"A Sense of Immensity," FOA Journal 21, #1 (Spring 20116 The Acadia Experience A SENSE OF IMMENSITY By Ronald H. Epp A S automobiles, trucks, RVs, motor- motor and carriage road systems. There won't allow it. cycles, and buses head up the Ca- were highly public reactions to expand- Congress appropriated summit road dillac Summit Road during peak ing private and public access to parkland. funds in 1924, yet work on the winding, season, their drivers and passengers appear The primitivist philosophy of U.S. Senator 3.7-mile, 22-foot-wide road was largely unconcerned about the much-publicized George W. Pepper of Pennsylvania strained confined to the three years after 1929. As traffic congestion atop the mountain. May- public credulity when he said that visitor early as October 1930 the first auto trip to be they expect that once the lot is full they experience atop Cadillac would be marred the summit was completed. can just park along the summit road and by the sight of any vehicle not there when As the country weathered the first years walk on the shoulder to their destination. Champlain discovered the island! of the Great Depression and road work The effort of National Park Service Fidelity to unaltered landscape, road- progressed, Mainers were convinced that founders to attract visitors to Acadia has way intrusion into wild lands, growth of this road would become the greatest at- incrementally led to a visitation explosion the federal footprint on the island topogra- traction of the state: a scenic parkway to that threatens the scenery, flora, and fauna phy, and landscape damage from overuse the highest point on the Atlantic coast be- that all of the parks were established to became recurring subjects of debate. Yet tween Labrador and Brazil. protect. Yet the Cadillac summit capac- it is notable that NPS landscape architect Dorr's unpublished memoirs reveal his ity issue had been recognized even prior Charles Peterson complained to his supe- preference for a more costly summit route to the dedication of the historic motor riors in early 1931 about inadequate sum- "out over the eastern spur, the White Cap, road. After securing national park status mit parking, recommending its expansion with its bold outlook over Eagle Lake and in 1919, park managers intensified their prior to the road opening. the magnificent sunset views arousing a discussions about replacing a washed-out In his October 1931 site visit report to sense of immensity few island scenes can carriage road leading to the summit of NPS director Stephen Mather, the assis- equal." The gentleman who had climbed that preeminent mountain top, acquired tant director, Horace M. Albright, "con- the tallest mountain in the United King- in 1908 by the Hancock County Trustees templated additional parking space inside dom, the highest peak east of the Mis- of Public Reservations, with an engineered the turn-around loop for about 65 cars, sissippi (6,684-foot Mt. Mitchell), and motor road. as well as an extension just below the 14,454-foot Mount Whitney was nonethe- In 1922 park superintendent George loop for about twenty more." He was the less awed by the Cadillac Summit. A less Bucknam Dorr proposed to his NