr convinced Douglas of the validity of the plan and financing was reinstated. Before he returned to Bar Harbor in April, Dorr submits both the abandoned farm proposal and an application to be among the first to participate in several of the fifteen emergency acts that the new President submitted to Congress in his 'First Hundred Days. He embodied Roosevelt's principle: action, and action now. Of the New Deal programs, three would have the most lasting effect on Acadia: (1) The Emergency Conservation Works Project (ECW), supposedly a temporary measured signed into law on the last day of March, yet four years later extended and renamed the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (2) The Civil Works Administration (CWA) ; and (3) The Emergency Relief Act (ERA). Rather quickly, of the authorized strength of 300,000 men-a number that would double by 1936--the NPS is charged wlith oversight of 600 ERC-CCC camps staffed by 120,000 social relief enrollees and 6,000 professional supervisors. Two camps are quickly approved for Acadia. For the better part of a decade, Acadia National Park would have a steady supply of human resources that it had not known before-or since then. It was a challenging opportunity for the Superintendent to achieve goals that at nearly eighty years of age he likely had thought beyond the scope of his years. This "immensely popular program" provided the park with a youthful and inexpensive labor force, administered by the recently promoted Chief Ranger Ben Hadley, the first Assistant Superintendent of the Park. (Bar Harbor Times. June 14, 1933; see also James Moreira, P. Dean, and K. Champney. The Civilian Conservation Corps at Acadia National Park [Orono: University of Maine Folklife Center, 2002. Pg. 100] The government acted with phenomenal speed. The McFarland Camp above Eagle Lake was occupied by an advance detail on May 20, 1933. Shoretly thereafter the main body of the camp arrived and by September tents were DORR1931 Page 11 of 24 taken down and the barracks were occupied. ( (Official Annual 1937. First CCC District. ANPA. B. 32. f. 4) A second camp on Long Pond near Southwest Harbor was in service by June while a third camp in Ellsworth later focused on approaches to MDI and Schoodic Peninsula park development. By Thanksgiving it would be announced that the eight month long project to build a three and three-quarters mile roadway along the western shore of the Schoodic Peninsula had been completed. (Bar Harbor Times. November 29, 1933) A workforce of as many as 600 single men between the ages of 18 and 25 was available throughout the year. Paid thirty dollars a month, during their six month enrollment, twenty-five dollars automatically went to their families. There was no U.S. Army participation as was the case in some national relief works programs not administered by the National Park Service. November 9, 1933. CWP Circular No. 1. NARA. Waltham. RG 79. B. 13. f. 6) Informally, many island residents likely expressed their anxieties about this influx of young men to Dorr, Hadley, and other park staff. In the long run, misbehavior concerns proved to be without foundation. During the winter of 1934 an unprecedented influx of newcomers-mostly from Maine-walked the island streets, roads, and trails. In addition, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided work for the locally unemployed and Bar Harbor alone had registered more than 700 men in need of work. The local men selected were favored by administrators since they were more likely to have forestry skills than the WPA enrollees. On the other hand, the physical appearance of the WPA workforce made it obvious that these men were not the customary visitor population. Roughly a thousand men from various New Deal agencies were at once at work on more than thirty different projects. ( See Bar Harbor Times, November 11th and December 6th, 1933) These inexperienced employees--most had never seen an axe--were assigned projects similar to those in other national parks. The approved projects were designed to train enrollees in new skills for future employment, adhere to NPS high standards for workmanship, and document and complete the project on time. To these ends, they developed, improved, and restored trails, overhauled park signage, applied design features to park roads, landscaped road and trail byways, expanded and beautified public areas, constructed new visitor facilities, implemented drainage and erosion control, and attended to a host of forest management issues from insect threats to fire hazards (Brown. Pathmakers. PP. 126-137; see also Bar Harbor Times April 26, 1933 and the report of the huge forest fire in mid-May that raged over seven hundred acres on the western side of the island May 17, 1933) At a national level, given its more "manageable" size, Acadia was closely scrutinized to see whether in practice the EWC-infused park could still balance the twin directives of the organic act of 1916: to preserve lands in their natural state, and make these scenic properties accessible to the public need for recreation. To accomplish these imperatives, resident landscape architect, Benjamin Breeze, and his assistants (George Gordon and Robert Patterson) prepared detailed project drawings conforming to NPS standards. No action was taken until NPS Chief Landscape Architect, Thomas Vint, approved the design. Through the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (ERA) Dorr was able to secure submarginal lands-those with low productivity or limited agricultural value. Through his persistence and ingenuity, Dorr "purchased over 5,000 acres of privately owned land on the western half of the island. [and this] land was set aside for wildlife preservation DORR1931 Page 12 of 24 and recreational facilities for camping, picnicking, fishing, and boating. Dorr oversaw trail construction in connection with these facilities. (Brown, Pathmakers. Pp. 125-126) Mr. Rockefeller and the NPS collaborated on island "quiet side" initiatives. (Rockefeller to H. Albright, September 9, 1934. NARA. Waltham. RG79. B. 2.f.2) Additional funds were secured from the Works Progress Administration to pay wages for skilled labor required for reclamation efforts. Capital funds for materials or equipment, however, were not likely to be available to the park architects that managed "Roosevelt's Tree Army.' Their efforts were also impeded by the inefficiency of an artificial economy with no fixed deadlines and "a pace of work [that was less than onerous. But the ability to work without overriding deadline pressures allowed park planners to adopt work methods and incorporate design features that might not have made sense if workers had been hired through conventional contracts. (J. Moreira. Ibid. pp. 86-87) With SO many modifications of the landscape-intended and unintended- concerns quickly arose regarding the whether these crews were applying the desired landscape aesthetic. ("Narrative Report for February, 1934. Eagle Lake Camp, NP-1." NARA. Waltham. RG79. B.2) Assuming that these landscape values could be articulated. Could they then be enforced to the point that there was uniformity in application? This would be the challenge that Dorr and other NPS officials faced in the years ahead, a matter of no small concern to Mr. Rockefeller. Indeed, a June conference of Maine state officials with Horace Albright at the Department of the Interior addressed the question of aesthetic standards to be employed by the CCC in beautifying the twenty-one mile scenic approach to Acadia National Park from Ellsworth to Bar Harbor. (Bar Harbor Times. June 7, 1933). A, island committee representing summer residents--which included Edsel Ford and J.D. Rockefeller Jr.-provided insight into the process. In reviewing the documentation covering the nine years of these conservation programs, the expansion of the official bureaucracy and the associated documentation boggles the mind. There is a constant flow of paperwork from diverse agencies overseeing aspects of these projects. There are rising expectations that every aspect of every project can be quantified. A single reimbursement report required consideration of more than 50 categories relative to the labor expended. Not unexpectantly, there are dozens of examples in any given year of Washington questioning camp superintendent reports. (NARA. Waltham. B. 67. f. 63-68) alleged , S an effort to quantify every aspect of every project with a piddling attention to questions from Washington about what was requirements Following the initial years of establishing ongoing projects, the sheer volume of administrative detail makes one wonder that Benjamin Hadley ever had time to leave his office. Since 1919 Hadley held a series of appointments at the Park, rising quickly in the ranks from Park office clerk to Chief Ranger. The Park had more than doubled in size during those fourteen years and visitations had increased fourfold. Hadley saw park appropriations increase from $10,000 annually during his first year to $59,400 in 1933, yet when one factors in supplemental appropriations for road building, landscaping, and trail construction more than $907,000 had be allocated to the park during his tenure. (Unsigned and undated Memorandum for Mr.Dorr, ANPA. B. 3. f.8) Park growth was about to become even more complicated by CCC administrative challenges. Few leaders have had the good fortune to have someone of Hadley's ability and loyalty with their organization. He was able to effectively deal with Dorr's strong opinions-and biases--even when he was the DORR1931 Page 13 of 24 target. Park office clerk Ardra Tarbell recalled Dorr's intolerance of long haired staff. One day as Hadley was sitting at his desk but needed the attention of a barber because in that era men rarely went two weeks without being groomed. "Well, he hadn't been and he was showing a little bit sign (sic) of needing to go; and Mr. Dorr said, 'Hadley, when you have been to the barber, I will be ready to talk with you. , " (S. Herbert Evison, Oral History Interview of Ardra Tarbell. Op. cit., p. 30) Fortunately, NPS administrators in Washington were more detached and appointed Hadley the first Assistant Superintendent of Acadia National Park on June 9th There is no record of Dorr's recommending this appointment but he surely would not have disapproved. The media did report that both Dorr and his assistant, Harry Lynam, greeted the appointment "with pleasure." Officials in Washington had acted on a concern much discussed over the last decade. Hadley's promotion provided organizational continuity in the event that the seventy-nine year old Superintendent was unable to fulfill his responsibilities. Besides, Harry Lynam had angina attacks in February of 1932 and the following April, fueling official concerns about Park leadership. (Lynam to Rockefeller. November 9, 1933. RAC. III.2.I. B.74.f.764) But even in the Department of the Interior, dramatic administrative changes were about to be announced. Eight days later the Secretary of the Interior appointed Associate Director Arno Cammerer as Director, following the resignation of Horace M. Albright following four years and seven months as director. Albright had been courted repeatedly by the U.S. Potash Company and following Hoover's defeat he was sorely tempted to resign his government position. Yet he decided to first establish a close relationship with the new Secretary and make sure that his departure did not negatively impact on the NPS. "In June, 1933, with the park service safely established in the affections of the new secretary, Albright felt that he could publically announce his intention to resign." (Swain. op. cit., p. 465) Albright's role as a national parks conservationist, however, was not terminated for in the decades ahead he will work behind the scenes. Acadia National Park will have no small place in those efforts. He will serve as a consultant for the NPS and in several important matters advocate Dorr's interests, to say nothing of his continuing relationship with Mr. Rockefeller. On the day Albright completed his tenure as Director, he wrote to Rockefeller expressing his gratitude "for all the interest you have taken in National Park affairs during my administration The privilege of enjoying your friendship and your confidence, and the inspiration of your character and ideals have meant more to me personally than I can ever express." (August 10, 1933. RAC. III.2.. B. 84. f. 835; no correspondence between Dorr and Albright regarding this rite of passage has survived) Two months later, Rockefeller reminds Albright that his public service actually tracks back to 1915. Few people know that "it is you who have been chiefly responsible for the development of the national parks, there are hundreds and thousands, yes, millions of people whose lives have been made happier, richer, better because you, their unknown friend, have opened to them nature's treasure store of beauty." (October 10, 1933 and Albright's response of October 28th RAC III.2.I B. 84. f.835) For the next twenty-five years Albright and Rockefeller would continued their active personal and professional relationship. ( Albright's January 31, 1946 five-page memo on concessions management in Acadia National Park is a benchmark policy statement on for-profit ventures. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 62. f. 622) DORR1931 Page 14 of 24 Within a month, Dorr's recovery from illness prompted Rockefeller to redirect sentiments expressed by Albright to the park superintendent. (August 2, 1933. RAC. B. 85. f. 839) In a rare expression of feeling, Rockefeller cautioned Dorr "not to do any more imprudent things like sliding down Green [Cadillac] Mountain in the snow drifts, as I saw you do some years ago. You are greatly needed in this world and particularly on this island. I would not know what to do without you here and you and I must live at least to see the projected automobile road [on ocean drive] completed and then for a long time thereafter to plan other worthwhile developments on the island." Dorr had not been present for the May 3rd celebration of the first spring season opening of the Cadillac Summit Road since its dedication the year before. Governor Louis Brand paid tribute to Dorr and presented to then Chief Ranger Hadley the pen which signed the 86th-legislature act known as the Acadia Park Act of 1930. (Bar Harbor Times. May 3, 1933) More important than this ceremonial occasion was the inspection visit several weeks later. Dorr was then on hand to welcome the new Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, and NPS Director Horace M. Albright following their early morning flight from Boston where their flight permitted close scrutiny of Deer Isles, Southwest Harbor, the Eyrie in Seal Harbor, and road development along Otter Cliffs, the Beehive, and Green [Champlain] Mountain. (Mr. Rockefeller receives a detailed report from Albright. June 1, 1933. RAC III. B. 84. f. 835) The new radio station on Schoodic Point was observed before they landed in Bangor where they were met by Dorr. Frederick Law Olmsted joined Dorr and his two guests for lunch at Old Farm before driving to the summit of Cadillac Mountain where Olmsted explained both the motor and road systems. In a nine-page memorandum on the routing of ocean drive, Olmsted would later suggest new routes for "travel by motor for long distances through an uninterrupted and rapid succession of small-scale, intimate scenes, each hardly glimpsed before it flashes out of sight to be replaced by another, tends to become monotonous and wearisome if not interrupted by landscapes of a grander scale." (Report to Rockefeller, June 2, 1933. RAC. III.2. B. 118. f. 1195) Passing by the new Jordan Pond gatehouse, arrangements had been made for the party to tour the Eyrie grounds. Into this "dark" afternoon were squeezed visits to the Sieur de Monts Spring, the Homans house, and further travel on the existing road system. The Secretary fully approved Rockefeller's plans and "feels that [Rockefeller is] undertaking a work of very great importance to the park and to the people who for generations will visit and enjoy the park." (See also "Secretary Ickes in Inspection of Acadia Park," Bangor News May 29, 1933) After dinner and a restful night at Old Farm, the officials returned to Washington. As we shall see, Albright viewed the trip as "a very happy one and one that we will long remember." Whether Dorr was aware of the change in NPS leadership that would take place within six weeks, we cannot say. On June 10t th President Roosevelt issued a directive reorganizing the NPS into a single system of federal parkland. On August 10 the number of areas where the NPS had jurisdiction doubled. The President transfered to the NPS the national capital parks (including the White House), War department parks and monuments, national monuments held by the Forest Service--and responsibility for monuments created thereafter. When added to other emergency relief programs, the NPS had greatly increased responsibilities and Cammerer's workload in time would threaten his health. (Cammerer's April 30, 1941 letter of resignation details the accomplishments and challenges he faced during his eight year tenure. DORR1931 Page 15 of 24 RAC III.2.I. B.52.f.380; his July 16, 1933 letter to Mr. Rockefeller thanks him for his congratulations, noting that in receiving the appointment he "had made no effort in my behalf nor did I permit my friends to do so." RAC. III.2.1 B. 84. f. 835) R.S Yard resigns his position as Exec. Secretary of the National Parks Association. He was one of his generation's most perceptive observers of the boom in outdoor recreation, the role of nature in the logic of tourism, and the impact of the automobile on the natural world..." (Sutter, Driven Wild, 141). Not a populist for suggesting that those who were interested in mere recreation ought best find their needs satisfied in national forests and state parks, both Dorr and Rockefeller were more democratic in their encouragement of public use of the national parks. More than three decades after the publication of Samuel Gray Ward's Ward Family Papers, GBD informs Sam's son Thomas Wren Ward that he has "just started work once more on the old Ward letters and hope to make good progress with them." His cousin Tom's questions not settled in the Ward Family Papers are answered by Dorr though he admits that what the letters tell "is scattered and fragmentary, giving glimpses only here and there. (Harvard University. Houghton. Samuel Gray Ward And Anna Hazard Barker Ward Family Papers. III. 263, 264, November 1933) Another letter to Tom six months later provides additional details on William Ward, their grandfather, yet throughout Dorr does not express regret at this historical incompleteness. Dorr was a self-referential personality, strongly inclined to transfer what he studied to his own life. Surely he knew that others spoke of their discomfort that he relied SO frequently on his memory. His resistance to sensible arguments for documenting his private holdings had by this time become well known. Yet he continued to churn out detailed memoranda that went unchallenged for their accuracy, their justification residing largely in his phenomenal memory rather than the historical archives that Rockefeller established. At nearly eighty years of age, Dorr knew that his own personal history was likewise "scattered and fragmentary" but that was not an issue that much troubled him. 1934 After some weeks spent in Washington discussing national and local park matters with Assistant Director Arthur B. Demaray and other officials, Dorr drafts a letter to Hadley from the Somerset Club describing the Capitol as "full of projects for spending Federal money, but what money there will be to spend, ands on what projects, no one yet knows." (February 20, 1934. ANPA. B. 3. f. 8) Nonetheless, Dorr proposes many needed park projects, reporting his request for $50,000. to establish a marine museum at the Homans estate, creation of a duck refuge, and the promise of acquiring sub-marginal island land to expand the park and knit together existing boundaries. It is alleged by secondary sources, that Phyllis Sylvia, Dorr's secretary, noticed that Dorr was gone longer than usual after his daily morning swim. Dorr is found lying unconscious across a ledge, with the tide just a few inches away. He is diagnosed the victim of a severe heart attack and given six months to live. While recovering, Dorr frequently runs up stairs, to prove he can, insisting that the heart muscle can only be strengthened by hard exercise. Perhaps because this incident reminded him of not only his mortality but of those who have been dear to him, Dorr drafts a letter in September to Mount Auburn Cemetery requesting information on his family lot and the DORR1931 Page 16 of 24 status of perpetual care for the gravesite. Dorr appears to have long neglected the Dorr family plot given his additional questions regarding who established the existing level of care, when such arrangements were made, and whether additional payments are necessary to "secure its maintenance in its intended good condition." (ANPA. B. 1. f. 2 & 11) Three months later on December 14th a letter to sent to Dorr by a memorial stone engraver documenting current inscriptions and quoting fees for various headstones for Elizabeth Hind (1806-1879), the Welch nurse who resided with the Dorr family for more than two decades. For nearly five decades, Dorr provided his Harvard College alumni secretary with only the briefest information about his activities for publication in the Class Report. On the fiftieth anniversary of his Harvard graduation, in a surprising turnabout he offers roughly six hundred words on what Dorr certainly regards as his lasting achievement. Directing attention away from himself, he begins: 'My life these half dozen years offers little outstanding of which a tale might be told. One lives more interiorly and less actively as the years go by. But the story of the Acadia National Park.. I will gladly tell. It sprang from a desire I shared with President Eliot, a friend and neighbor on these shores, to make safe from disfigurement, and free access to the public of the future, a great coastal landscape wherein for a term our own homes were set. (HUA. Harvard College. Class of 1874. Fifteenth Report. 1934. Pp. 14-15) For the first time, those of his surviving classmates had a clear idea of the highpoints in Dorr's role in establishing Maine's national park. But more importantly, alumni now became aware that for more than two decades President Eliot was allied with Dorr in this unique conservation project. Eight years after his death, Eliot is given the recognition that his biographers had not brought to their readers attention. (Edward Cotton's 1926 publication [The Life of Charles W. Eliot, 5.268 ] refers misleadingly to Eliot's "active interest in securing national grants, which resulted in the establishment of Lafayette National Park.") On Mount Desert Island that summer, Dorr deeds to the Appalachian Mountain Club thirteen acres of land. For many years the Superintendent had encouraged the AMC to make use of his Echo Lake property. Nearly seventy-five years later the camp "is itself a memorial" to Dorr's generosity. (AMC Archives. Echoes of Echo: Memories of Echo Lake Camp. Ed. Mary P. Mitchell. 1989. p. ix) At the same time, Dorr gives property at the other end of Echo Lake for the Mount Desert Island Boys Camp with construction funds provided by federal and state sources. (Bar Harbor Times. September 5, 1934) Unfortunately, Rockefeller learned of this through the media. While thinking that the location is "wonderful" for its intended purpose, he thinks that there is "at least the possibility of conflict" with park interests. Rockefeller is miffed because "on the theory that you and I were working together in the interest of preserving this lake for the Park," Dorr donated land to someone other than the Trustees or federal government. And he did this without alerting Rockefeller first. (September 26, 1934. RAC III. B. 85. f. 840) For three days in mid-July nearly five hundred members of the Garden Club of America toured a select list of Mount Desert Island gardens. For a resort community noted for its grandeur, horticultural entertainment on this scale was unprecedented. The Garden Club of Mt. Desert planned itineraries for the ninety-three clubs that convened at the Building of the Arts on the cool sunny morning of July 11 The full program began with a visit to the Mount Desert Nurseries or any of fifteen gardens situated within the estates of some of the most DORR1931 Page 17 of 24 prominent men and women of the day. "The Annual Meeting 1934, Bulletin of the Garden Club of America. 11 [1934] 36-40; for a broader perspective see The Garden Club of America: History 1913-1938. Philadelphia : GCA, 1938) Landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand's Reef Point estate was open to the highly appreciative visitors as were ten other gardens that bore her designs, including two of the six Seal Harbor gardens that were opened to visitors following a trip up Cadillac Mountain. (Bar Harbor Times. July 11, 1934. Fortunately a personalized program survives. Noted today for the Naumkeag garden designed for her family by Fletcher Steele, Mabel Choate's program has been preserved. Miss Choate used the margins to pencil in notes that reflected her interest in Reef Point plants, critical remarks about spatial proportions in the Mon Gazon garden of Mrs. James Heard, and a sketch of a pinwheel-looking garden for Mrs. A. Murray Young's Tanglewood. (Trustees of Reservations. Naumkeag. Mabel Choate Papers. 1934) GCA members were entertained with afternoon tea, excursions to the Black Estate in Ellsworth or the Holden Garden in Blue Hill, and dinner invitations from dozens of island residents. The scale of some of these gatherings is difficult to grasp. One guest reported that "tea at the Edsel Ford palatial home, high upon the hill overlooking Seal Harbor and out toward [the] Cranberry Islands nestling in the ocean, was an event. In the house and on the terrace four hundred and fifty ladies chatted and drank tea." Bar Harbor Times. July 18, 1934) The gardens at Old Farm are nowhere mention though it is likely that Mr. Dorr was present at his nursery to greet guests. The Park was inspected in late August when Director Albright was later joined by Secretary Harold Ickes. Rockefeller too arrived for several days to carefully examine the completion of Ocean Drive, remarking to Dorr that he was "thrilled with its beauty and completely satisfied with the result," including Dorr's supervision of the path built on the southern end between the roadway and the Bay. (August 9 letter to Dorr. ANPA. B45. f1. His summer would not be spent in Seal Harbor, the first time since 1909 he and Abby did not spend a portion of the Summer there. But little escapes Rockefeller's aesthetic eye. Leapfrogging over other park officials, he brings to Albright's attention the fact that the Brown Mountain House park service occupant had not been routinely mowing the gatehouse lawn. (August 18, 1934 letter to Albright. RAC III. 84. f. 835) Albright had larger concerns for "Mr. Dorr is not in very good health. He has decided to make very definite plans for disposing of his property and for carrying on his work after he is gone. He has asked me to serve on a committee which he is organizing to handle his affairs." (August 31, 1934 Albright letter to Rockefeller. RAC. III. B. 110. f. 1099) As Dorr enters the last decade of his life, his incapacities multiply. Nine months after his Acadia visit, Albright receives a private communication from Dorr's secretary: "Mr. Dorr walked to the Spring and back, Sunday, while he was alone. The wound of last year which is in his leg will not heal. His system, fights it, of course, or he would have gangrene. But he looks well, eats well. Mr. Dorr cannot see, Mr. Albright. That much is certain. He cannot distinguish people in the room, but with a strong light and glass he still can read." (May 5, 1935. RAC. III.2. B. 85. F. 840) The Superintendent took great satisfaction from the national attention that the Park received that October when a seven-cent Acadia National Park stamp was issued by the U.S. Postoffice Department. Historically, DORR1931 Page 18 of 24 postage stamps only celebrated national figures and historical events but in 1922 focus shifted to landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. Secretary Ickes had convinced government officials that an issue of stamps representing the national parks would help make the parks better known. He may not have been aware that the Acadia stamp was also the first federally issued commemorative stamp representing the State of Maine. On the date of issue (October 2nd) cancelled envelopes of the arresting park shoreline were sent from Washington to Bar Harbor and from Bar Harbor to souvenir enthusiasts. Assistant Superintendent Ben Hadley represents Acadia National Park at the Conference of Superintendents and Field Officers held in Washington, D.C., Nov. 19-23. We learn from others that Dorr suffered a recent leg wound which in this pre-antibiotic era always poses a very real threat, especially to the elderly. This physical ailment will be all the harder to bear because of the news he will receive from California a month later. Mr. Rockefeller strongly suggested that Albert Harry Lynam's heart disease be evaluated in September at The Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. He wrote to physician Alfred E. Cohn at the Hospital that Lynam "for many years has been my lawyer ands confidential representative here in Maine and because I think highly of him as a friend, I am anxious to have everything done to prolong his life." (September 15, 1933. RAC. III. B. 74. f. 764) During the last two months of 1933, A.H. Lynam suffered the very painful symptoms of herpes zoster. From Rockefeller he receives a empathetic response since shingles was a disease that had struck him in years past. (December 5 and 16, 1933. RAC. III. 74. f. 764) Returning from Pasadema later that Winter, Lynam informs Rockefeller that the attack is behind him and that he feels his cardiac health is improved as well. He offers to address any of Rockefeller's concerns when he meets with Cammerer in Washington-enroute to Bar Harbor where he carried out his responsibilities for another six months. (February 15, 1934. RAC. III.2.I. B. 74. f. 764) Lynam intended to spend the winter of 1934 with his wife and daughter in Pasadena. Enroute to California, his final legal activity relative to the Park is disclosed in Rockefeller's account of his meeting with Lynam at Rockefeller Center December 3rd Rockefeller had authorized Lynam to make an offer to secure all the Bingham land holdings in Hancock County- including the Black House. (An outline of Richard W. Hale's interpretation of this project, see his January 16, 1935 letter to Mr. Rockefeller sent the month before the Bingham February rejection of the offer. RAC B. 92. f. 915) Lynam's death in Pasadena in mid- December was a severe blow to Mr. Dorr, an irreplaceable friend who was remembered locally as the sole Assistant to the Superintendent for nearly two decades, the former Superintendent of the Bar Harbor schools, director of the Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company and local legal counsel for more forty years, most recently as a partner in Deasy, Lynam, Rodick and Rodick. (Obituary. Bar Harbor Times. December 19, 1934) Dorr and Rockefeller were more than Lynam clients. Both relied on his expertise, advice, and friendship. From 1910 to 1924 he had been Secretary of the Hancock County Trustees, a conservation advocate whose formal training and social connections made him absolutely essential to the successful conveyance of property titles to the federal government. Without his legal skill and support for the objectives of the Trustees, Sieur de Mont National Monument would not have come into being. (Trustee DORR1931 Page 19 of 24 Herbert L. Satterlee, husband of Louise Pierpont Morgan, expressed a prevailing conviction--that Lynam's talents were irreplaceable. March 21, 1935 letter to the "Sieur des Monts" { Dorr] ANPA. B. 38. f. 10) Mr. Rockefeller receives a letter of concern from Horace Albright, noting that Dorr's eighty-first birthday is imminent. He suggests that a few of Dorr's friends send him some words of greeting and good cheer. Not only is Dorr "not well and may not see another birthday [his] Christmas has been a sad one on account of Mr. Lynam's death. He will feel very keenly the loss of his old friend and associate." (December 26, 1934. RAC. III. 2. 85. f.840) The next day Director Cammerer's birthday greeting refers to Dorr's "rich life, full of loyal and devoted friends, and a rich measure of happiness and achievement in doing SO many things for others, and there is no one in the entire New England who has greater visions of things to do for the public benefit, and done them, than you.' Felicitations from Secretary Ickes refer to Acadia National Park as a "monument to your public spirit and farsightedness for without those efforts the park doubtless would not have come into being. (December 29, 1934. NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia, Miscellaneous Reports) In Boston the temperature reached seventeen degrees below zero on the 29th of December. It was colder in Bar Harbor as Dorr read Rockefeller's latest letter. "Isolated in the dead of winter in your cozy library on Mount Desert island," Dorr learns that "Mrs. Rockefeller and I count our friendship with you as one of the happiest of the many delightful things that have come into our lives as a result of our having made Mount Desert island our summer residence. It was you who brought about the establishment of Acadia National Park. Without you the thing could never have been done, nor can I think of any other person with sufficient patience, kindliness and tact to have accomplished SO difficult an undertaking.. [Our] contact with you during these many years has been a constant pleasure and happiness to us." (December 28, 1934. RAC. III.2. B. 85. f. 840) Progress on Rockefeller's four million dollar Park Loop road now could move forward as the dismantling of the Otter Cliffs radio station was nearing completion. The local newspapers reported that the new Schoodic Peninsula station would soon be operational. (Bar Harbor Times. 12/26/1934 and Bangor News, December 15, 1934) In February 1935 the transfer of the Naval Station from Otter Cliffs to Schoodic Point was completed, attracting in the years ahead visitors who drove the six-mile park road. (For recent developments, see Schoodic: Draft General Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 2004. Pp. V., 6-9). After three years of inactivity on the costly extension of Ocean Drive, this solution enabled Rockefeller to adhere to his original proposal. Park acquisition of Schoodic Point was important for many reasons that had nothing to do with its military usefulness as the "fartherest north" radio station. Admittedly, Rockefeller architect Grosvenor Atterbury had designed the impressive new structures that National Park Service staff and landscape designers and private construction companies brought to completion. The fact, however, that this peninsula juts further into the Atlantic Ocean than any other topographical point on the eastern coastline, resonated strongly with Dorr as another benchmark of Acadia National Park distinctiveness 1935 DORR1931 Page 20 of 24 As Dorr recovers from his leg wound, he decides that his visual impairment must be addressed. During Spring and Summer months he is frequently absent from Bar Harbor for consultation and treatment by Boston ophthalmologists. Relying more on Hadley, it is understandable why Acadia was not represented at the May meeting of the Joint Council of National Park Operators and Superintendents meeting held at Grand Canyon National Park. Glaucoma had cost Mary Dorr the sight in one eye during the last decade of her life. Surgery for her son was completed with some degree of success. ("History of a Tract of Land." ANPA. B.5. £.6; in another untitled typescript, Dorr states that on July 22 he was "in a hospital in Boston recovering from an emergency operation," presumably to correct the impairments of glaucoma. ANPA. B.2.f.2) Rockefeller sent Secretary Ickes a letter containing a magnificent offer. To deed to the government for inclusion in Acadia National Park all of the remaining lands which he has acquired for construction of his roadway network, with the exception of Seal Harbor lands associated with the his estate, the Eyrie. This donation would make possible "a Park motor road from the sea on the South at Seal Harbor to Frenchmans Bay on the north at Bar Harbor," providing linkage to the Cadillac Summit Road and the yet incomplete Ocean Drive. Summarized in this letter is the acreage and cost of land previously donated; the offer would add 3,835 acres to the 2,700 already gifted for a total personal expenditure up to this date of four million dollars. (March 14, 1935 RAC III. B. 86. f. 846) While we cannot determine whether Dorr had a hand in crafting this document, it is clear that Horace Albright was sufficiently impressed by the offer to work directly with Rockefeller in "carefully checking" the accompanying maps and the appropriateness of the language to National Park standards. Five days later, Albright informs Dorr that he thinks Rockefeller no longer intends to construct additional carriage roads, a significant decision after more than twenty years of carriage road development over nearly fifty miles of the island landscape. He prefers that the NPS would route future motor roads SO that their placement would not impede the possibility of an extension of the carriage roads within the Park. (May 7 & 12, 1935 letters to Dorr. ANPA. B. 45. f. 1) Despite the additional pressures on the Interior Department and the National Park Service in managing the growing number of park properties, Secretary Ickes and Horace Albright journey in late May to Acadia as they had ten months earlier, surveying by air the Island coastline and the Schoodic peninsula. So too Dorr invited Olmsted to lunch before the four drove to the top of Cadillac for Olmsted's explanation of the scope of the carriage and automobile road systems. In considerable detail, Albright outlines for Rockefeller the Secretary's visit to the Homans property, Sieur de Monts Spring, and carriage road stops at the gatehouses. "He fully approves the plans and feels you are undertaking a work of very great importance to the park and to the people who fdor generations will visit and enjoy the park." (June 1, 1935. RAC. III.2.I. B. 84. f. 835) The formal status of Rockefeller's March donation proposal remains in doubt until late July when he receives "an approved map .intended to represent a full acceptance and approval of your magnanimous proposal." Acceptance of the proposal does not signal Rockefeller's withdrawal from the development of Acadia National Park. The Rockefeller roadway from San Beach to the former radio station site will be in use by the Summer of 1937 whereas progress on road extension to its intended termination at the Seal Harbor highway requires congressional appropriations. The only remaining part of the loop road incomplete is from Cadillac DORR1931 Page 21 of 24 Mountain through Sieur de Monts Spring to Sand Beach. Under the terms of the agreement, Rockefeller is permitted to use his own funds and construction organization to advance his interests. (July 25, 1935. ANPA. B. 14. f. 11; October 1, 1935 Rockefeller to Cammerer. RAC. III. I. B. 86. f. 845. as of October 1, 1935 the agreement had not been finalized due to ongoing map revisions) Late July and August would prove to be a very stressful period for Dorr, not only because of continuing uncertainties regarding his eyesight but because of the aftermath of another inspection visit by Arno Cammerer as well as decisions made in Washington during his absence from Bar Harbor. Camererer wrote to Dorr about a number of problems that when addressed by the Superintendent would "prevent future criticism of our operations." Dorr was too experienced to believe in such naivete, and wondered at the breadth of his superiors mind when Cammerer yet again focused on matters of small concern: the selling of "cheap grade of curios" at the Cadillac Summit teahouse, overcrowding of automobiles in the public camp ground, and the park rangers unpolished shoes. (August 14, 1935.RAC. III.2.I. B. 84. f. 835) One might understand mentioning such matters informally face to face or in a phone conversation. Yet to enter them into the park service official documentation speaks volumes about the character of their author. While Dorr is in Boston convalescing, Hadley informed him by phone that one of the two CCC camps in the Park had been recommended for closure. Believing that this was part of a general retrenchment, his ire was aroused later in August when he learned from landscape architect Peterson that he had recommended camp closure on the grounds that work was being done in the park beyond what he had authorized. To Dorr, the park was being "punished" for using the CCC in ways that benefited a larger constituency to which Peterson was indifferent. Dorr drafts a report that describes the benefits to the citizens of Maine and Mr. Rockefeller that resulted from the work by the Great Pond Camps. In an unprecedented expression of dissatisfaction, Dorr describes the landscape architect as "exceedingly difficult to work with on camp projects owing to his rare visits here and lack of any intimate understanding of our problems." Projects have been delayed because Peterson has not responded to inquiries as well as his "general tendency" to respond "project not approved", without discussion or suggestion of alternative solutions. Dorr claims that this behavior is "universally recognized" and that strong feelings about this issue have been sent by town officials "on their own initiative" to the Governor of Maine and their delegates to Congress. (See September 1935 letters from Southwest Harbor and Tremont Selectmen. ANPA. B. 2. f. 2 & 3; B. 32. f. 4) Although the documentation of the impact of Dorr's memorandum is uneven, Dorr's indignation bore fruit since the Camp contributed to major park construction projects for five more years. The August 21st passage of the Historic Sites Act confirms the NPS new role as lead federal agency for historic preservation, the most significant preservation enactment since the 1906 Antiquities Act. JDR Jr. had suggested lawyer Thomas Schneider to Interior Secretary Harold Ickes as agent to visit Europe to improve understanding of government preservation practices that resulted in a draft of preservation law for the U.S. Wilderness Society is founded for the preservation of wilderness and of wildlife. For the next ten years R.S. Yard is its most tireless lobbyist. DORR1931 Page 22 of 24 Construction on Aunt Betty's Pond, Day Mountain, and Bubble Pond roads completed. The park loop road SO well known today by repeat visitors, remained incomplete in 1935. Dorr, Rockefeller, and the federal government had different views about how to connect roadways near Sieur de Monts Spring through Bear Brook Valley and past the northern base of Champlain Mountain, instead of through the Gorge as originally planned. (Dorr reports on November 18, 1935 that federal funds have just been made available to connect the Park road to the Cadillac Summit with the entrance to Sieur de Monts Spring, removing one obstacle to a continuous Park road) Following a visit with Mrs. Rockefeller to the Schoodic, her husband sends a note of "heartiest congratulations" to Dorr on his labors there. Five days later, the Rockefellers walked Ocean Drive paths from north to south, and were "charmed with the system" completed but wondered about drainage issues and the timing for completion of the northern end of the path system. Dorr invites Rockefeller to meet with him on the Old Farm porch on August 29th, Following the usual felicities, Rockefeller likely inquired about Dorr's health, for he surely was aware of Dorr's heart attack in 1933, his 1934 leg wound that resisted healing well into 1935, and his recent glaucoma surgery. According to Dorr's account, Rockefeller was pleased with Dorr's willingness to offer his perspective in a cooperative effort to address the remaining issues. The multimillionaire was frank and direct, asking whether Dorr's executors would cooperate as well in fulfilling Rockefeller's plans. Dorr laughed and asked whether Rockefeller thought Dorr's death was imminent. He responded that it was his practice to close up his affairs every night, whereupon Dorr humorously asked whether Rockefeller did not really think that once a week would be sufficient. Failing to see the black humor of this exchange, Rockefeller was unresponsive. Surely after nearly two decades of collaboration with Dorr, he was by now surely aware of his liberality, especially when it contrasted SO starkly with Rockefeller's daily due diligence. (ANPA. B.3.f. 7) For several hours the two talked of land acquisition issues, Rockefeller "looking around to make sure that no one was within hearing." (Rockefeller's reticence about enabling the public about future Park developments persists. Dorr deposits sensitive documents with Bar Harbor attorney Serenus Rodick rather than risking their public disclosure in the Park office. See November 19, 1935 letter to Dorr and Dorr's December 30th letter to Rodick on how Rockefeller's carriage roads might best be extended to Sieur de Monts Spring without adversely impacting on the motor road. RAC. III.2. B. 110. f. 1098) & ANPA. B. 2. f. 6) When they parted each had a short list of further inquiries that required attention. (ANPA. B. 2. f.6) ECW program at Acadia administratively reorganized in order to streamline work and ensure consistent methods, Park Landscape Architect Ben Breeze (and his asst. Robert Paterson) were given direct supervision of all conservation work. (see CCC at ANP, 11). Otter Creek causeway is authorized by Congress. Twelve acres of Navy land on Otter Cliffs is exchanged for 25.9 acres on Schoodic Peninsula. Beatrix Farrand ends major involvement with carriage roads. DORR1931 Page 23 of 24 Dorr travels to Washington to ask for an enlargement of Acadia, extending its lands to the western or "backside" of Mount Desert. Permission granted, he is able to acquire tracts beyond Somes Sound on the western side of the park. A distributor in Boston receives Dorr's order for a case of his favorite beverage, Ballentine East India Pale Ale, which he long imbibed at the Somerset Club. DORR1931 Page 24 of 24 GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. BEGIN 1936 (October 29 , 2008) 1936 Compared with the level of activity of earlier decades, the years that led up to the start of war in Europe mark a reduction in Dorr's involvement in the administrative side of park management. Dorr's level of correspondence and interaction with Mr. Rockefeller declined, as did Dorr's transfer of property to him. To be sure, as park visitation increased and road access to the park expanded, Hadley and other park staff increasingly shouldered the challenges of growth. Dorr's monthly reports to Washington continued to reflect his responsibility for all managerial matters. Eight years earlier his superiors in Washington had directed him to shift responsibilities to his new assistant superintendent SO that he might keep his eyes fixed on the prize; that is, completion of major road projects, cultivation of prospective donors (especially Mr. Rockefeller), and the completion of enduring park boundaries. But the recent afflictions that he had slowly overcome also brought home the mortality theme and long delayed personal goals. Much of Dorr's life was spent in transit. Since late adolescence, the young scholar had spent years abroad in Europe and Africa, followed by canoe, trekking, carriage and train travel throughout the United States and Canada. In his middle and later years when not in Bar Harbor, his administrative life revolved around lodgings at the Cosmos Club in Washington, the University Club in New York City, and Boston's Somerset Club. In his final decade of life, Dorr is increasingly drawn to the solace of the familiar. For decades Dorr had bathed in a flat stretch of rock at the base of Dorr Point, a twenty foot high peninsula jutting from the Old Farm estate into Frenchman Bay. Using granite blocks from his quarry, Dorr had walled in a salt-water fifty foot bathing pool, leaving spaces where water could flow in and out. Dorr was invigorated by a swim before breakfast in this sheltered cove-not just when the water was temperate, but year round! (See Dorr's untitled and undated essay on Dorr Point. ANPA. B. 3. f.7) Later that morning he would return to Storm Beach Cottage-his year round residence now-to read The New York Times, or having it selectively read to him. There were letters to be dictated, books to be ordered from Globe Books in Boston, and scholarly articles to be secured from their authors. The afternoon would involve fulfilling Park office tasks and a drive through the Park, inspecting the progress of various projects. The number of days when he felt up to hiking his beloved trails became less frequent. In the evening, the tasks of re- reading, annotating, and editing the extensive Ward and Dorr family papers or composing drafts of his memoirs increasingly appealed to him- the subject matter was familiar, personal, and one piece of the larger conservation process. The preservation of the estate that had become the most familiar of his physical possession--because of its rich historical associations-was now his dominant concern. As he gathered the resources to justify the federal government acceptance of Old Farm, he turned his attention to the larger story of the Park. He had outlived most of his generation and realized that Lynam, Albright, and Rockefeller had been more prescient than he. Dorr set himself the task of preparing for publication his first-hand account of the origin and development of Acadia National DORR1936 Page 1 of 20 Park, the only cultural record of the roles of its central and minor figures during the first four decades of twentieth-century. Two letters written in the Summer of 1936 offer further evidence of his deliberate focusing of his energies. An invitation arrived at Old Farm to renew his membership in the Trustees of Public Reservations, the Massachusetts pioneer land trust that President Eliot used as a model for the Hancock County Trustees in Maine. With simply directness, Dorr responds to the Trustee Treasurer that he has "for many years now regarded myself as no longer an active or contributing member, [for] my work in Maine, of which state I long ago became a citizen, demanding all that I can give to wild life and landscape conservation." (June 11, 1936. ANPA. B.2. E.11) One month later a letter to Dr. William Jay Schiefellin, one of the original Hancock County Trustees, informs his friend that over the last two or three years he has "drawn out of all activities not connected with my National Park work," focusing instead on editing "oldtime papers" that he hopes to have published. (July 12, 1936. ANPA. 3.1.f.6) Yet the story of the park needs to be told and for several yyears Dorr had set aside unconnected short essays on its evolution. Now Dorr became more deliberate, verbally drawing on his keen command of historical details which were recited to his secretary. The memoirs are typed, read, revised, and retyped over and over. Not until 1939 will he ask the National Park Service Editor-in-Chief, Isabelle F. Story, to assess his account of the growth and development of Acadia National Park from 1901 through 1919. It would be convenient to identify this cultural concern with family and Park history as instances of withdrawal from public life, a kind of retirement after more than two decades of managing one of the premiere properties in the National Park system. Most would applaud his public service and wish him well as he faded into the landscape that mattered most to him. Yet despite the limitations imposed by age and his failing eyesight, in the eyes of associated with the Superintendent, it is still Mr. Dorr who ultimately authorizes what will and will not be done within park boundaries. The grande old man of the National Park Service endures. In publications, legislative testimony, and encounters with park visitors and officials Dorr fostered appreciation for what nature and culture provided by describing the environment as a museum. Whether the analog is sufficiently rigorous is open to argumentation, but in using this figure of speech Dorr was demonstrating his rejection of the view that the Park harbored a primitive wilderness, unaffected by the impact of culture. Park staff act as curators, explaining the exhibits to visitors who desire some integration of what their senses too often grasp piecemeal. In the advancement and dissemination of knowledge about Mount Desert and adjacent islands, several organizations were already in place-and many had Dorr to thank for their inception or early development. The Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities was a memorial to the island native American archaeological interests of physician Robert Abbe. The Isleford Museum established by Dr. William Otis Sawtelle assembled over the last decade a substantial number of documents, images, and artifacts on local Maine history, especially French and British influences. Both the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and the Jackson Memorial Laboratory employed investigators actively engaged in understanding biological processes. Yet neither DORR1936 Page 2 of 20 scientific establishment saw park visitor biological education as part of their mission-the scientific communities were their audience. For many years there had been internal and external interest in broadening the cultural and scientific interpretative services. Educational or interpretative work was begun in 1932 with the appointment of Arthur Stupka as the ranger-naturalist who provided visitor guidance services, lecture programs, and field note publications of naturalist research. As park visitation in 1936 exceeded three hundred thousand, the public increasingly expressed to Park Naturalist Maurice Sullivan and newly hired Ranger-Naturalist Paul Favour their desire for a fuller representation and explanation of the land and seascape than what was offered verbally by park staff. NPS Field Curator Ralph H. Lewis was assigned to the Park to investigate museum development and prepare a report for Washington. His findings revealed that 95 percent of park visitors did not receive guidance in understanding the many dimensions of the Park and that a "wisely placed and properly executed [park museum} will do more to solve the educational problems for Acadia than any other agency that could be established." Lewis concluded that visitors would enjoy the Park more fully since the museum proposed in his report would coordinate and synthesize the piecemeal observations of the park visitor. (R.H. Lewis. "Museum Development in Acadia National Park." September 17, 1936. Typescript. ANPA. B. 1. f. 8) Dorr points out that "the conditions of Park ownership and Park road development" have earlier made it impractical to press for the establishment of a museum that overcomes the limitations of those collections presently in place. Yet a current difficulty in executing the recommendations of Lewis lay in the fact that Lewis and Dorr were not in agreement about what Lewis called "the major Park story." He held that its subject was marine biology while Dorr's vision was larger, including the history and evolution of the island landforms and the bird and flora that make use of island resources. "The ideal situation for a museum would combine the presentation of Acadia National Park's unique marine biological field with that of its bird life, representative of its position as a prominent land-mark and feature along the ancient coast migration route of birds to northern nesting grounds as well as local, and of its plant life at the meeting point of two great regional floras." (November 14, 1936 letter to Arno Cammerer. ANPA. B. 1. f. 8; on the importance of flora, Dorr concludes in a letter to the chief of the NPS Museum Division, that he does not think " a better spot could be found for a broad and comprehensive study of the plant life history especially along our eastern coast." January 25, 1936 letter to C.P. Russell. ANPA. B. .1. f.16) Dorr recommended a site near the intersection of the Cadillac Summit and Park Loop roadways whereas Lewis recommended Otter Cove as the site for the central facility, supplemented by a branch museum atop Cadillac Mountain. This disagreement, however, was not at the key reason that the project lay dormant for the next five years. It stalled because its cost of $175,000 remained an unfunded capital expense coupled with a conviction that "several smaller decentralized units" would best serve the present and future development of the park. With the onset of the Second World War, many projects were reprioritized or dropped from the construction program. As late as 1947, Superintendent Hadley would submit a summary of the history of museum development at the Park and recommend in 1947 that " a restatement of museum objectives and long range planning should be made and approved." (March 3, 1947 to NPS Region One Director. ANPA. B. 1. f. 8) There is no surviving evidence DORR1936 Page 3 of 20 that Dorr thought that museum development was of sufficient importance for him to consider marshalling support as he had to establish the national monument in 1916 or justify road construction in 1924. On the other hand, the fate of Old Farm would be worth a similar struggle. The Park Superintendent spent the last fifteen years basking in the exclusivity of Acadia's status as the only national park east of the Mississippi. The 1934 establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Shenandoah National Park the following year was welcomed as a fulfillment of arguments Dorr used two decades earlier for conserving the unique natural environments of the eastern United States. But how would he react to an effort to establish another National Park in Maine? Appalachian Trail Conference President Myron Avery, an admiralty lawyer employed by the U.S. Maritime Commission in Washington, begins to advocate for a national park centered in the Katahdin area. This region was a prized objective of Percival Baxter, who had spent the last twenty years trying to get congressional approval for a Mount Katahdin State Park Bill. The Great Northern Paper Company owned the land and resisted Baxter's pressure until Baxter left the office of Governor. Then he initially acquired with his own funds 6,000 acres from Great Northern which he gave to the State in 1930. Avery concerns about the inadequate facilities and services provided by the State. What was needed was a strong organization that would develop lodging and food services for visitors. When Baxter was unresponsive-since he favored a wilderness enclave-Avery initiated a political effort to establishment a Katahdin region national park. (Neil Rolde. The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine's Wildlands. Gardiner: Tilsbury House, 2001. Pp. 308-311) By the Spring of 1937, Dorr's 1925 hiking companion to Katahdin's summit, Congressman Ralph Brewster, agreed to sponsor the bill in Congress. By June 1938, Congress adjourned without taking action on Brewster's bill. The force of the legislation had been undercut by several factors: hostility between Baxter and Brewster, Baxter's long term "forever wild" plans that eventually donated to the State 202,000 acres, and Brewster's opposing view that recommended the commercialization of Maine's proposed national park by introducing within the region "great hotels." " Mainers reacted negatively to the image of influential travelers in luxury accommodations akin to what Stephen Mather had developed a decade earlier at the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park. An unsympathetic Baxter reminded Mainers that his donated parkland must follow the principles established in the Adirondacks forty years earlier-the land must be kept forever wild. Those who were fearful of over development voiced their disapproval and Congress adjourned in June 1938 without acting then-or ever-on the Brewster bill. (Rohde. Ibid., pp. 309-311) Dorr sat by the sidelines and watched Avery's plans unravel though he did not live to see Baxter's acquisitions finally culminate in establishing America's third largest state park--the largest ever donated by one man. Late September brought news to Old Farm that lifted his heart. He was able to read reports of events unfolding in Cambridge, where a "gowned and hooded" gathering of scholars from the earths four corners paid homage to the institution founded by John Harvard in 1636. Unable to attend the Tercentenary of Harvard College, Dorr read that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been seated in a red velvet chair to the right of President Conant, protected from the foul weather. One of Mount Deserts DORR1936 Page 4 of 20 celebrated summer residents, Samuel Eliot Morison, delivered one of the many orations. His cousin Thomas Wren Ward was an honored guest. In a letter reminding Tom that the two of them "are the last of our generation in our Grandfather Ward's family," explaining his absence as follows: "My sight went back on me some four years since and I go nowhere now where people congregate, but my mind is as active still and interested as ever and with others to read to me my days are full. (December 23, 1936. ANPA. B.2. f.10) A few days later in September a latter was received from Mary Gosline McBride Parker, a New York publisher. She reminded him of the summer of 1925 when she was a multilingual guest in the Sea Room at Old Farm. She reminded him "of that very interesting material which you let me read and copy that summer, under the delusion that I was 'editing' it and wondered if you have ever done anything since about it." The documents in question were Ward family papers, and presently the Robert M. McBride & Company publishers is interested in them, if they are available. She reminds Dorr that "After all, you gave me my editorial start!" Dorr is pleased but informs her that these have been "put away," implying that they likely will not be seen by other eyes until after his death. (October 1, 1936. ANPA. B. 2. f. 2) On November 28th William Crowninschield Endicott, Jr. died of a sudden heart attack and Dorr caught the train to Boston. There he joined Endicott's widow to journey with her to Salem for the funeral. (December 23, 1936 letter from Dorr to Thomas Wren Ward. ANPA. B2. f. 10) Thus ended a close personal relationship with the husband of his second cousin, Marie Louise (Thoron) Endicott. That relationship flourished when the Endicott's relocated from New York to 163 Marlboro Street, Boston in 1898 where they would reside for more than four decades. Unlike Old Farm where all that is extant of the interior are photographs from a single photo-shoot and a list of estate furnishings compiled after Mr. Dorr's death, the content, incremental improvements, and culture of the Endicott home provides us with a likeness of the Boston social company kept by Dorr in the decades following his mother's death. (See Diana Whitehill Laing, "The Cushing-Endicott House: 163 Marlboro Street," Proceedings of The Bostonian Society, 1960, 15-52) of course there would be summers in Bar Harbor where the Endicott's often stayed at Old Farm. Endicott had been a Hancock County Trustee of Public Reservations for more than a decade, supporting both Dr. Abbe and Dorr in their efforts to establish the Lafayette National Park Museum of the Stone Age Period through later service as its President. In 1912 he joined Dorr as a member of the Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations prior to his service as Massachusetts Historical Society President from 1927 until his death. His influence on cultural preservation philosophy as well cannot be overstated. He served as President of the Essex Institute, and Vice-President of the Peabody Museum. As one of the original incorporators of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, he was in agreement with Dorr that "relatives and friends of older generations possessed something which would soon be lost in the changing world." (Walter Muir Whitehill. William Crowninschield Endicott. Salem: Peabody Museum, 1938p. 5) It is unlikely that any of Dorr's friends possessed as strong a sense of the importance of "historic associations.' Conveying nothing of the detached antiquarian, Endicott persuaded men and women of his generation and the next to turn over their ancestors surviving family papers, portraits, and heirlooms for study and preservation. His attentiveness to the cultural dimension of man's history was counterpoint to Dorr's commitment to the natural landscape in which that culture was expressed. DORR1936 Page 5 of 20 (An unattributed essay on the Dorr family estate at Canton was deposited in the Endicott Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society. I was able to determine Dorr's authorship of this essay and the finding aid has been modified) In the months ahead, Endicott's death would prompt Dorr to rethink his own most recent last will and testament. The June 1937 revision specified that Dorr wished to have his body cremated and his ashes spread at a location known to his executor; it also bequeathed all property-both real and personal--to his Trustees SO that they might apply his stated preferences for the redirection of his property. Approaching his 83rd birthday, Endicott's death provides telling evidence that he is among the last of that generation that had witnessed the Civil War and recalled the environment that precipitated it. It was also a generation that had embraced a Progressive philosophy that achieved unprecedented success in developing and conserving landscape and the cultural bounty open to the public museums, libraries, and diverse public places. Dorr and others had helped the public understand that even small enclaves of wildness had value not only for its own sake but also because it shaped and informed nearby communities to their advantage. While many residents of Mount Desert Island would only discern the economic benefits of the Park, a larger number took the long view and appreciated the value of conserved wildness even if many enclaves were too easily accessed by Mr. Rockefeller's roads. Despite his visual limitations, his eyesight occasionally improved to the point where he attempted to learn once again the nuances of ancient Greek. With a dictionary at hand he worked his way through Homer's Odyssey. In explaining the motivation for this demanding task, Dorr admits an unwillingness "to read [it] in translation or with the aid of others which hampers always one's full appreciation of the original, which, save in matters of artistry, one does get, I think, in its full spirit, when one works things out for oneself, gaining gradually, I read the whole Odyssey through and read it thoroughly." (Dorr Papers. B.1.f.1) He then read the Iliad and the plays of Aeschylus, benefiting from the recent secondary literature on these classics. (Gilbert Murray, husband of the daughter of the Dorr family friends, Rosalind and George Howard, the Earl of Carlisle, was held in high regard for his scholarly and still definitive study, The Rise of the Greek Epic) The words used to describe the declining years of Dorr's first philosophy professor, George Herbert Palmer, resonate with what others tell us about this last decade of Dorr's life. "When he could no longer read he had the nurse read to him. 'Let's have some more of The Odyysey,' and he would tell her just where in his translation. 'Read that.' He listened, his face alight, his great shaggy brows standing high. 'That's good! That's good! Read that again!' Who had anything to propose that was better than keeping in the presence of the great?" (Rollo Walter Brown. Harvard Yard in the Golden Years. p. 74) 1937 An upbeat article in the Bangor Daily Commercial alerts readers to the social changes that resulted in a profound changes in the Mount Desert Island life. It focuses public attention on the reticent assistant superintendent of the Park, Benjamin Hadley, crediting to him an interpretation of the passing of an era for the Island resort communities. Hadley points to the phenomenal growth in Park visitation which he expects to top a half a million visits in 1937, visitors who are attracted to the new automobile-accessible scenery along Kebo DORR1936 Page 6 of 20 Mountain and Otter Creek. He further explains that the resort community culture has fundamentally changed. Children of the wealthy millionaires no longer return to Bar Harbor to summer on the estates of their parents and grandparents-if those palatial estates have survived the wrecking ball. Buxton credits to Hadley the recognition that "a new era is at hand and this has been brought about by the development of Acadia National Park bringing in a different class of people-a well-to-do middle class which can afford to take two or three weeks or even a month's vacation in the summer They patronize our restaurants and they buy plenty of oil and gas.' In the aggregate they are described as "far better spenders than millionaires and furnish sounder substance for the growth of any community." ("Park Official Sees New Era for Mt. Desert," Bangor Daily Commercial. January 17, 1937. Pg. 4) No mention is made of Superintendent Dorr. If this irked him it would have been because the account failed to acknowledge the historic fact that the Trustees had been the original proponents of establishing land trusts-preserving the land as a public trust, democratizing American culture by opening to its citizens land formerly reserved for private use. The omission is compounded by the article's incidental allusion to John D. Rockefeller's contribution to park road development. Have we here an indication of the erosion of Dorr's centrality to daily management of the Park? That inference is not warranted though it surely is the case that in the decade since Thomas Vint became chief landscape architect for the Park, Arno Cammerer had promoted Vint's expertise in his dealings with Rockefeller. Dorr is still in the thick of decision- making. (Cammerer to Rockefeller. February 20 & 24, 1937. RAC III. B. 84. f. 835) Park archives contain a range of evidence of Dorr's commitment during 1937 to both the daily routines as well as the unanticipated but challenging aspects of park administration. For example, landscape architect Charles W. Eliot II brings to Dorr's attention the concerns of Miss Elizabeth Blaney who owned a portion of Ironbound Island and was concerned the "fire menace" that might result from cutting the wooded growth on her property. This minor matter precipitated much speculation about whether the NPS would be receptive to the donation of Ironbound Island property, whether the Trustees had a continuing interest in property donation, and how the deforestation of Ironbound through harvesting might "destroy some of the charm of the park." (A.E Demary to Charles W. Eliot II. May 29, 1937, and additional correspondence from May 12 to June 5, 1937. ANPA. B. 3. f. 7) Another instance of Dorr's continuing engagement is evident in the arrangements he took upon himself for the activities of a congressional delegation that visited the Island and its coastline in mid-June, three months after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt for his second term following a resounding election victory which no doubt pleased Dorr. Congressman Ralph Brewster, with whom Dorr climbed Mt. Katahdin in 1925, was joined by seven other members of the House Naval Affairs Committee and Senator Green of Rhode Island to inspect the island as a possible site for a naval airbase, though the article made no mention of Adolph Hitler's expansionist threats as motivation for their concern with coastal security. Oldfarm was the weekend residence for the delegation, a formidable undertaking for the Superintendent and his household staff. Dorr also had a hand in arranging events island-wide including a boat trip along the coast, a visit to Jackson Laboratory, amphibian plane flights over DORR1936 Page 7 of 20 the island, and introductions and social gatherings at many Island locations. ("Congressmen Pay Visit to Mt. Desert Island," Bar Harbor Times. June 17, 1937. A better photograph of the entire congressional party on the Oldfarm deck--the last surviving image of the Dorr estate as a center of hospitality-was published in the August 1937 issue of the Park Service Bulletin, Vol. VII. No.7) Oldfarm would not again be the nexus of such a fulsome company of this standing. A final instance of engagement-albeit of a defiant sort-involved the secretive return visit to Bar Harbor of Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, recounted in his diary. His arrival came on the heels of news of the death of Dorr's Berkshire friend, Edith Wharton. (Shari Benstock documents the efforts of Wharton's niece, Beatrix Farrand, to mount in the eyes of some a distasteful legal challenge against her aunt's right to leave a life trust to someone outside the family; her success was based on correspondence from Edith to Beatrix which the court ruled justified Beatrix as the sole beneficiary. No Gifts from Chance: A Biography of Edith Wharton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994. Pgs. 456-61) The Secretary had planned to spend two weeks on MDI, residing in the Homans House at Great Head which the park service made available to official guests. According to Ickes' diary, Dorr had been asked by his NPS superiors to keep the Secretary's presence quiet SO that he could work on his political memoirs, The Autobiography of a Curmudgeon. (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943) . Instead, Ickes targets Dorr as the source of the leak that resulted in coverage in the Bar Harbor Times. "However, I haven't had it in my heart to take Mr. Dorr to task. He is eighty-four years old and when I called on him Wednesday [August 25th] afternoon at his home, I found him to have little use of his eyes. During the last couple of years he has been operated on for glaucoma and he also has the beginning of a cataract. I must say that he is gallant about it all. (The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes. Vol. 2. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953. Pgs. 202-203) The Secretary notes that when he visited two years earlier, Dorr was rereading his Greek classics in the original while now he is dependent on others to read to him. Nonetheless, Ickes enters into the privacy of his diary his own "sin of envy whenever I am in Mr. Dorr's house. He has such beautiful things in the way of furniture and dishes and ceramics, especially dishes, that my mouth literally waters. Ickes removes any inference that Dorr has been in active pursuit of his own largess, pointing out that most furnishings are the legacy from former generations. Dorr admits to Ickes that he did not know what was to the fate of these "real treasures." Implicitly, Ickes regards Dorr as the authentic treasure for "he is of Harvard and he was a close friend of the late President Eliot, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and others with a distinct intellectual and social background.. man of real culture [with] no impairment of his intellectual vigor. (The Secret Diary of Harold Ickes, Vol. 2. Pg. 203) Before the secretary returned to Washington on September 10th, Ickes toured the Island with Rockefeller and on no fewer than three occasions was the Rockefeller's dinner guest. At their Seal Harbor property Ickes admired the Eyrie furnishings and marveled at the "the enormous amount of money that must have been spent" on the gardens, an impression of current affluence that Ickes nowhere associates with Oldfarm. (Two years later Trustee Richard M. Hale would accuse the Secretary of impropriety. In a lengthy personal attack he faulted Ickes for using the Homans House for his "private enjoyment" and to the exclusion of the public that always had access under the Homans ownership to nearby Anemone Cave. DORR1936 Page 8 of 20 Hale did little to keep this matter from Dorr, Rockefeller, and other Interior Department officials. RAC III.2.1 B. 79. E.795; similarly, Hale's negativity-here directed at Dorr--will express itself in his efforts to manipulate the selection of new Hancock County Trustees. September 22, 1939 letter to E.K. Dunham. HCTPR Archives. File 2682-A) His diary records as well his impressions of Rockefeller family members, recounting anecdotes of Rockefeller speaking of his father's influence on him. More SO at this time since the family patriarch had died on May 23rd and the sharing of paternal recollections was his way of adjusting to this new state of affairs. As the winter holidays approached, the publication of Samuel A. Eliot's partial compilation of the history of the Trustees reminded readers of the local paper of the magnitude of the environmental concept that within two decades resulted in the establishment of a unique National Park, a gift from those who sought to preserve the splendors of the Island for future generations. Reverend Eliot's brief record acquainted a new generation of summer residents, year round locals, and tourists with the motives for this land trust, its key movers, and the donors whose gifts are now well recognized park landmarks. A full history containing documentation for properties acquired will appear two years later but for the time being it attempted to offset local dismissal of the Trustee achievement with an extract from the Great Smokey Mountains National Park historian, Edward P. Moses: "They started something, which has already gone from the coast of Maine to the Shenandoah Valley; over the Great Smokies; as far west as California, and is now calling for the dominion of two thousand square miles in my home state-the so-called Land of Flowers. For my part, I can recall no such triumphant march of an idea (whether good or bad) in the history of this country since the Armistice." (Bar Harbor Times. November 11, 1937) Six days shy of his eighty-fourth birthday, Dorr sends a letter of support to Rcckefeller for two hundred dollars to produce for the Jesup Library and the Park office several copies of the research findings of National Park Service geologist George H. Chadwick. Endorsements of this sort directed at Mr. Rockefeller were most uncommon-and yet effective. Several years later when Chadwick came calling again for funding, Rockefeller recalled that "I made the initial pledge only at Mr. Dorr's request and not because of any particular interest on my part.' Holiday "gifts" of this sort were appreciated by the aging Boston Brahmin as he listened to the words read to him from the newest publication received from the Old Globe Bookstore. For many decades, the famous Boston bookstore had supplied Dorr with requested titles. These were not easy works to absorb as a listener for included were historical works by Alfred Zimmern, Robert Maynard Hutchings Higher Learning in America, and Bliss Perry's And Gladly Teach, each addressing interests that had been with him since childhood. (Park archives contain copies of Dorr's correspondence with the vendor, many dating from the years when his vision was failing). 1938 A Superintendents' Conference held in the Interior Building, Washington, D.C., in late January. Despite Director Cammerer's instructions to park leadership staff that their participation was expected, Dorr was absent. to attend. In his final years of life, Dorr followed a well known human pattern of being increasingly occupied with events in his personal history. He knew that this pattern had its exceptions, most notably President Eliot who recalled four years before his death that he saw "no DORR1936 Page 9 of 20 way of writing any autobiographical paper, sketch, or memorandum To do such work would be repulsive to me. Several times of late I have written some accounts of my boyhood and youth but I rather wish that I had never written them." (July 19, 1922 letter to Jerome D. Greene. Henry James. Charles W. Eliot. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930. Vol. 2., pg. 302) Nonetheless, Dorr's reminiscing over the last several years led to compilation of lists of interesting personal experiences, a chronological development of the Park development with inquiries about related details directed to friends, followed by oral dictation and eventually the editing of written drafts. (Typical of such inquiries is his March 13, 1939 request to fellow Hancock County Trustee Richard Hale regarding the Black family and the beginnings of the Woodlawn Museum. HCTPR Archives. 2.1.A.1) This past winter Dorr drafted an essay on the "Country Home at Canton," the surviving memoirs that reaches furthest back to his childhood. The product of a May 1933 visit with the Endicott's to Canton, drafting the essay was more urgent following the recent death of his dear friend, William C. Endicott Jr. (See the diaries and engagement books of Mrs. Endicott for an indication of the Canton visit, May 7, 1933. Massachusetts Historical Society. Endicott Family Papers. Louisa T. Endicott Papers, 1863-1958. B. 32. f. 12; authorship of these ten incomplete typescript pages contained in the Endicott Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society was previously not known. My discovery of content and stylistic markers, however, convinced Society staff to acknowledge Dorr as its author) Dorr recalls events that transpired seventy-five years earlier, demonstrating anew his reputation for having at his command phenomenal powers of recall. If Dorr had not established a lifelong reputation for consistency in the retelling of experiences, we might dismiss the essay content as the fruit of an overactive imagination. The plan of his grandmother's home is described and lavish attention is given to the estate gardens, especially the bounty derived from the orchards that his grandfather had planted in the years before his death in 1858. As a youthful naturalist, Dorr collected abandoned bird eggs and nests, wandered graveyards, and explored the Naponsett Valley and the foothills of the Blue Hills to the north. From Dorr's perspective, Canton provided his first "great education," how to "love the country and the wilderness about us without the need of company." Coming full circle after a very social existence as Acadia's steward, Dorr's final years will increasingly resonate with the desire for the solitariness of his summers in Canton. (Massachusetts Historical Society. Endicott Family Papers. B. 35. f. 29) Such preoccupation did not go unnoticed. To be sure Assistant Superintendent Hadley by default took on additional decision-making responsibilities and increasingly represented the Park in public settings. But Mr. Rockefeller and NPS officials in Washington also took note and though the authorization for action is unclear, former NPS Director Horace M. Albright agreed to visit Oldfarm in late June. While the recent annexation of Austria by Germany and other political issues of growing concern were surely discussed, Albright more pressing local concerns foremost on his mind. As vice-president of the United States Potash Company, Albright had undertaken a similar "inspection" visit in 1934 when Rockefeller became increasingly impatient about the status of Dorr's plans for disposing of his property. (August 31, 1934. RAC. III.2.I B. 110. f. 1099) Four years later it appeared that progress was stalled though there were two issues that constrained the park superintendent. One constraint involved the mortgages on his properties resulting from investment loses DORR1936 Page 10 of 20 incurred during the Great Depression. The other issue was Dorr's insistence that the Government must assure him that the Oldfarm and nurseries tract of land inherited from his parents "would be permanently secure in its wild beauty and kept open for the public. {since this] has been the purpose inspiring me in all the work that I have done throughout for the Park's creation and extension. (Dorr to Cammerer. December 3, 1937. RAC. III.2.1 f. 1152) This consummate concern for the fate of Dorr's most cherished physical possession will dominate his thinking in the years ahead. Only Albright recognized its importance when he arrives at Oldfarm six months later to assess Mr. Dorr physical condition, his lands, and their relationship to the completion of Rockefeller's roadways. Albright's eight-page report affords us exceptional insight into matters about which Dorr is understandably silent. "In the first place, let me say that I found Superintendent George B. Dorr in poor health. He is almost totally blind. It is a mystery how he manages to get around his house, and up and down stairs as well as he does. He is growing thinner. He has angina pectoris, and the presence of this coronary trouble was confirmed recently by a Boston heart specialist. It is causing him some serious discomfort and at night rather serious sweating, which breaks up his sleep. His associates believe him to be in a rather serious state, and I think he himself regards his own condition as quite hopeless. Two or three times he told me that he would not be here long, and might go at any moment. Another time he humorously referred to having his valise packed." (June 27, 1938. RAC. III.2.I. B. 114. f. 1152) In a discussion at Storm Beach cottage that ran well into the early hours of the following morning, Albright found Dorr's affairs "in good shape" despite his $46,000 mortgage with income limited to his annual salary of $3,000. His inheritance by this time was totally gone due to implied devaluation of his New England securities investments (such as Amoskeag Mills) To be sure, he recently received $100,000 for the sale of the Great Meadows to Rockefeller, yet Albright thinks that "it is probably true that he used some of that money to buy other lands for the park [making] further sacrifices out of his own funds to facilitate land acquisition [for the Park] in the western part of the Island." Through conversations and paper documents the property holdings and their respective mortgages were identified. Albright recommended-surely with Rockefeller's own objectives in mind-which holdings should be liquidated and at what cost. While no mention is made of a last will and testament, "it seems clear that Mr. Dorr has made arrangements for the disposition of everything he has upon his death, and [if the mortgages are liquidated] everything goes to the public." The George B. Dorr Foundation was established-Trustees Serenus Rodick and Ben Hadley at the helm-to "administer Oldfarm, the homes, antiques, books, fine glassware, and other heirlooms, which Mr. Dorr has. The income, if any, will be used to print a history of the park, and other essays and papers that he has prepared." After several hours reviewing these "voluminous" manuscripts, Albright characterizes them as "well prepared' and "very interesting." Dorr makes provisions for the management of the Mount Desert Nurseries, but Albright recognizes that these lands and others would likely have to be sold to liquidate Dorr's indebtedness. Albright proposes to discuss with his successor the government acquisition of several of Dorr's properties, proposing that if a sponsor would step forward with $25,000 "to be matched dollar per dollar by the Government. [this would] at once free the lands for the right-of-way" that Rockefeller has been SO DORR1936 Page 11 of 20 earnestly seeking to extend his loop road. Somewhat facetiously to be sure, Albright asks whether Rockefeller would "want to consider taking control of the situation by buying the mortgages hopes that Rockefeller will or whether you would prefer to let the whole matter stand The great danger in delay is, of course, that Mr. Dorr may not live until the end of the summer. Dorr survived this summer and five more, surprising Albright and Director Cammerer with whom Albright had shared the report prepared for Mr. Rockefeller. Cammerer had not been very encouraging regarding the availability of funds but as his suggestion the "Acadia problems" were brought by Albright to the Secretary Ickes' attention. Four days after his initial lengthy report, Albright updated Rockefeller and emphasized again that "never before have I been SO certain that there is danger of losing Mr. Dorr before we can get things straightened out." (July 1, 1938. RAC III. 2. I. B. 84. .835) Rockefeller's self-described "cold blooded" response was that "the Dorr houses, their contents, the surrounding lands and nurseries" should be sold, the monies derived therefrom after paying the debts of the estate to be used for the other purpose of the Dorr Foundation upkeep of the Wild Gardens of Acadia. (Worthwhile Places: Correspondence of John D. Rockefeller and Horace M. Albright. Ed. Joseph W. Ernst. New York: Fordham University Press, 1991. Pgs. 175-178) Despite the fact that "everyone who knows Mr. Dorr loves him," these houses will only have value "in proportion to their intrinsic merit," not because Dorr once owned this land. A cadre of landscape historians, however, would find themselves in disagreement with Rockefeller's thesis that the stature of a property owner does not confer preservation value on said property. By mid-September, Ben Hadley successfully urged Dorr's attorney Serenus Rodick to discuss with his client his willingness to sell certain properties. According to Rockefeller, Dorr found it impossible to keep his mind on the subject at hand, or else he was not interested to do SO. Several days later the impatient philanthropist stated that he found it "difficult not to be a bit irritated to think that with all Mr. Dorr's assurances about this property, now that we really want it, he, the superintendent of the park, is holding up the project." (September 16, 1938 letter to Albright. Ibid. Pg. 181) Repeated efforts on the part of the Rodick attorneys broke the impasse. Dorr agreed to transfer property directly to the Government or through Rockefeller when the latter paid a portion of Dorr's "indebtedness amounting to ten thousand five hundred dollars." (December 1 & 13, 1938. RAC III.2 114. f. .1152) After years of effort, Rockefeller's philanthropy made possible "the continuation of the Sieur de Monts Spring Road to the Schooner Head Road, without crossing over any land other than that of the Government." Even though no progress had been made on the preservation of Oldfarm, at years end Rockefeller could write to Secretary Ickes that with this acquisition, only the property owned by the Chicago financier, Potter Palmer, remains as an obstacle to completion of the construction of the motor road circuit known today as the Loop Road. (December 15, 1938. RAC. III.2.I B. 86. f. 845) For the last several weeks of the year while Rockefeller and the Deasy, Lynam, Rocdick & Rodick attorneys were awash in deeds and land transfer issues, Dorr worked on his memoirs. He dictated new first drafts, revised earlier ones, and expanded his thoughts on his travels abroad beginning in 1871 and continued through 1875. The Dorr Papers contain nearly a dozen fragmentary variants revolving around the same theme, the search for his father's Puritan ancestors. Relying on the memory of DORR1936 Page 12 of 20 events more than sixty years earlier, Dorr recalls his travels in England with his parents and brother in pursuit of genealogical information regarding the progenitor, Edward Dorr. He states confidently that Dorset and Dorsetshire were the location from which Edward Dorr migrated to America, "as one of a group banded together to seek new opportunity across the sea." (December 5, 1938. B. 1., f. 2) There is no indication throughout of the source of these historic claims and there is no evidence that these editorial efforts yielded an acceptable final version. 1939 Yet having passed another milestone, Dorr informs attorney Serenus Rodick that "in case anything should happen to me unexpectedly, by night or day, I have made plans, carefully thought out, for my last resting place at the long journey's end." He informs his attorney that three park staff, including Ben Hadley, are working on the grounds and in due course these plans will be in Rodick's hands. (January 5, 1939. ANPA B.1. .10; unfortunately, this promised documentation has not survived) Related inquiries are sent to Mount Auburn Cemetery regarding the Dorr Family Plot, including Dorr's 1937 payment for a headstone for Elizabeth Hind the Welch family caretaker for the Dorr children prior to her death in 1879. Similarly, Dorr exchanges several letters with Mount Auburn Cemetery regarding gravesite plantings for the Dorr family plot, road and rail transportation for his body, cremation, and the options for the containment and return to Maine of his ashes. Earlier personal inattention to the gravesite does not mean that Dorr has forgotten the character of the family plot as we see from the draft of an undated letter wherein he approves certain plantings. He shows remarkable retention of horticultural details from his youth when Vinca minor prospered "under proper care on either side of my grandmother's porch at her summer home in Canton, facing south... situation not dissimilar to that of our lot at Mt Auburn [and] at the time my father purchased the lot [1876] and constituting partly the reason for its choice there grew at its head two good-sized butternut trees, Juglans cinerea, native to the spot.' (ANPA. B. 1. f. 11) The Superintendent suggests the introduction of Juniper as background to mark and protect the memorials. (Mount Auburn Cemetery. Historical Collections. # 4474, Letters of January 4 & 13, 1939) Yet another indication of Dorr's attentiveness to an uncertain future, is his forthrightness in sharing with others his own uncertainties about his abilities. In a letter regarding concession practices of the Acadia Corporation, Dorr's admits that his command of detail is no longer immediate and spontaneous but increasingly dependent on an associated context. "Experience has taught me not to trust too confidently in my own recollection of things said and done, whether they be remote or near. So much, too, depends upon what I would call the context, the way things come up and all that has bearing upon what is said and done." (Dorr to David Rodick. April 12, 1939. Sieur de Monts: Acadia National Park. Draft Document. 1999. ANPA) On the heel of these developments, Rockefeller makes a similar point when the park superintendent called into question an expansion of concession services. Established five years earlier, the Acadia Corporation had very recently extended its facilities into so-called hallowed ground, Sieur de Monts Spring. Dorr had "no recollection of discussing with anyone or having the matter brought before me of the setting up of a gift and souvenir counter in the pump room at the DORR1936 Page 13 of 20 Spring {and] I recall clearly my feeling of surprise at finding such a counter set up and in active operation when I returned from the hospital in Boston." (Ibid) He further recalls that Cammerer had agreed that the Spring and other sites should be outside the scope of the corporation. Dorr pointed no accusing finger, made no threats as park administrator, and fired off to Washington no letter stating that the concession was in violation of the intents of the Director. Instead, Rockefeller took the initiative informing Cammerer that because of public demand and red ink, this new facility-and one at Thunder Hole--was set up. "I feel confident that Mr. Dorr had agreed to them and then forgotten." What makes this claim suspect is the lack of corroboration, a persuasive strategy common to Rockefeller's dealings with the National Park Service. (April 27,1939. RAC. III.2.I.B.62.f.619) Cammerer's response is direct and forcefully, a rare instance where Rockefeller ate crow. Indeed, his policy statement contrasts the struggle that persists to this day between a profit motivated corporation using public demand as a rationale to extend its presence and on the other hand the Park organic mandate "to keep sacred and free from intrusion" areas of special significance. (April 27, 1936. RAC. III.2.I B. 62. f. 619) Sensitive to the fact that land acquisition has withdrawn property from the local tax base, Cammerer informs David Rodick as well that services should not be installed in the park that "could better or equally be met at the nearby small towns." Having spent several days earlier in mid-April at Old Farm discussing the matter with Dorr, Cammerer stoped short of issuing a directive to have the service areas removed. He finalizes the letter by discrediting Rockefeller's red ink claim, noting that the Acadia Corporation consistently earned annual profits since its inception. In the weeks ahead Acadia would be among the least of Director Cammerer's concerns. On May 1st he suffered a severe coronary thrombosis which Horace Albright attributes in part to the severe strain of his position. (May 3, 1939 to Rockefeller. RAC. B. 52. f. 380) The months ahead would be difficult for the recovering Director and this recent visit to Oldfarm would prove to be his last. During their visits together in late Summer, Rockefeller revealed to Dorr that he thought that of all his sons it would be Nelson who would "take permanent interest in the work that we have done together here." Dorr then offered a 150-year-old eight foot high Sheridan clock to adorn the former Seal Harbor home of Commander Crowninshield recently purchased for the newly married Nelson. After explaining the lengthy history of the clock, Dorr emphasizes that "as my journey ends this gift shall find place with the on-coming generation and carry on to it, and others still, the memory of the Park's formation in the days before it was. In accepting the gift, Rockefeller adds that Dorr should be satisfied "to reflect upon the immense contribution you have made to the permanent development of this Island and to its protection and preservation for the enjoyment of all the people! You have done a wonderful piece of work. No one knows better than I do how important it is and how unselfishly you have given of your time, your thought, your strength, and your means to the accomplishment of the desired ends. I rejoice in what you have done and am proud to have been your silent partner in some phases of the work." (September 9 & 15, 1939 correspondence. RAC III.2.I B. 85. f.840) Even as matters deteriorated in Europe with Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia, Dorr's management of his own territory was being called DORR1936 Page 14 of 20 into question. Following the accidental death of new park ranger Karl Jacobson the preceding November, his widow initiated complaints about the administration of the park. Recently married, Mrs. Jacobson accepted the fact that her husband was shot by a hunter who mistook him for a deer. She sought legal counsel stating that Ranger Jacobson knew of corrupt park practices, "Rangers seldom on duty, laxity to prosecute poaching cases, [and] neglect of duties by officials in charge of the park." Joyce Jacobson claimed that since her husband was "the only ranger constantly on duty," the alleged administrative laxity "indirectly caused my husband's untimely death To Karl, the administrating of Acadia National Park was the highest example of how a park ought not be administered." (J. Jacobson to Senator Henrik Shipstead, March 24, 1939. NARA. RG79. CCF 1933-1949. Acadia. Box 795; see also January 28, 1939 letter from attorney Charlotte Parrish alleging that park service staff were poaching, that park cabins were used for illegal purposes, and that much government time was spent on personal matters) Following an immediate investigation by an official dispatched from the Director's office and apparently finding no substantiation of the charges, Cammerer wrote to her legal counsel and asked for documentation of irregularities which was not forthcoming. Whether grief motivated his widow's action, those within the service that were aware of the issue likely gossiped and took sides regarding the merits of these unprecedented charges against the Dorr and Hadley administration. As the decade closes, Rockefeller offers additional land to the government, an offer that he had spoken about to Dorr several months earlier. (Dorr to Cammerer. January 10, 1940. RAC III. B.115. f.1154) One parcel makes it feasible to construct a new approach to the park motor road system, the Hull's Cove entrance used by most visitors to this day. Director Cammerer asks Dorr to present the proposal to the Bar Harbor selectmen at the annual meeting next March since the plan included a transfer of authority over Eagle Lake Road to the National Park Service, a highly sensitive proposal. (Dorr to Rockefeller. December 9, 1939; Rockefeller to Serenus Rodick. January 12, 1940. RAC III.2 f. Another parcel included one of the Atterbury-designed entrances to carriage road system, Jordan Pond Gate House; the proposal also included the Jordan Pond House and the associated concession issues related to the McIntire family who built the restaurant and operated it for decades. (See Ann Rockefeller Roberts. Mr. Rockefeller's Roads. Camden: Downeast Books, 1990. Pgs. 123-126) Officials in Washington were concerned that Dorr might erroneously "get the impression that [Horace Albright has] come here to Washington and made movements which might be construed by him as circumventing or ignoring him." (February 3, 1940. Albright to Rockefeller. RAC. III.2.I B.115. f.1154) While Rockefeller and Park officials discussed the language of the Bar Harbor warrant article, Interior Department officials worried about whether they could secure congressional approval for the development and maintenance costs associated with Rockefeller's proposed gifts. After all, America's involvement in the war in Europe seemed inevitable to many. The Commonwealths declared war following the invasions of Poland by German and Soviet forces and federal funds were already being redirected to preparations for this global threat. 1940 As Spring approached, Bar Harbor received news from Portland of the death of Leure B. Deasy (1859-1940), the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine. A few years younger than Dorr, a full DORR1936 Page 15 of 20 appreciation for the support Dorr's friend and legal counsel offered is difficult to assess based on the documentation that has survived. In 1884 as the Dorr's were becoming acclimated to Bar Harbor, Deasy opened an office and later partnered from 1905 to 1918 with the recently deceased A.H. Lynam. Deasy's importance to the development of Acadia National Park is reflected in no small part to his service as director and treasurer of the Lafayette National Park Museum of Stone Age Antiquities and later President of the Abbe Museum until his retirement in 1936. Moreover, as one of the original incorporators of the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, he became its President on the death of Charles W. Eliot in 1926 and served in that office until the end of his life. Trustee minutes contain a memorial statement that stressed his role as "a pioneer in the movement for the preservation of [Mount Desert Island's] unique beauty, and the conservation of its shores and mountains for the enjoyment of the whole people." (August 1940. Roscoe C.E. Browne Appreciation. Anne Funderburk Collection. Seal Harbor, ME) With Deasy's death, Dorr felt greater urgency to put to paper the many personal experiences that he carried thus far in his memory. Scores of topics were identified and listed. Some received expanded essays but most remain as uninitiated work, descriptors that are highly suggestive of experiences that will ever elude the biographer. Among the undeveloped topics was an account of canoeing in New England waters, others on rowing and sailings, Newport in the early days, Palm Sunday and Easter in Rome, old Etruscan cities, a solar eclipse in Hot Springs (AK), Marion Crawford, geological history of Campagna, Ernest Bowditch and his excursion to the Isle au Haut, and Tilton's sketch of Miss Emerson. ("Notes on Matters to Tell About." Typescript. Dorr Papers. B. 1.f.13) But such notations raise a host of problems. If we seize upon one topic, "Tilton's sketch of Miss Emerson," what can be inferred? Can we assign a date for this theme based on Dorr's possible reaction to the 1939 Columbia University Press publication of The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Rusk and Eleanor Tilton? Since Lydia and Ralph Waldo Emerson had what Dorr frequently called "historical associations" with Ward family members, could Dorr have intended to modify some incompleteness or inaccuracy in the Rusk-Tilton analytical apparatus regarding Ellen Tucker Emerson? Unless new relevant manuscripts are unearthed, such questions remain unanswerable. Fortunately, one topic that was brought to fruition at this time was Dorr's eight-page essay on a unique diary that documented "the beginning of Mount Desert social life!" More than two dozen family members and acquaintances of the New York attorney Charles Tracy, included the celebrated Hudson River School artist Frederic Church, spent a month on the Island in 1855. With one exception, public awareness of the existence of this cultural experience was not known until 1932 when the author's daughter donated the original to the library named after her husband, J. Pierpont Morgan. Actually, Dorr was the first to draw the attention of a larger public to Tracy's diary in an article he wrote for the most widely read publication of the Appalachian Mountain Club. ("Our Seacoast National Park," Appalachia 15 (1920) : 174-181) Two decades later he wrote a fuller account for those who made use of Bar Harbor's Jesup Memorial Library, situating the visit of these pioneer summer residents within a fuller historical context. Dorr's contribution in preparing this copy of the diary and his later essay received little attention for a half century until the Mount Desert DORR1936 Page 16 of 20 Island Historical Society published an edition of The Tracy Log, in anticipation of the 150 anniversary of its creation. Therein, its editor faulted Dorr for the selective deletion of what she determined to be objectionable words and phrases, undermining "the humanity of the diarist and the realities of his world." (The Tracy Log Book: 1855. Ed. Anne Mazlish. Mount Desert: Mount Desert Historical Society, 1998. Pg. 21; editorial criticism should be voiced within a broader appreciation of Dorr's larger cultural purposes, to bring readers to the diary) For the last few years as European politics created growing uncertainty about continuance of domestic programs, CCC projects on Mount Desert Island were undertaken with an increasing sense that this exceptional benefits of this unprecedented workforce might soon end. The earlier work of the CCC in the Sieur de Monts Spring area now turned to construction of the circular access route that visitors use to this day. Park architects had not used this labor to modify the natural and cultural landscape to conform to a European or Asian prototype, although the two gatehouses commissioned by Rockefeller had their French inspiration. Independent of Vint and his colleagues, correspondence between Dorr and Rockefeller show that they were jointly exploring alternative formulations of the Acadian style which drew from the varied styles applied by village improvement societies and associations between 1890 and 1910. (James Moreia, P. Dean, and K. Champney. The Civilian Conservation Corps at Acadia National Park. Orono: Maine Folklife Center, 2002. Pp. 93-94) Finally, the CCC camp at Southwest Harbor is ordered closed while the McFarland continued for the time being. For nine years this ANP force of as many as 600 men was available year round to work under the direction of park architects and foresters. Regarding the CCC era: "They developed, restored, and improved trails, beautified the park's roads and public areas, constructed new facilities and upgraded old ones, helped reduce fire hazards, improved waterways, managed pest infestation, and many other valuable tasks" as a large and steady workforce on a scale unthinkable under normal circumstances. (CCC at ANP, 83) . "Roosevelt's Tree Army carried forward the vision of park development that had emerged earlier with the VIA's, emphasizing aesthetics. Several months after the death of Judge Deasy, Dorr received news of the passing of an immediate relative to whom he had the closest relationship since his mother's final days. In mid-July the New York Times announced the death in Boston of banker Thomas Wren Ward (1844-1940), Dorr's first cousin, the son of his mother's brother, Samuel Gray Ward and Anna Barker Ward. (July 19, 1940, pg. 24) The boy who had lived with Ralph Waldo Emerson's family while he prepared for Harvard at the Sanborn School later became a close friend of William James-as had Dorr. (There were biological ties as well since Ward's mother was the sister of William H. Barker, the husband of Jeanette James, the aunt of William James) So too, Ward coped with the isolation of his deafness-as Dorr struggled with the consequences of stammering. (See the recollections of Ward's secretary, Margaret Snyder, in "The Other Side of the River,' Thomas Wren Ward, 1844-1940," New England Quarterly 14, #3 (1941) 423-436) Celebrated as Harvard's oldest alumnus, in his final years he participated in the Harvard Tercentenary and continued to collaborate with Dorr on editing and annotating family papers not published four decades earlier. With his passing, no family members of Dorr's generation remained. (The Jamaica Plains daughter with whom Ward had lived for several decades, Elizabeth Ward Perkins, later requested permission for placement of a Mount Auburn DORR1936 Page 17 of 20 Cemetery memorial to her father. Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collection, #235.) Two weeks earlier, President Franklin Roosevelt received from Dorr a brief letter of support for his handling of the "difficult and complicated problems of our time during these last seven years." Now on the heels of Tom's death, Dorr sends Roosevelt another letter containing an exceptional proposal that will preoccupy him in its many stages for the next eighteen months. Simply put, Dorr offers his family home and its furnishings as a gift to the United States. After donating natural lands to the federal government, the Oldfarm philanthropist now offers a cultural landscape. While discussing the suitability of ample grounds available for use by officials working for the President, this gift is clearly intended to be "a summer home for the National Executive." (August 1, 1940. ANPA. B. 4. f.1) This carefully crafted offer of the possession dearest to his heart raises a host of questions about Dorr's motivations and expectations. Did Dorr seek counsel from friends and attorney David Rodick before make the offer? Did he weigh the timing of the offer, expecting that the President would be more or less inclined to accept the offer with a Presidential election--for his unprecedented third term-a mere three months distant? What portion of the estate was offered? Did he see himself administering the Park and managing the Mount Desert Nurseries from his new permanent residence at Storm Beach Cottage? While none of these questions can be answered with any degree of confidence, the foremost issue not being alluded to in Dorr's proposal is the attachment that Roosevelt felt for Hyde Park and Warm Springs, Georgia. For more than two decades he visited the spa community, hopeful that the warm mineral waters would improve his paralysis. The spacious thirty-six room mansion at Hyde Park had family associations surely known to Dorr. Must we infer that Dorr's proposal was at best unrealistic, if not ill-conceived? Twelve years earlier he had offered Oldfarm as a summer residence to President and Mrs. Coolidge, yet now the property is an outright gift to the federal government for use by the Chief Executive. Three weeks later President Roosevelt declined the offer. He knew of "no provision of law which would authorize me to accept it for the purpose you mention." The President pointed out that Dorr's property could be "accepted by the Secretary of the Interior as part of Acadia National Park. with the understanding that it be made available for use by the President and his principal executive officers.' (Franklin D. Roosevelt. August 21, 1940. ANPA. B. 4. f. 1) It is implausible to think that Dorr was unaware of this option after nearly a quarter-century of leadership within the National Park Service. It is tempting to view the entire scenario was a ruse to provide Dorr with leverage in realizing his larger goals. With the President weighing in the merits of the offer, Dorr improved his chances of convincing the National Park Service to accept his land, renounce any claim on property contiguous with Storm Beach Cottage, secure the Park office at its Main Street location while reimbursing Dorr for his personal expenses in establishing and maintaining it. He had reason for concern given the NPS administrative transitions taking place that summer. The June 19th resignation of NPS Director Arno Cammerer created uncertainty about future leadership. So too, there was the usual pre-election apprehension about continuity within the Interior Department after the November election. DORR1936 Page 18 of 20 Dorr followed Roosevelt's lead but rather than waiting for the leadership issues to sort themselves out, he immediately asked Horace Albright for assistance in going over "the details of the matter with me SO that the original purpose of the gift be carried out as fully as well as conditions may permit.' (Undated two-page typescript. ANPA. B.3.f.7) Later drafts insist that Dorr retain ownership of Storm Beach Cottage and adjacent structures and land for his personal use as a place of work and study while he lives, reserving the right to dispose of the land in his will as he wishes. In recent years Dorr's financial concerns made him more inclined to lease Old Farm during the summer season, relocating to Storm Beach Cottage, the other modest three acre adjacent residence which his parents built in 1878-79 while their residence was under construction. White House interest in Dorr's offer might be useful as National Park Service officials adjusted to the late August appointment of their new Director, Newton B. Drury. Since 1916, Dorr had reported to only three superiors: Mather, Albright, and Cammerer. (Until his death on May 1, 1941, Arno Cammerer was in charge of the eastern national parks and like Horace Albright valued as a Interior Department resource) At 86 years of age, Dorr was the eldest of the serving park superintendents, the grand old man of the system. How would Dorr and Drury fare in their dealings with one another? How would Drury respond to Dorr's efforts to educate him about the distinctive problems faced by a landscape quite different from the Drury's familiar environment? Dorr certainly was impressed with Drury's conservationist track record, having served for two decades as Secretary of the Save-the-Redwoods League. Established in 1918, this conservation organization conserved the ancient forests along the Northern California-Oregon coast from encroachment. Drury had served that organization well but he would encounter resistance from some NPS staff since unlike his predecessors he lacked national park credentials. Within ten days of his appointment, he sent notified Dorr to erect gateways-that could prohibit traffic-at park entrances, a response to Rockefeller's request that this be accomplished as part of a larger effort to improve public awareness of park boundaries. (August 14, 1940. Rockefeller to Cammerer; August 30, 1940. Newton Drury to Dorr. RAC. III.2. B. 83. f. 825) Rockefeller wrote to Dorr at this time that he was "quite heartbroken" that they had not visited one another that summer given the marriage of David Rockefeller and the illnesses of the elder Rockefeller's. Dorr's response expressed sorry as well and his singular description of the larger state of affairs: "I have been living, of late especially, in the great tragic drama of the world whose every passing stage comes to us SO wonderfully through the radio, which gives it an immediate reality no printed word can do. " (September 28, 1940. RAC III. 2. I. B. 85. f. 840). The next step was predictable. By early December, Dorr asked Rockefeller to evaluate the Dorr donation plans on which he and Albright had labored before Albright presented these plans in Washington later that Winter. (December 13, 1940. ANBPA. 45. f.1) Oldfarm negotiations with the federal government were hampered largely by conflicting estimations of property value and the fact that the Wild Gardens of Acadia corporation held title to the Park Avenue property. Dorr reminds those who are evaluating his proposal that his gift "carries with all the sentiment and feeling" attached to Oldfarm...traditions of hospitality and intimate to my own and my mother's and my father's lives things that one cannot buy and sell and they enter importantly, too, into relation with others' gifts of places precious to them in memory." (Undated typescript. ANPA. B.3.f.7) DORR1936 Page 19 of 20 Dorr recognizes the obvious fact that philanthropy is based on tagngible economic realities. To be successful in facilitating gifts, those who follow Dorr's lead must become knowledgeable about the specific values that guide donors-and often these can only be weighed and fully understood by the donor. If these intangibles are ignored by those soliciting donations-or insensitively pursued through intrusive questioning of private matters-the philanthropic process is undermined. Such misguided behavior may lead the prospective donor to believe that the value of the gift is insufficiently appreciated. Dorr nowhere expressed doubt about Albright's appreciation for his offer but he was well aware that the National Park Service's philanthropic skill set had not yet been fully tested. That day would come when Mr. Rockefeller decided on his terms for government acceptance of his extensive properties that spanned the continent from Maine to the Grand Tetons. DORR1936 Page 20 of 20 GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. Begin 1941 (November 20, 2008) 1941 In any given year, Dorr's energies for nearly eight decades had been directed toward the accomplishment of a plurality of goals. In striking contrast, in the year that the United States was drawn into the Second World War Superintendent Dorr is preoccupied with one goal, the donation of the 96 acres of Oldfarm and adjacent properties to the federal government; in 1940 the Mount Desert Nurseries had been sold to nursery manager, Clarence Dow. Before the Oldfarm acquisition is finally settled, scores of proposals, revisions, property appraisals, tax records, evaluations, congressional authorizations, maps, amendments, and statements of reservation on the part of Dorr and the National Park Service would be exchanged. While the details may be wearisome, for eighty-seven year old Dorr these neglected tasks to conserve his family estate surely annoyed his superiors even as they consumed his attention. That Dorr would invest SO much of his failing energy to this end is understandable. Oldfarm is repeatedly characterized by him as the wellspring, the inspiration, the model for the national park itself. Oldfarm was the cultural and natural landscape "from which the Park has sprung," and sixty years later its acceptance by the government is public recognition of the worth and continuing value of that effort. For "what I am now offering represents the crown and completion of this work I undertook SO long ago for our Public Reservations here and the development of them of Acadia National Park." (January 17, 1941 letter to Horace M. Albright. ANPA. B.4.f.1) Benjamin Hadley documented his understanding of Dorr's interest in park ownership of Oldfarm: "His sentimental attachment to his summer home which had grown with the years since his father purchased the property would be perpetuated; the property would ultimately serve a particular purpose for the park by furnishing in Storm Beach Cottage. a park superintendent's residence, and that Oldfarm House would become a guest house for government officials, particularly the President and Cabinet members." (Benjamin Hadley file memorandum. January 15, 1945. ANPA. B. 3. f. 10) Dorr could have delayed the outcome by embedding Oldfarm within his last will and testament. Such behavior would have been inconsistent with the action-centered and progressive strategies Dorr practiced in establishing the park. Moreover, at a time when the land trust movement was still in its infancy the well established legal mechanisms of today were not among Dorr's options. Dorr will assign considerable latitude to his executors but the conservation of Oldfarm was too important to risk executor assignment to third parties whose agendas were unknown to Mr. Dorr. If this signals a lack of confidence on Dorr's part in the judgment of his executors, one must be mindful that none of his executors had conservation experience. We can understand Dorr's urgency to get the arrangements with the federal government completed. What is DORR1941 Page 1 of 26 most puzzling is the protracted bureaucratic haggling about acceptance of yet another donation from the seasoned philanthropist responsible for the establishment of gift-derived national parks. The language of the Oldfarm property correspondence suggest reticence on the part of the NPS, an impatience with Dorr's wordiness, and almost dismissive attitude toward his "sentimental attachment" to family holdings. His superiors nowhere explicitly dismiss the value of the Oldfarm holdings though one has the impression that they were regarded as unremarkable when measured against the enchantments of Cadillac Mountain, Jordan Pond, or the Beehive. But these are natural assets and what Dorr offered now was a cultural landscape rich in its "historic associations." As many of the Hancock County Trustees encountered member resistance when development of the cultural resources of the Black House eclipsed Trustee land acquisition as the organizational mission, SO too Oldfarm did not fit into the natural landscape gifts accepted by the federal government over the last quarter of a century. It appears from the historic record that there was no NPS precedent for accepting a superintendent residence, especially one that was wedded to federal repayment of debts incurred for the use of the Park office that Dorr built and maintained with his own funds. Nonetheless, Dorr is confident that Oldfarm "will be safe and rightly cared for once it is the Government's hands." (March 28, 1941 letter to Edward T. Taylor. ANPA. B.4.f.1) The subtle impairments that we associate with advanced age, Dorr's greatly diminished vision, and his preoccupation with his government gift resulted in day by day Park management by the assistant superintendent, as Dorr's attorney acknowledged in a letter to Rockefeller's office. (David Rodick to Jay Downer. February 5, 1941. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 62. f.620. "Ben Hadley is actually running the Park for Mr. Dorr now.") In a letter to his friend, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee, Dorr concedes that "one of the regrets I have from a partial blindness that has come upon me these last few years is that it prevents me from keeping up the winter visits I use to make for SO long to Washington and the loss of contact it has brought with friends." (March 28, 1941. op. cit., ANPA. B.4.f.1) Consequently, Hadley represented Dorr once again, leaving for Washington in early January to participate in the 1941 Superintendent's Conference. En route, Hadley stopped in New York for a meeting that Dorr had arranged with Rockefeller in order to explain the Oldfarm donation. Rockefeller's affection and sensitivity to supporting Dorr's feeling of inclusiveness is shown when he writes to him about Hadley's visit. He reiterates that "our association together in Acadia Park matters will always be one of the happy features of my life. Nor shall I as a summer resident of Mount Desert Island ever cease to be grateful to you for having brought about the permanent preservation of the beauties of that incomparable island." (January 8, 1941. ANPA. B. 45. f.1) Director Horace M. Albright well understood Dorr's priorities, generously offered his assistance, and was heroic in representing Dorr's interests with the new Director, Newton Drury. (Albright to Dorr. January 21, 1941. ANPA. B. 4. f.1; Albright's affection for DORR1941 Page 2 of 26 Oldfarm is earlier demonstrated in his May 12, 1935 letter. ANPA. B. 45. f. 1) So too, Dorr recognized that Albright's endorsement would go far "in getting what I offer recognized on its true basis." (Dorr to Albright, January 17, 1941. ANPA. B. 4. (.1) Albright shifted the attention away from Dorr's residence to permanent control of Dorr's property at the corner of Main Street and Park Road. For more than twenty years this small complex of buildings that Dorr built on his land served as park headquarters, the official park entry. As Dorr explains in his aforementioned letter to Congressman Edward Taylor, Dorr wishes the government to purchase the Park office property for #37,500. Dorr's Wild Gardens of Acadia Corporation owned the property and the park office to whom the government had paid $1,500 in annual rental fees. Dorr reasoned that if the government purchased this property these funds at four percent interest would yield the same amount annually as the rental, a quid pro quo that ignored its appraised value. In a rare moment of personal fiscal disclosure, Dorr explains that this solution is necessary because of his lack of attentiveness to the management of his many scattered parcels of land. "I found myself indebted to [the Bank] to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars, secured upon my various properties here, including Oldfarm." (March 28, 1941. op. cit., ANPA actually, responsibility for his financial woes he also attributed to the inattentiveness of an unnamed legal counsel) The government acceptance of his offer would clear off Dorr's indebtedness and result in the donation of Oldfarm in its entirety to the Government, "asking nothing in return but its right use." Once this indebtedness is cleared, there is the added bonus that other tracts of land will be donated to the federal government within Dorr's lifetime or through his executors. (A.E. Demaray to B. Hadley. July 2, 1941. ANPA. B. Which tracts of land are in the Oldfarm package will be a much discussed issue in the months ahead. By early Spring, NPS Director Newton Drury could assure Dorr that although there were still "many obstacles to overcome in these trying times," the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee gave a sympathetic hearing to the Oldfarm Proposal. Indicating that he hoped to visit Dorr in the coming months, Drury brought to Dorr's attention the opportunity for a gift to the government of island property-which Dorr quickly suggested was an unwise move. His explanation articulates a conservation principle that distinctively roots conservation in the different levels of social praxis. Dorr's rationale is that "I have always been from the first scrupulous not to include land within the National Park bounds that we could not develop SO as more than to justify in the public interest our removing it from taxation or residential development. I sought to carry the local community, the County and the State along with me in the Park's development SO that all might feel that it was for their interest no less than that of the general public that it should be made." (April 15, 1941 letter to Drury. ANPA. B. 4. f. 1) Dorr expresses concern that he may not live through the Oldfarm approval process. He drafts a document that considers the appropriate residence for his successor. The Service incurred no expense for Dorr's quarters over the last quarter of a century. Dorr suggests that his successor occupy during the summer half of the year the Homans property DORR1941 Page 3 of 26 and portions of Oldfarm during the winter months, when access to the Homans property would be limited due to severe weather and road conditions. "This arrangement would make my Oldfarm gift useful to the Park and a place of warmth and welcome for official guests at all seasons of the year." (April 16, 1941. ANPA. B.4.f1) A lifelong bachelor, Dorr does not consider the impracticality of the twice a year relocation of a new Superintendent's extended family. Dorr had an opportunity to discuss this matter with the new Director when he learned of Drury's plans to visit Mount Desert, a "trip just especially to see you." Dorr's spirits were already high since Congressman Taylor had informed him of Interior Department subcommittee approval for the Oldfarm purchase, even as three more legislative hurdles remained; (April 22, 1941. ANPA. B. 4. f1) Following Director and Mrs. Newton Drury visit in late April. Nowhere in there an indication that Oldfarm might be protected under the Historic Sites Act of 1935. The subject must have been at the forefront of Drury's attention since his statement on historic preservation would be published several months later. (N. Drury. "The National Park Service and the Preservation of Historic Sites and Buildings," The Journal of the American Society of Architectural Historians, 1 (1941) : pp. 18-19) It may have been that both Drury, Cammerer, and Dorr agreed that Oldfarm did not "possess exceptional value as commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States." (Historic Sites Act of 1935. 16 U.S.C. saec. 461-467) The public, however, became aware of these transactions when the media published accounts on May 1st of the House Appropriation Committee approval. (Drury to Dorr. May 3, 1941. ANPA. B.4.f.1; in a letter five days later to Rockefeller Drury says that his "trip to Acadia was a hurried one, but I wanted to meet Mr. Dorr and observe conditions on the ground in at least a cursory fashion") Drury and Dorr knew that two Senate Committees and the consent of the full Senate were still needed following the full House approval in mid-May. The Maine media quoted NPS Assistant Director Arthur Demaray's House testimony that Dorr had over the years given one hundred thousand dollars of land to the federal government. The newspaper reported that the Oldfarm estate was worth more than $150,000-eclipsing the $37,500 the government would pay to secure the Park office complex. (Bangor Daily Commercial, May 1, 1941, pg. 1; see also excerpts from congressional testimony, Luther S. Winsor. "Acadia National Park: A Study of Conservation Objectives to its Establishment and Boundary Adjustments. Typescript. 1955. Pg. 27- 28. ANPA. B. HB. F. 16) Dorr's satisfaction was tempered by the announcement that same day of the death of Arno B. Cammerer from heart disease at 57 years of age. Despite their minor disagreements over the years, Dorr felt this loss of a friend thirty years younger than himself, signaling once again the urgent need to complete the most pressing tasks at hand. His anecdote for mortality was drafting the next day an editorial published in the Bar Harbor Times explaining to the local community that his offer to the government was based on his desire to secure the park office permanently in its present location. Within a half mile of the Bar Harbor village green, it would continue to be "the central distributing station of the Park," historically associated indefinitely to the larger community from which it arose. DORR1941 Page 4 of 26 As the United States continued to tool up for war, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that Spring made preparations to occupy a site on the Cadillac summit in order to monitor the locations of hostile submarines that ventured into coastal waters. By the end of the year with war declared, the summit road was closed to the public for the duration of the war, resulting in reduced income for the Acadia Corporation concessions. (Rockefeller to David Rodick. December 12, 1941. RAC III. B. 62. f. 620) The Associate Director of the Park Service had second thoughts about the accuracy of his congressional testimony regarding Oldfarm in the Interior Department Appropriations Act. (Demaray to Dorr. July 11, 1941. ANPA. B. 4.f.1) Dorr's thirteen-page response two weeks later accounts for any misunderstanding as due not to ignorance on either of their parts, but to the incomplete information secured by Demaray's legal counsel, D.E. Lee. After spending part of a day with Dorr, then the remainder with Hadley and Rodick, Lee departed without notice for Washington before fuller planned discussions could take place. A telling example of Lee's confusion, was his inclusion of Storm Beach Cottage as part of the property transfer, essentially leaving Dorr without shelter on the date of the official transfer. Furthermore, Dorr learned from Rodick and Hadley that they suggested Storm Beach Cottage to "to give the Government yet fuller measure in return for its acceptance of my offer," yet Dorr emphatically insists that "no one had been given the slightest authority" to make such an offer. Why? "The Park has no need for it, no use of it to make, and, stripped of my personal belongings, it is but a simple farm house, of slight value." After his parent's deaths the Cottage was made over "as a pied-a-terre to come and leave my personal belongings in when I was away travelling and Oldfarm was rented." Unlike what we know of Oldfarm, Dorr helped build Storm Beach Cottage with his own hands sixty years earlier, and as Touchstone the Clown says of Audrey in Shakespeare as he presents her to his master as his newly-wedded wife: `Truly, a poor thing, Sir, but mine own. , " (Dorr to Demaray, July 26, 1941. ANPA. B. 3. f. 11) In a telling use of language, Dorr here accounts for his conservation career as a profound psychological adjustment following the death of his parents. For Storm Beach Cottage "is where I have lived and worked these many years since I was left alone and took up my work of landscape gardening and wild life conservation and the Park's creation." Perhaps too much significance is being attached to the phrase "left alone," but the repeated parental references throughout his memoirs leaves a distinct impression that their deaths was the most formidable rite of passage in his life. Recall his solicitous behavior immediately following his mother's death in 1901, repeatedly entreating Julia Ward Howe for help in dealing with his loss. Her final directive to him to embrace his new circumstances provided the redirection that was crystallized in his conservation career: "Dear George, I love to go over the past with you, but you must not dwell on it too much. The future is before you; you must think of it. " (Julia Ward Howe. "Journals, trans. E. Cochran. Yellow House Papers. RG18) In this important lengthy letter to Demaray, Dorr further delineates his hopes that a simple building housing his horticultural books adjacent to the farmhouse could be maintained. Containing "books on DORR1941 Page 5 of 26 gardening and landscape art,' this library also included a broad collection of scholarly works in the classics and humanities. Dorr recognizes that his professional papers, administrative records, and memoirs will be of public interest. Dorr wishes to discuss such matters with the Director. Given the eventual outcome of his intellectual property, such cautious preparations would prove to be well thought through. With the approach of fall, the government was still contesting the exclusion of parcels of Dorr's property that they wished to roll into the Oldfarm settlement. Without attributing to Dorr any unreasonable expectations, surely their patience was tested by Dorr's extended discussions (e.g., which kind of shrubbery provides an appropriate shield for the park garage) regarding future use of both Oldfarm and the Park office site where he recently proposed a separate superintendent's office and the establishment of the Acadia Press, "an association to receive and edit such papers as I may leave." (Dorr to Demaray. July 28, 1941. ANPA. B.3.f.12) In August Chief Counsel George Moskey was sent from Washington to discuss property transfer difficulties with Mr. Dorr, who made concessions while adhering to earlier restrictions that he then outlined in a letter of agreement to the Director. (August 15, 1941. ANPA. B.3.f.12) Dorr moves back into Oldfarm, wisely planning to offer its hospitality to the Director whose secretary notifies Dorr at the last minute that Drury will stay in a Bar Harbor hotel. Dorr's disappointment must have been palpable when told that the Director is "going to Acadia at this only because of the meeting of the Acadia Corporation.' (N.N. Benson to Dorr. September 2, 1941. ANPA. B.3.f.12) Knowing that Drury will interact with Rockefeller, Dorr quickly rebounds by securing Mr. Rockefeller's immediate agreement to be taken on a driving tour of the properties discussed. Dorr was not beside Rockefeller in the chauffer-driven auto since his "partial blindness" would have limited his usefulness. Instead, Rockefeller agreed to have Dorr's chauffer, Dana Young, outline Dorr's plan while driving Rockefeller to the relevant properties within a few blocks of Oldfarm. (September 3, 1941. RAC. III.2.) 85. f. 840) A few days later Drury and several of Dorr's friends lunched at Oldfarm, followed by a carriage ride and conference with Mr. Rockefeller prior to the Acadia Corporation meeting. (Drury to Dorr. September 16, 1941. ANPA. B. 3. f.12) Drury and Hadley represented the National Park Service, the officers present being the expansion of the Corporation and its range of activities within the Park. Drury firmly held to his predecessor's principles that "concessions are not for the purpose of creating a demand for service but rather to supply existing demands" that are "necessary and proper" for national park areas. If the NPS approved new concession facilities erected at the expense of the Corporation, it might be reasonable to expect the government to construct access roads, sewer and water lines, and landscaping expenses. But the bombshell came a month later when one corporation shareholder reminded the Corporation members that their organization originated "to protect the park from concessionaires from outside" who might be insensitive to local traditions. Mr. Rockefeller pointed out the new trend toward Park Service assumption of concessionaire functions, DORR1941 Page 6 of 26 shrinking or removing the need for private concessions. Consequently, since "the protection which the Acadia Corporation was formed to give is of decreasing importance," the Corporation should consider dissolution. (Letter to David Rodick. October 27, 194. RAC. III.2 B.62.f.620) Dorr's views on this matter are unknown. It is doubtful that he gave it much consideration for on September 10th Dorr formally transferred Oldfarm to the federal government. Ill content to let the matter be, within a week he is altering Washington to maintenance issues that have come to his attention. ("Notes Regarding Storm Beach Cottage and Oldfarm on Transmittal of the Deeds." September 18, 1941. ANPA. B. 3.f.12) Would Dorr miss the proverbial boat? Might he have found more acceptance for his proposals during the expansionist years of the mid- 1930's Was there time for the remaining Oldfarm issues to be resolved before the calamity of war overtook the nation? In December 1941 the bill expanding the park to include the National Park office site and buildings and Oldfarm is authorized before the close of the Congressional session. As Dorr quietly celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday, he experienced the peace of mind of knowing that the final piece of his physical legacy had found security within the laws of the land. (See January 2, 1942 note to Dorr from Rockefeller. RAC III. B. 85.f.840) Following the NPS press release announcing Dorr's donation of "several tracts of exceedingly valuable lands" to the federal government-- properties appraised at $90,455 yet purchased for $37,500-the local media disseminated the announcement. A Boston Herald editorial referred to the landscape as "Dorr's Park,' which Newton Drury called a "fitting tribute to your generosity and service." (Drury to Dorr, February 21, 1942. ANPA. B.3.f.10; see also article in Portland Sunday Telegram. January 11, 1942. Pg. C-9) ) Oldfarm was not the only historic property on Dorr's mind at this time. One Bar Harbor asset to which Dorr was much attached was the Building of the Arts. As President of its Founders Committee, this performing arts facility had presented internationally reknown artists to fashionable residents since its opening in 1907. During the Depression years it had fallen on hard times and in recent years Dorr had suggested new applications for the structure. Taxes had not been paid for several years and at Dorr's urging in June 1941 Rockefeller purchased the deed at a Sheriff's sale, a doubtful investment of some three hundred dollars. This is an interim solution and Rockefeller challenges Dorr and other community leaders to quickly consider and apply innovative applications of the property. Rockefeller's sole objective was to afford the community additional time to consider a worthwhile application of this cultural facility. (Rockefeller to David Morris. July 10 & 30, 1941. RAC. III.: B.63.f.632) Dorr secures a commitment from the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association to secure funds to cover three additional years of unpaid taxes "if it can be given reasonable assurance that the National Government will in due course accept the property [asking] only that it should be used along lines appropriate to its character and the place it has SO long held in the community." (Dorr to Drury. September 25, DORR1941 Page 7 of 26 1941. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1933-1949. Acadia. Box 991) If Dorr had available roughly one thousand dollars he could have secured title to the property. (February 20, 1942. Rockefeller to Dorr. RAC III.2.I./ 63. f. 632) In a characteristically well organized and lucid letter, Dorr tries to convince the Director why Acadia National Park would be enriched by both the historical associations of the facility and new opportunities for public service. Dorr not only links the Building of the Arts to the creation of the Park, he argues as well for its importance in educating a new generation of both residents and tourists about the natural and cultural history of Acadia, appealing to the popularity of motion pictures to enhance public appreciation for its landscape and wildlife. Knowing how few were the indoor island locations where hundreds could gather--and ever attentive to the political climate-Dorr urged its use for "talks by competent exponents of our national problems, political and economic, and on the policies designed to deal with them." Despite Dorr's "eloquent plea for the preservation of the Building of the Arts," the Director thinks it "is not entirely suitable for our purposes" though he directs his subordinates to investigate its applications and financing. In the case of Oldfarm and the arts facility federal officials repeatedly claim that they are "unable to make any commitments [for the] prospects of obtaining funds to do more than the essential maintenance work required to keep the park operating are extremely remote during these troubled days when all available funds are needed for defense purposes...confidentially we understand that there is a serious danger that funds appropriated by the Congress for non-defense purposes may be impounded." (Demaray to Dorr. September 27, 1941. ANPA. B. 11) 1942 The Patriarch of the Park Service As "the sole survivor of our original group," Dorr later appeals to Rockefeller since he is understandably fearful that "it might pass into a control appreciative neither of its past nor of the future that may yet lie before it should the National Government take it over in connection with the Park.' Dorr's deep feeling for the building and its site is revealed in his request for Rockefeller's assistance since "I cannot now do [it] myself, to place it under the protecting aegis of the National Government, as in earlier years I did the Park itself.' (February 17, 1942. RAC III.2 B. f. .632) Unknown to Dorr, Hadley informs the Director that the site is an isolated parcel not suitable for park purposes. Director Drury agrees with Hadley but asks again for Rockefeller's input. After receiving additional input from attorney Serenus Rodick-who thinks Dorr is motivated by sentimental reasons-- Rockefeller responds immediately. With no personal interest in the matter, he is impressed that there has been SO little community interest in saving this local cultural icon. Since the people of Bar Harbor have shown so little interest in doing anything to save it," unless the park service sees the facility as an asset he intends to explore other options. Informed of Drury's disinterest, a purchaser made a very modest offer which Rockefeller accepted by January 1943. Simply put, Dorr saved Oldfarm but lost The Building of the Arts! If Dorr had known of Hadley's isolationist argument, logic would have forced him to understand that it could well DORR1941 Page 8 of 26 have been used against Oldfarm itself. (April 18 & May 29, 1942. RAC III. 2. I. B.63.f.632). While Dorr was transfixed on properties close at hand, Rockefeller's efforts continue to impress Director Drury, who states that the philanthropist has "come to realize that the problems of development at Acadia is quite unusual compared with that in many other parks, particularly because of its proximity to old and established tourist communities. Indeed, Rockefeller's continuing donations of land since 1935 "have practically doubled the park area and, with the park loop road recently taking form, we find that Acadia actually provides a new park for the visitor and will be a different park to those who have known the island for many years." (March 9, 1942. RAC. III. 2. I. B.62. f.622) In identifying Acadia as "a new park," Drury had the insight to fuse Rockefeller's interests with Dorr's earlier accomplishments, uniting the two philanthropies. Meanwhile, Hadley was the point person for arrangements to provide parklands for the military. Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an army observational site was erected on the summit of Cadillac Mountain. Dorr knew of such mobilization but was preoccupied with work on his memoirs and responses to the congratulatory messages he received after the public became aware of his recent gift to the federal government. One letter received from the Mesa Verde National Park superintendent Jesse Nusbaum contained a characterization of Dorr- and the philanthropy of Rockefeller that was generally accepted but never SO eloquently stated. Twenty years earlier Director Mather chose Nusbaum to lead development at Mesa Verde National Park, the first national park established (in 1906) for its cultural and natural value. Nusbaum's archaeological credentials and persistent enforcement of the Antiquities Act made him an uncommon superintendent. Prior superintendents bowed to local political pressures, tolerating concessionaire abuses, overgrazing, and the looting of artifacts. As a result of the Mather initiative to professionalize park management, Nusbaum received federal support to remedy abuses. (See Rosemary Nusbaum. Tierra Dulce: Reminiscences from the Jesse Nusbaum Papers. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 1980. Pgs. 73-79) Dorr knew him from the early years of Superintendent Conferences and in 1925 was photographed with him beneath the Pueblo dwellings where Mather had gathered his park administrators. Nusbaum wrote to thank Dorr for "your diligence and devotion to the cause, your courage in the face of expressed opposition of long entrenched wealthy residents, and your gifts of property beyond your ability to give." He genuinely endorsed these virtues but Nusbaum claims no credit for such an appraisal, informing Dorr that he is only repeating John D. Rockefeller Jr. remarks about him. But he closes with a notable personal remark, characterizing Dorr as "the patriarch of our Service," rightly describing the grand old man of coastal Maine whose successful leadership within the service over a quarter of a century was unrivaled in terms of longevity and standing. (January 19, 1942. RAC. III. 2. I. B. 83.f.823) Documentation for the last two years of Dorr's life is scant. As one would expect of someone approaching ninety years of age, the deaths of friends of long standing weighed upon him. Fred C. Lynam, the banker, DORR1941 Page 9 of 26 real estate entrepreneur, and Chairman of the Bar Harbor Committee that advocated park road development before Secretary Work in 1942, died in early 1942. Dorr's neighbor and Trustee President, Dave Morris, passed away the following year. Understandably, Dorr reconsiders the suitability of his most recent will and asks Judge Peters for assistance. Four years earlier Dorr had established the Dorr Foundation, duplicating in large part the objectives of the trustees of his estate. He now narrows the scope of the Foundation by removing from their control "property of a strictly personal character, whose principle value lay in its personal association with myself, consisting of articles of furniture, papers and writings, silver and china, etc." "The uncertainties of life," and the "loss, through increased infirmity, of the power to take such action myself," motivate Dorr to entrust such decision making to Mrs. A group of friends in whom he has "complete trust and confidence": Mrs. Richard W. Hale, her son Richard W. Hale Jr. and his secretary, Mrs. Phyllis S. Sylvia. (May 7, 1942. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Peters suggested that Dorr appoint a literary executor and that he consider fellow Trustee Richard W. Hale as his estate attorney of record, despite the fact that the senior partner in Hale and Dorr was ninety-one years of age. Peters explains "that Dorr is "quite helpless on account of his blindness, and when he gets a matter on his mind it becomes magnified and he feels that he must act at once." (Two Peters letters to R.W. Hale bear the same date. May 8, 1942. Ibid.) As a member of the Hancock County Bar, Hale can draw up Dorr's will and further suggests that his librarian son is professionally well suited to be Dorr's literary executor, that Dorr's distant cousin Elizabeth [Ward] Perkins would be a suitable addition to this new group of friends, and that Judge Peters should consider the likelihood of being asked to serve as Dorr estate executor. (Hale to Peters. May 11, 1942. Ibid.) Following the June 1, 1942 completion of a new will, both Peters and Hale increased their oversight of Dorr's wellbeing. Following a report that Dorr fell in the bathroom and lodged against the door making entry difficult when he was unable to right himself, Peters and the Hale family became increasingly concerned about the adequacy of his care by staff. (As late as April 1944, Richard W. Hale's widow would quote from a letter from one of Dorr's housekeeper, Grace Oakes, that his secretary Phyllis Sylvia, "often" left the aged man alone in Oldfarm, a claim apparently born of jealously according to Ben Hadley when queried about this matter by Judge Peters. April 8 & 21, 1942. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Unfortunately, in less than a year Richard W. Hale dies and one of his partners suggests the execution of another will in order in part to circumvent tax issues related to charitable donations. (Joseph N. Welch to Dorr. May 15, 1943. Ibid) Working closely with Peters, the final will is executed in August 1943. In the midst of resolving legal fine points regarding his estate, Dorr completed and published the first part of Acadia National Park. Partially autobiographical, its subject is the human story of the Hancock County conservation movement that resulted in the federal acceptance of "Dorr's Park," as it was commonly known. It abruptly DORR1941 Page 10 of 26 begins with President's Eliot's invitation in 1901 to establish the Trustees and concludes eighteen years later with the establishment of Acadia National Park. But of Dorr's life prior to 1901 or in the two decades since the establishment of the Park he is silent. To the development of Acadia National Park he turns his attention to a sequel during the final months of his life. At this time Dorr learned that through a sizable donation of several tracts of land on Isle au Haut, the Park had grown appreciably. In early January, through the efforts of Ben Hadley, 2,700 acres were accepted from the heirs of the Bowditch family. These were the descendants of the celebrated scientist, Nathaniel Bowditch the Navigator, with whom Dorr's maternal grandfather had enjoyed companionship stretching back more than one hundred and fifty years. Nathaniel's grandsons, Charles and Henry P. Bowditch, were family friends who traveled with Dorr in 1903. The family Maine holdings off the southwest coast of Mount Desert not only significantly increased the size of the park, its "bold, seaward looking cliffs are more exposed and remote than any now in park ownership." Ben Hadley concluded his appraisal with a historical reminder that the acquisition of Isle au Haut "is in line with a plan proposed by Superintendent Dorr many years ago, and [its] fulfillment will create an ocean-connected island national park unique in the federal park system." (Benjamin Hadley. June 1943. ANPA. B.JV.f.22. "Preliminary Report on Isle Au Haut.") [Final Chapter: A Full and Useful Life} J.D. Rockefeller Jr., not the Bowditch family, occupies Dorr's attention now as it has on almost a daily basis for the last three decades. Dorr's final correspondence with Rockefeller is a thoughtful appreciation for Rockefeller's letter on Dorr's ninetieth birthday, "a milestone not to be passed lightly" as Dorr acknowledges on New Years Eve, 1943. He misses Rockefeller's presence while recognizing that the war has kept Rockefeller's attention directed elsewhere. Still "when at last its passing shall permit your coming I shall warmly welcome your return," yet his worsening condition suggests that he doubts that he shall again see the Rockefellers. (December 31, 1943. RAC. III. 2. I. B.85.f.840 Dorr's secretary Grace Oakes informs Rockefeller that though Dorr eats and sleeps well, he is frail and moves about Oldfarm in his darkened universe only with assistance from household staff. (c. January 11 1944. RAC III.2. B.85.f.840) As Winter gives way into the Spring of 1944, Dorr receives news from New York of the death of his Island neighbor and friend, attorney Dave H. Morris. On the national stage he had served as ambassador to Belgium and was a founder of the Automobile Club of America. Locally he was a strong supporter of conservation yet at the forefront of the movement to open the Island to motor traffic. His death at 72 years was not taken lightly by Dorr and the Island communities. (Rockefeller supplements the Morris obituary in the May 5th New York Times, with a lengthy public tribute to this "man of high character, unimpeachable honor, deep spiritual sensitiveness and radiant faith." RAC III.2.I. 93.f.700 Understandably, Dorr's friends grow increasingly concerned about his health and the quality of care that he receives. By late Spring DORR1941 Page 11 of 26 frequent reports were being circulated by Ben Hadley, Judge John A. Peters, many copied to Mr. Rockefeller and NPS officials. Understandably, Hadley was appointed Acting Superintendent of Acadia National Park, informing the former director that Dorr was "spending his days at Oldfarm reviewing the past in his mind's eye [most] interested in following his trains of thought to source materials in the encyclopedia, of which he has several, having the material read to him. I spend several hours a week with him talking over matters of interest, past, present, and SO far as possible, future." (June 1944. Hadley to Horace Albright. Quoted in letter Rockefeller letter to G.L. Stebbins. RAC. III.2.1 B.85.f.) In late June Dorr is visited by his friend of more than four decades, George L. Stebbins. Dorr greatly respected Stebbins for conservation and trail building initiatives on behalf of the Seal Harbor Village Improvement Society, his donation with others of sixteen hundred acres of Cadillac Mountain, and his conviction that "the most important development in the history of the Island" was the establishment of the Trustees. ("Random Notes on the Early History and Development as a Summer Resort of Mount Desert Island and Particularly Seal Harbor.' Bar Harbor: Acadia National Park Archives, 1938) With the death of Dave Morris, Stebbins had been elevated to Trustees President. Hadley had informed him that "the afternoons and evenings were very hard on the old man because of his total blindness and lack of diversion it would help him a great deal if he could have a proper person to read to him for a few hours." (Stebbins to Rockefeller. July 15, 1944. RAC. III.2. B.85.f. 840) As the last prominent local public figure to see Dorr prior to his death, Stebbins reported to Rockefeller that Dorr was "pathetic. very restless blind man [who] said 'I cannot read SO I just sit here and think. (June 20, 1944. Stebbins to Rockefeller. RAC III. 2. B.73.f. 757) Another blow came in late June with the death of Grace May Oakes. Prior to her 24 years of service as Dorr's secretary, she was employed in the office of the editor of Boston Herald, Robert L. O'Brien, another Dorr acquaintance of long standing. "She brought to her work a wide knowledge of people and affairs which she had gained in newspaper work," preparing park news releases until her failing health forced retirement in late 1943. (Bar Harbor Times. June 19, 1944) An indication of her standing is revealed in Dorr's request to Director Drury appealing for much more than his assistance in cutting through red tape. Oakes' successor needs to be "someone familiar with the past and able to pick up the threads that are in my mind, not an outsider to whom all would need to be explained." But Dorr asks for more in this final administrative message to Washington: "Could you not run down, if only for a few days, and look over the [historical] material I have gathered?" (July 12, 1944. NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia. Miscellaneous Reports) Dorr refers here not only to the final unpublished chapters of his account of the development of the Park, but also to his essays on the history and conservation of Hancock County that lie beyond its scope. Dorr impresses upon Drury the importance he attaches to the assembled archival documents as an important educational resource for "future students of our history long after I and all our present generation have passed upon their way." Finally, he states that Ben Hadley--"who has become my alter ego now DORR1941 Page 12 of 26 that I can no longer see"-shares Dorr's desire that Drury pay a visit. Because of wartime travel restrictions and other park service priorities, Drury's visit was delayed. (July 20, 1944. Drury to Dorr. NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia. 3.741. f. 201) Meanwhile, Judge Peters, Stebbins, and Hadley meet in early July and discuss Dorr's need for a "proper person to read to him for a few hours some one of intelligence with a calm disposition and infinite patience because Mr. Dorr's interest is to stop the reader and have the reader look up various questions." (July 15, 1944. Stebbins to Rockefeller. RAC III. 2. I. B.85.f.840) That scholarly discipline clearly persists despite the limitations of age and loss of sight. His friends respect it and though they have a viable Somesville male college graduate in mind to assist him with both intellectual and physical tasks, Dorr's willingness to accept such an offer-with costs born by his friends--is still a concern. Such preparations were precluded by the death of George Bucknam Dorr on a warm and dry Saturday morning, August 5, 1944. A handwritten letter from Ben Hadley to his superior, Arthur Demaray, described the final minutes as "peaceful, [for awakening] at his usual time and while on his way to the bathroom his heart failed. He slumped to the floor and the end came at once. Just as he would have had it could he have placed the order." ( 6 August 1944. NARA. RG79. CCF. 193349. Acadia. B. 291; documents in the Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collections attribute the cause of his death to myocarditis arteriosclerosis. File #4414) The following day Hadley explains to the Director that in the end "he maintained his usual tranquil spirits and never did he utter a word of complaint about his loss of sight and gradually diminishing physical strength. On the contrary, he seemed to derive a great deal of comfort through mental review of the past, his early associations, his work in creating the park, and his many allied interests. Whenever he spoke of the approaching end it was with the knowledge and satisfaction of having lived a full and useful life." (August 7, 1944. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1933-49. Acadia. B. 795) As a mark of respect, business places in Bar Harbor were closed for an hour two days later when his funeral-attended by friends and town residents-took place at St. Saviour's Episcopal Church. Whether the Rockefeller's were at the funeral service cannot be determined although they arranged for a cross of red roses and white sweet peas to be sent to his cousins. (Mr. Rockefeller's letter of August 24, 1944 to Horace Albright speaks of Dorr's passing as "a happy and well earned release." Worthwhile Places. Ed. Joseph W. Ernst. 1991. Pg. 222) Immediately afterward Dorr's body was shipped to Cambridge for cremation at Mount Auburn Cemetery, the final resting place of his parents, his brother, and other Ward and Dorr family ancestors. (Mount Auburn Cemetery Historical Collections, #4474), . His ashes were returned to Bar Harbor, where Hadley informed Horace M. Albright on August 14th that they had been "scattered on the Oldfarm land which he loved SO dearly at a spot which he personally selected.' (ANPA. 218. f. 10) The location of that final resting place became a source of local conjecture. (Twenty years after Dorr's death, Sargent Collier's The Triumph of George B. Dorr provided standing to a piece of local fiction-namely, that upper crust ladies sipping tea in downtown DORR1941 Page 13 of 26 Bar Harbor witnessed Dorr's ashes being showered from a passing airplane) At the request of the NPS Director in 1951, Hadley finally disclosed that "his ashes were scattered near Beaver Dam Pool at the northwestern foot of Champlain Mountain," a favorite site of Mary Dorr where her son--as Chairman of the BHVIA Bicycle Path Committee--had built in 1895 an 0.8 mile long circuitous bicycle path around the Pool. (August 17, 1951. ANPA. B.2.f.1; it is most puzzling that the Minutes of the BHVIA fail to acknowledge or commemorate Dorr's death) Nearly fifteen years later, a similar fate awaited his lifelong fellow landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand who asked that her ashes be scattered on MDI. Like Farrand, Dorr bought no grave plot and no headstone on the Island bore evidence of the lives of two of its most prominent citizens. So too, as with Mr. Dorr's family line, with Farrand's death in 1959 the George Frederic and Lucretia Rhinelander Jones family line passed out of existence. Few have had the depth of experience to adequately assess the achievement of the many park pioneers: Dorr, C.W. Eliot, Beatrix Farrand, Ben Hadley, Eliza Homans, John S. Kennedy, Bishop William Lawrence, Harry Lynam, Judge Peters, J.D. Rockefeller Jr., George Stebbins, and physicians Robert Abbe and S. Weir Mitchell among them. One knowledgeable exception is Ken Olson, the former Executive Director of Friends of Acadia: "If the Yankees who conserved Acadia had waited for Congress to create the selfsame park, it never would have happened. The principle founders were John J. Rockefeller Jr. (chief lead donor and financial backer), Harvard College President Charles W. Eliot (philosopher king of the park idea), and the tireless George B. Dorr (benefactor turned park superintendent) These are not men who dallied. I marvel at how visionary the park's founders were. Assembling Acadia was an immense act of gift giving, brilliant conservation politics, and foresight, informed by a powerful reverence for place in a time when 'awesome' had a meaning. The park was a landplaning accomplishment of nationwide significance perfectly timed within Maine." (First Light: Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island. Photography by Tom Blagden Jr., test by Charles R. Tyson, Jr. Westcliffe Publishers, 2003. Pp. 6-10) And as we have seen, through twenty-eight years of park administration George Bucknam Dorr applied conservation principles that not only enabled Acadia National Park to proper but became through his example and longevity all that is implied in Superintendent Nusbaum's characterization of him--the grand old man of the National Park Service. Epilogue Dorr's death did not yield public outpouring of grief. Most recognized that his life had been long and filled with personal achievement and the satisfactions derived from public philanthropy. Regional newspapers emphasized that New England lost a valuable citizen whose landscape stewardship had uniquely benefitted the nation. (August 8-11, 1944. Bar Harbor Times, Ellsworth American, Portland Sunday Telegraph). Privately, Ben Hadley would insist that "there can be no regret in his passing, rather we should feel a relief that he was spared a lingering illness or physical incapacity which would have made him utterly helpless." (August 14, 1944 letter to Horace M. Albright. ANPA. B. HJ. F. 10) Hadley penned several brief summaries of Dorr's life, each DORR1941 Page 14 of 26 offering highly reliable information unavailable elsewhere. He was convinced that Dorr's cultural background which appeared to be aimless for SO many years "was probably the greatest factor in influencing him in later life to engage in Park work. The second factor undoubtedly was his mother's enthusiastic love for gardening." As Dorr's successor, Hadley recognized that Dorr's social position was "one of the chief practical factors" that led to his "magnificent career." (Ibid. See also March 20, 1949 letter to R.W. Shankland. ANPA. B.2.f.1; Hadley's obituary appeared in the 1944-45 issue of Appalachia in part because the Appalachian Mountain Club had elected him a corresponding member in 1935 as a 'friend of conservation who has devoted a lifetime to preserving the beauties of Mount Desert for the enjoyment of posterity.") Park officials had Dorr cautioned Dorr against repeating his verbose monthly administrative reports while his friend John A. Peters had worked to ensure that Dorr would not be overly zealous in pressing his points in the 1924 Road Hearings before Interior Secretary Work. In the most touching homage to Dorr's infusion of scholarship into administrative reporting, Hadley's September 1944 Monthly Report abandons bureaucratic mendacity by introducing what may be the most unconventional obituary in the National Park Service archives. Hadley finds inspiration in the otherwise gloomy final chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes: "Or Ever the Silver Cord be Loosed. On the morning of August 5, the immortal spirit of George Bucknam Dorr returned unto God who gave it. So was closed the earthly pilgrimage of a really great man, the creator of Acadia National Park, its first, and at his death, its only Superintendent. He labored intensely to bring the park into being, he nurtured it tenderly once it became real, he saw it increase in stature, and he left it a monument to his work of nearly a lifetime." And SO began Hadley's lengthy tribute to his mentor and friend which surely would be seen by some Interior Department bureaucrats as inappropriate--ever to the point of jeopardizing his chances to become the new Superintendent. (NARA. RG79. CCF. 1933-49. Acadia. B. 794) Despite reservations about Hadley's qualifications on the part of Mr. Rockefeller and the NPS regional director, subsequent interviews and internal discussions throughout the fall ultimately supported his appointment on December 15, 1944. (See Demaray to Drury, September 11, 1944, and Tolson to Drury, September 19, 1944 and December 15, 1944. NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia. Misc. Reports and Acadia. B. 791) Letters of condolence were sent by the NPS to family members, emphasizing both the inspirational example Dorr set for the park service and the delightful companionship he provided for all whom he met. (Only four once removed first and second cousins are acknowledged in the records. Dorr's closest relationships at the time of his death were with the Ward family widows of William C. Endicott and Charles B. Perkins) Each senior NPS administration wrote to Hadley of their sense of personal loss, though Director Drury echoed the "grand old man" homage of Mesa Verde Superintendent Nusbaum when he wrote that "if it were not for men like George B. Dorr, there would be no national parks. (August 9, 1944. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1933-49. Acadia. B. 791) DORR1941 Page 15 of 26 Two weeks later the family of Interior Secretary Harold Ickes visited the Park once again, lodging at the Homans House amid the Oldfarm furnishings that Dorr had relocated there to make it the accommodations more hospitable. On his return to Washington in mid-September, Ickes discussed with Arthur Demaray the possibility of changing the name of the steep mountain jutting between Cadillac and Champlain mountains from Flying Squadron to Dorr Mountain. Authority for such a name change was required from the United States Board on Geographic Names, now branch of the Interior Department. While the historical source of the suggestion is not clear, the Secretary's initiative is an important acknowledgement of the desire of the federal government for lasting public recognition of Superintendent Dorr through the naming of a dominant landscape feature. (Demaray to Hadley. September 11, 1944. NARA. RG79. CCF. Acadia Misc. Reports) Hadley's justification for the renaming contains memorable content. He begins by acknowledging that the Park itself is "a monument to his memory" yet predicts that "at best, two generations hence, his labor will become legend, and his name forgotten or but casually recalled." To keep his name alive a physical feature of the park should bear it. "he was a man of rugged stature, of rock-like integrity, and of eminent scholarly attainments and culture." Nothing could be more fitting than to perpetuate his name in one of the park's granite mountains "which SO well characterizes the attributes of the man." (September 20, 1944. NARA, RRG79. CCF. 1933-46. Acadia. B.791) The United States Board on Geographic Names consulted with the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce and approved the proposal June 15, 1945. (Dorr Mountain Case Study Decision, June 15, 1945. U.S. Board on Geographic Names Archives) Unfortunately, that information was not communicated to the Trustees. Meanwhile, the executors of the Dorr estate--the Hon. John A. Peters and Dorr's secretary, Phyllis S. Sylvia-begin their deliberations with the three other Dorr Estate Trustees: Bowdoin College President Kenneth Sills, Mary Newbold Hale and her son, Richard W. Hale Jr. The Trustees quickly began their deliberations about how best to apply the authority granted to them in Dorr's last will and testament to dispose of all of his property. (Finalized in August 1943. Hancock County Registry of Deeds. Book 698. p. 414) Over the next several months Storm Beach cottage would be the staging area for the appraisal and disposition of his property. The eight-room, two bath, 36 by 54 foot one and one-half storey structure served as Dorr's residence and headquarters for his work in developing the new park. From 1919 to 1929 when Old Farm was rented or was occupied by NPS officials he summered at Storm Beach Cottage and wintered at the estate. Hadley reports that he lived in the cottage "filled with furniture, books, and pictures" by himself, a woman arriving each morning to attend to cooking, washing, and mending. From 1929 to 1942 this former caretaker cottage was Dorr's sole residence before moving back to Oldfarm for his final three years of life. Never in that thirty years "was the house given a thorough cleaning nor were the interior walls and ceilings painted, papered or kalsomined." Now it was proposed as the new residence for the yet unnamed park superintendent. Consequently, the sixty-five year old structure required a $15,000 renovation even though it was in good condition structurally, and remains SO to this day. (December 22, 1944. DORR1941 Page 16 of 26 Hadley to Demaray. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1933-49. Acadia. N. 791. There were three outbuildings nearby, including a twenty by forty foot structure that Dorr called the Park Library, even though it was "well stocked with books [that did] not relate to the park or to the Park Service") [Mr. Dorr's Great Life Work] As fall gave way to winter Dorr's executors saw that their efforts would be protracted. Indeed, three years would be necessary to process Dorr's very limited assets, to make arrangements to donate family papers and artifacts to historical and literary societies, to distribute the income from the sale of his assets, and to design and dedicate a lasting memorial to the Father of Acadia National Park. Moreover, there were numerous artifacts whose disposition required consultations with the park service, not to mention the Dorr property located in the Homans' House, the favored accommodation of the current Secretary of the Interior. The appraisers listed assets totaling $23,482, with the furnishings, scholarly books, and Storm Beach cottage paintings being the categories of greatest value. (Some furnishings have been preserved in park headquarters but the thousands of books and all but a few of the paintings--donated to institutions like the Boston Athenaeum-were apparently auctioned to the highest bidder) Meanwhile, the resolution of Dorr's land holdings proved more complicated for the executors first had to search titles, secure appraisals, and determine which parcels might be of interest to the Park, Mr. Rockefeller, or other interested parties. Since "everyone who knew Mr. Dorr well knows that his only thought in buying these lands was for the protection of an ultimate addition to Acadia National Park," Mr. Rockefeller advocated that the executors donate all holdings to the federal government. (July 20, 1945 letter to John A. Peters. RAC III.2.1 B.98.f.968) Judge Peters, however, speaking for the executors wishes to sell parcels to anyone who will accept the condition that the land will ultimately be gifted to the federal government-as Rockefeller had SO often done. It becomes clear from Dorr's will that his estate planning was flawed-- his expectations greatly exceeding his resources. His executors were empowered to establish museums, to develop property to exhibit resources of scientific, educational, and artistic benefit to the public, to establish bird refuges and gardens, to aid and facilitate biological research in the region, and to publish reports on studies on the landscape and wildlife of the region. His executors recognized that it would be "impossible" to carry out such ambitious projects, but with lands for sale not desired by the Park as well as nearly seven thousand dollars of properties of interest to the Park, Peters approached Mr. Rockefeller and very likely were not surprised at his aforementioned response. Peters reminded Rockefeller that Dorr could have donated this property to the Park prior to his death if that had been his intent. Consequently, "we would come nearer to carrying out Dorr's will by selling this land than by giving it to the Park." (Peters to Rockefeller. June 21, 1945 & July 31, 1945. RAC. III.2.I. B. 98.f.968) This bartering is reminiscent of the countless negotiations carried out over the decades between Dorr and Rockefeller. On this occasion the executors receive from Rockefeller a five thousand dollar offer. Since the executors realize the protracted process of selling individual DORR1941 Page 17 of 26 lots-as Rockefeller well knew--their counter offer is a six thousand dollar for the parcels. Rockefeller is unresponsive, resulting in the executors withdrawing several properties from the package and proposing that Rockefeller accept the diminished package for the price of his original offer. Though never admitting his impatience with the process, after four months Rockefeller decided to accept the six thousand dollar figure for the full package that the executors proposed two months earlier. (Peters-Rockefeller correspondence. August 8, 15, 21, October 15, 18, and 23, 1945. RAC III. 2. B.98.f.968) Following this transaction, Peters would report to fellow Trustee Kenneth Sills that "Mr. Rockefeller was a good trader." (November 23, 1945. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Only recently did it become known that the efficient completion of the estate process was due in large part to Mary Hale's collaboration with Peters to provide the most frequent and insightful trustee contribution to the establishment of the Dorr Memorial. (In late 2008, the Papers of Judge John A. Peters were discovered in the Hale and Hamlin attorneys- in-law office attic in downtown Ellsworth, yielding extensive documentation of the protracted disposition of Dorr's estate and his executors plans to promote his legacy. At the Hancock County Trustees annual meeting in the late summer of 1945, following Peters proposal that a Trustee committee be appointed to change the name of the mountain and to erect a granite memorial to Dorr's achievements, the Judge agreed to chair said committee. (The Committee was unsure how to proceed until Mr. Rockefeller involved Horace Albright. January 21, 1946. Albright to Rockefeller. (Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Correspondence) In addition to these efforts, Peters acting on his own initiative contacted Mount Auburn Cemetery and arranged for a simple shoe-box sized memorial stone-with perpetual care-to be placed beside the graves of his childhood nurse and parents. (November 20 and 23, 1945. Peters to G.R. Sands & Sons Memorials. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate) Judge Peters vaguely recalls that he had been impressed by the 1936 memorial to banker James Jackson Storrow (1864-1926), after whom Boston's two mile crosstown expressway, Storrow Memorial Drive, was named. ( Peters likely favored the language because it commemorated Storrow's conservation efforts in pressuring the legislature to approve the construction of the Charles River dam which led to the new so- called Embankment with its promenade of grass and walkways which Eliot and Storrow had envisioned. See Linda M. Cox. The Charles River Esplanade, our Boston Treasure. 2000) Peters asks Boston attorney George P. Drury to locate the memorial tablet which he believes might be adapted to Mr. Dorr. (January 5 & 12, 1946. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Correspondence) Following fruitless inquiries with public officials, the Chamber of Commerce directed Drury to Storrow's son who provided the Gloucester Street location on the Esplanade where Drury copied the inscription: "In memory of James Jackson Storrow. His Vision and Energy helped to make the Basin a place of beauty available for all." (January 19, 1946. Ibid) Adapted by Peters, the proposed Dorr inscription was distributed for critical feedback to estate trustees, the Trustee Committee members, Mr. Rockefeller, Superintendent Hadley, and Horace M. Albright. Peters was convinced that "Mr. Dorr's modesty was such that I think that we should avoid any fulsome expressions, and I have tried to stick to nothing but the truth." (Peters to Mary Hale. DORR1941 Page 18 of 26 January 22, 1946. Ibid) In the end, the language of the original draft was universally accepted as Peters thoughts now turned to securing NPS approval and the selection and fabrication of the memorial itself. Hadley secured the granite from the top of Cadillac Mountain and favored its placement "where it will not be under more than occasional scrutiny" on a path to the summit of Dorr Mountain. (March 28 and April 29, 1946. Hadley to Peters. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) Boston architect R. Clipston Sturgis, a college friend of Mr. Dorr designed the tablet and over many months there were refinements in tablet language, lettering style, and the merits of horizontal versus vertical plane inscription. Scrupulous attention was given to the perfection of this memorial over the course of two years. The Dedication of the George Bucknam Memorial took place on August 29, 1947. Roughly fifty guests attended the ceremony AT Sieur de Monts Spring officiated by Trustee President George L. Stebbins, the only surviving member of the original Trustee executive committee. Dressed in blue blazer and white slacks, the keystone address by Judge Peters stated the obvious reason for this gathering: that the memorial is a permanent record erected "to advise posterity of the name of their benefactor and the boundaries of his life." (Dedication of the George Bucknam Dorr Memorial. Ellsworth: HCTPR, 1947; the Trustee archives contain black and white images of the event, photographed by Sargent Collier. Mr. Rockefeller was not present; the Trustees later realized that they had failed to invite him) Prior to the memorial unveiling by Park rangers, Peters reminded guests of the lumberman impact on the island, the 1913 attempt in Augusta to revoke the Trustee charter, and the three year campaign in Washington to secure national monument status. Therein he described Dorr as a practical activist, "a shrewd, hard-boiled, effective master- lobbyist. [who] knew the strings that control men's actions and how to pull them." But the loftier and more representative language inscribed on the memorial stone is what is retained by the millions who have read the following over the intervening decades: In Memory of GEORGE BUCKNAM DORR 1853-1944 Gentleman Scholar Lover of Nature Father of this NATIONAL PARK Steadfast in his zeal To make the beauties of this Island available to all Six weeks later on October 17th, a dump located three miles from the northeast boundary of the Park caught fire. Initially controlled by the Bar Harbor fire department, drought and gale winds fanned the embers SO rapidly that it engulfed the entire eastern part of the Island. Before the holocaust was brought under control on November 6th, not only were DORR1941 Page 19 of 26 scores of historic homes destroyed but more than 8,750 acres of Acadia National Park were blackened, including the Ocean Drive forests, the Beehive and Bowl properties donated in 1908 by Mrs. Homan, and the Sieur de Mont area containing the Dorr Memorial. (See L.F. Cook. "The 1947 Forest Fire Record: One Third of Acadia Burned." National Parks Magazine [January-March 1948] 20-22) Close by the Mount Desert Nurseries was completely destroyed, and ninety thousand mice inbred over two hundred generations at the Jackson Laboratory were lost when the fire engulfed the facility. (C.C. Little. "My 'adventure in faith.' Jackson Laboratory Archives. B. 73. f. 13) Mr. Rockefeller's controversial carriage roads were invaluable to firefighters. Without the access that they provided to fire hot spots, "Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor would have burned.' ("John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Acadia National Park," undated report attached to January 10, 1969 letter from Martha Rockefeller to David Rockefeller. RAC III. 2. I. B.83.f. 821) Judge Peters quickly informed Mr. Rockefeller that fire cracked and splintered the stone and tablet of the Dorr memorial. (Peters laid partial responsibility at the doorstep of Superintendent Hadley who sought to protect the memorial by encasing it in a heavy wood covering, which "brought the fire right home to the stone and the tablet." (Peters to Hale. 26 November 1947. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate Correspondence) The monument was replaced within the year through fundraising by a Hancock County Trustee committee, and Rockefeller wisely noted in his response, "like the boulder on which the tablet was erected, which neither fire nor frost will effect throughout the ages, stands the record written on the Island itself of Mr. Dorr's great life work." November 20, 1947. RAC III. 2. I. B. 73. f. 756; costs associated with both memorials were solicited through public subscriptions) Once a positive response was received to cover the costs associated with memorial expenses, the only remaining task for the trustees was distribution of the estate income. Lacking sufficient resources to establish the cultural and scientific objectives stipulated in Dorr's will, the trustees decided that one-half would be directed to the Jesup Memorial Library, one-quarter to the Abbe Museum and the remaining quarter to the Hancock County Trustees. The George B. Dorr trustee account amounted to $27,085 and after modest trustee commissions were extracted, the $25,731 was proportionately distributed three days before Thanksgiving 1947. (Probate Records and copies of seven Bar Harbor Banking and Trust Company checks issued November 24, 1947. Hon. John A. Peters Papers. Dorr Estate. See also Judge Peters' disclosure in the Bar Harbor Times. December 25, 1947) How did each institution apply these estate funds? This question cannot be answered since no documentation survives on this matter in the archives of the beneficiaries. [The Legacy of Oldfarm] Following the death of David Rodick in December 1946, the continuing grief of his brother Serenus affected his professionalism, frustrating Dorr's executors and Mr. Rockefeller, delaying the finalization of his estate for more than a year as Serenus coped with his own health problems. (Trustee Mary Hale complains to Judge Peters about Rodick DORR1941 Page 20 of 26 being "the only person holding back, and asks Peters whether "we could threaten to take the matter out of his hands.' May 5, 1947. Ibid) Shortly before his death in May 1948 from a stroke, the protracted clearance of land titles for the Dorr estate was completed. The correspondence of octogenarian John A. Peters over more than four years with Dorr estate trustees demonstrates the extent of his esteem for Dorr, carried out amid the daily federal judicial responsibilities in Portland. It is clear that his legal experience well prepared him to take charge of the complex arrangements, especially Dorr's land holdings. He and fellow executor, Mrs. Sylvia, were resolved to dispose of all of Dorr's property before involving the estate trustees in the final steps in the process. Sylvia handled the inventory and disposition of personal property, including the 1948 publication of the part two of Dorr's Acadia National Park. Though several estate trustees thought that "it was not of sufficient public interest to authorize publication, Mrs. Sylvia made clear that "Dorr was insistent upon the publication of this part of the history." He understood that his legacy was not only the Park itself, but Oldfarm and the narrative of how his parents home gave rise to the conservation of Island landscape. See Sylvia to Peters, July 1, 1947. Also September 18 and October 5, 1945 letters from Peters to Rockefeller, October 1, 1945 reply from Rockefeller. RAC III. 2. I. B.85.f.840, B. 98. f. 968) Estate trustee Mary N. Hale did more than collect Dorr's Papers from Oldfarm. The record suggests that she quickly removed everything that she deemed to be of historic interest, a fragmented collection of published writings, correspondence, essays, horticultural notes, and park development drafts later published in Acadia National Park. (See my George Bucknam Dorr Papers: Guide, a 2004 finding aid to the unprocessed papers held by the Bar Harbor Historical Society) . Without her quick intervention, a larger quantity of documentation would surely have been lost as both estate representatives, distant cousins, and park staff roamed through the estate with various purposes in mind. Mary Hale responded to a NPS query about Dorr's Papers to the effect that they "are the property of Mr. Dorr's Trustees." (Mary N. Hale to Hillory Tolson. December 24, 1946. NARA. RG79. CCF. 1933-49. Acadia. B. 791) Family papers were sent to New England historical societies and personal papers have been placed in the Jesup Memorial Library. The Trustees had acted expeditiously, though Hadley's involvement with preservation issues only arose when his superiors asked for an accounting. He doubts that there are any papers relating to the establishment of the Park prior to 1916. "I never saw a single piece of correspondence relating to his earlier activities in securing lands and money to buy lands. The reason for the absence of correspondence or other papers is substantially this: (1) Mr. Dorr did a great deal of his work by personal contact with those whom he sought to interest in making donations of land and money. (2) During the early years of his activity, 1901-1916, he was constantly on the move between Bar Harbor, Boston, New York, and Washington." Hadley continues to emphasize the idiosyncrasies of Mr. Dorr. "He maintained no office and had no clerical assistance. Such correspondence as he conducted he did in longhand or had done by a public stenographer. Not being any hand to keep things in an orderly fashion, he probably soon lost track of any copies which he might have DORR1941 Page 21 of 26 retained.. In support of my belief that there are no papers relating to the establishment of the park, I point to the fact that when Mr. Dorr was writing the manuscript for his book Acadia National Park, its Origin and Background, he did it all from memory. The letters quoted were available in records still extant but not in Mr. Dorr's possession. (December 4, 1946. Ibid.) Finally, Hadley reports that the Jesup Library exhibits Dorr artifacts and holds "a few boxes containing typewritten pages of notes dictated by Mr. Dorr {which] do not constitute a connected thread of narrative, or of fact." Hadley promises to inspect several boxes of dated files in his possession accumulated over the last fifteen years. All in all, there is no evidence that Hadley conserved Dorr's papers nor segregated the records of Dorr's administration Most historical documentation on his tenure in the Sawtelle Research Center has been gathered over the decades from Park staff who inherited archival files from their predecessors. Since many Dorr letters in the possession of those with whom he corresponded contain quotes from earlier correspondence, we infer that he retained correspondence files as well as family papers, publications bearing his name, monthly statistical reports prepared for regional and national NPS officials, park planning documents, and personal recollections. Regardless of Hadley's denials, Dorr was a public servant and administrator whose administrative documentation over three decades must have been extensive-to say the least. To what extent the documentation of Dorr's personal and public record was discarded as the house was emptied of its contents we cannot say with certainty. (There is anecdotal evidence of vehicles at this time enroute to the town dump with suspect cargo. Northeast Harbor library director Robert Pyle reported that their Police Chief, Maitland Murphy, reported seeing papers blow out of a vehicle signed by a famous person and another of Calvin Coolidge's signature on White House stationary discarded by the roadside. [March 10, 2003 email to the author]; yet another Bar Harbor collector of historical memorabilia, reports that he secured Dorr documents near the Jackson Laboratory that the wind lifted out of trucks headed for the town dump) The man who sought to conserve nature for the public good appears to have had his intellectual legacy poorly served by other public servants. Certainly, Dorr would have been deeply touched by the thoughtful and protracted efforts of his Trustees to realize his intents. On the other hand, the events that were unfolding with respect to the Park Service utilization of Oldfarm would have sorely worried him. As Hadley and other NPS officials prioritized responses to the fire of 1947, Oldfarm inventories and appraisals were shuffled from one desk to another. In September of 1948, J.H. Denniston and architect Aloysious Higgens to evaluate the Oldfarm structures and determine the costs involved to rehabilitate and maintain them. Various local applications uses of the existing structures had been considered since the death of the Park founder. Now two specialists unfamiliar with the Park and its history would report to the Director whether the site should serve as an administrative headquarters for the park, a park museum, or a concession furnishing lodging and meals to park visitors. But there was one other option: generate revenue for the Government by razing all or some structures. DORR1941 Page 22 of 26 Their report recommended that Oldfarm be gutted, thereby raising up to # 3,000 for contents that remained after shelving, doors, and other utilitarian items were removed for Park purposes. If funds were available and the structure was retrofitted as a museum, a one room wing would be needed. But the main thrust of the report was the recommendation that bids be solicited to raze all buildings not required in the operation of the Park. (September 16, 1948 Oldfarm Field Report. ANP, Archive Curator Office File) Within several weeks NPS Director Newton Drury informs Hadley that "on October 8 we obtained at long last approval for the razing of 'Old Farm.' Yet no historic document identifies the source of this approval, though the involvement of the Secretary of the Interior is a likelihood. In 1949 the six Oldfarm structures were offered at no cost to agencies in state, county, and local municipalities, to be removed at their expense. (B.L. Hadley to Maine State House. September 15, 1949. ANPA. B. 3. f. 10) When there are no offers for any of estate structures, Hadley informs his superior that the Dorr residence razing will not generate revenue but cost $3,000. Finally, in the fall of 1950 Hadley was spared this expense when Dorr's residence was sold for $87. The new owner wished to secure revenue from its physical elements which were carted off after demolition. Only the foundation remains. Three years later estate trustee Phyllis Sylvia wrote to Mr. Rockefeller about her recent visit to Oldfarm. "Much depressed after seeing the grounds in utter ruin," she recalls that Mr. Dorr's greatest wish was that Oldfarm might be kept as a place of refuge and of study for those interested in the flora and fauna of Mt. Desert. Mrs. Sylvia concludes with a challenge to all Park employees: "If one who gave his all to make Acadia National Park possible is SO soon forgotten, there would seem to me to be no incentive for others to try to carry on the work which he started." (July 17, 1954. RAC III.2.I. B. 85. E.840) Ten years after Dorr's death, Mr. & Mrs. Rockefeller visited the property, finding only a portion of the first floor walls remaining, roadways blocked by fallen trees, wreckage everywhere. Despite local assurances that the issue would be addressed, Rockefeller wrote to Director Conrad Wirth offering to supplement "any funds that which the National Park Service had planned or expected to devote" to "help in the early and adequate putting to order of the property." (September 17, 1954. RAC III. B.83.f.821) Mr. Rockefeller had recently pressed the NPS to reconsider its interpretative services, objecting to the "spoon fed" education currently in force. Director Wirth responded that in the face of staff shortages and increased visitation, he doubts that "we ever shall have the personnel on our interpretative force" to give them what they once had. He promises that within six months "a complete program for telling the story of Acadia" will be in place. (September 30, 1954. RAC III. f. attached is Park Naturalist Howard R. Stagner's "Interpretative Plan for Acadia National Park.' February 2, 1955. Therein the Dorr home site is "the center relating to Park history") Five months later Wirth promises to clean up Oldfarm and improve the road and parking area. He further proposes (1) to place a floor on the Oldfarm foundation as "a platform for the same views that Mr. Dorr and his guests had from the home"; (2) to place a nearby "wayside exhibit" to tell the story of Park development and Dorr's place in that process; and (3) to cover the whole Oldfarm foundation with a low broad roof DORR1941 Page 23 of 26 beneath which two exhibit rooms would be constructed to frame a view to the sea. (February 4, 1955. RAC III.2.I. B.83.f.821) Mr. Rockefeller responded with a check for $5,000 to stimulate the process and defray some of the projected $22,400 expense. No documentation has been uncovered regarding the execution of this plan but to do this day all that is evident is that the freestanding foundation walls were removed. In the intervening six decades, the Main Street public property has been 'naturalized.' Force such as abuse, neglect, and the severe Maine coastal winters have taken their toll on Oldfarm. Flower beds have been suffocated by bramble, erosion reshaped land contour, shrubbery has died due to the absence of light, historic roadways and paths have been obliterated or redirected by the wear and tear of the occasional visitor. No scientific studies of the property flora and fauna have been initiated. Of this once artfully crafted habitat, only Storm Beach cottage on the property perimeter is subject to park supervision inasmuch as it serves as a residence for Park staff. Nowhere in the Denniston-Higgens report or in the related documentation is there an indication that Oldfarm was a designed historic landscape. Drawing inspiration from the English picturesque, the families who built these summer cottages in the 1880's laid out elaborate villas set in landscaped high ground overlooking Frenchman Bay. "The picturesque emphasis on irregularity, variety, and roughness was especially suitable to the broken terrain, rock outcrops, streams, and fine stands of trees found along the Maine coast. (See Stephen J. Hornsby. "The Gilded Age and the making of Bar Harbor," Geographical review 83, # 4 (1993) pp. 457-459) Of the prominent architects who designed these cottages, academically trained architect Henry Richards spatially oriented the structures to reflect the owners sensitivities to optimizing the natural features of the existing landscape. Since the establishment the National Register of Historic Places, the park service had acquired sufficient expertise to appreciate how this neglected historic designed landscape could have a level of integrity restored. Yet candidacy for this site as a National Historic Landmark has not been pursued. With the publication of this biography, it is hoped that the significance of Oldfarm will be better appreciated, inspiring the kind of prompt action that was the hallmark of Acadia's Founder and the first directors of the National Park Service. What ought to be the future of Oldfarm? Certainly the options are quite different from those considered by Denniston & Higgens. Is it to minimally recapture the era of the first decade of the National Park Service when the Superintendent entertained distinguished citizens and public officials? To reconstruct the Oldfarm of his parents heyday? To form a tighter link with Bar Harbor by integrating a rejuvenated Oldfarm estate into Friends of Acadia efforts to restore village connector trails to the Park? To be a vehicle for the "No child left inside" educational initiative where the topography of Oldfarm provides a venue for educators to demonstrate the historio and natural forces that shaped the Island? Any new utilization of the property requires a commitment that has not been integral to Park planning for more than fifty years. What arguments could be advanced that would elevate Oldfarm to one of the top priorities for the Acadia National Park administration? Until discussions take place among those who see themselves as stakeholders DORR1941 Page 24 of 26 in the George B. Dorr legacy, a significant cultural landscape will not serve the original purposes of the Organic Act of 1916. (From 2003-2006 a stakeholder group-The Spirit of Acadia-focused attention on these issues, published profiles of park founders, organized a public event revolving around the centennial of the Antiquities Act, and celebrated with the community the restoration of the Sieur de Mont landscape) Popular lore had credited to Dorr a fortune of indeterminate dimensions, its proponents identifying a textile fortune of one to ten million dollars inherited from his mother following her death in 1901. The source of this confusion revolves around the continuing existence of the Guilford New Hampshire Dorr Textile Mill, which has no relation to the Charles Hazen Dorr line. Even without precise information on the source of the inheritance, estimates of the wealth of Dorr's parents can be is demonstrated in part by the quality of their residences in Boston, Lenox, and Bar Harbor; also by their ability to send their sons to Harvard College and the expenses associated with continuous residence abroad during the 1870's If the Dorr's were reticent to speak of these expenses and their revenue sources, more detailed autobiographical expense documentation of families of the same privileged class show that the Dorrs wealth must have been comparable to afford the Victorian luxuries of the era. The probated wills of this era often lack specific information, especially when family resources are being passed directly to the survivors. The evidence suggests that Dorr inherited funds that were wisely invested since their inheritance by his mother from her father, banker Thomas Wren Ward. In 1848, ten years before his death, the Boston City Council Assessor listed his worth at more than $100,000 but less than $250,000. This was in an era when not one penny was taxed at the state or federal level though local taxes were perhaps one tenth of one percent. "One rule of thumb is that for most rich men multiplying assessed wealth by six is the useful estimate of total wealth." (Edward Pessen. Riches, Class, and Power before the Civil War. Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1973. Pgs. 19 & 335) Moreover, the Puritan ethos constrained public disclosure of private assets. Rather than rely on the sources of doubtful authenticity, the extent of Dorr's wealth must remain unanswered. Dr. Eliot and Mr. Rockefeller had expressed growing concern about Dorr's financial solvency nearly thirty years before his death. What is known is that his resources were sufficient to acquire extensive property holdings on Mount Desert Island intended as future gifts to the federal government and that his extensive library showed where he directed much of his capital. While not a spendthrift there is no evidence of excessive expenditures for himself or others. In the end his estate was valued at less than thirty thousand dollars. In the end, the final word on Dorr's fortune may well have been articulated by one of the classical authors with which Dorr was SO familiar. Appius Claudius Caecus was a fourth century B.C. Roman statesman, highly regarded for the wisdom of his counsel on public matters. Though owing much to Graeco-Pythagorean sources, one of his memorable witty moral maxims provides the most suggestive account of the nature of Dorr's fortune: faber est suae quisque fortunae. Everyone DORR1941 Page 25 of 26 is the architect of his own fortune. For George Bucknam Dorr, his fortune was not his inheritance. It was the landscape of Mount Desert Island that he shaped, nourished, and preserved. 1945 Death of Max Farrand Death of Robert Sterling Yard. 1946 Death of Gifford Pinchot. 1959 Death of Beatrix Farrand. 1960 Death of John D. Rockefeller Jr. times DORR1941 Page 26 of 26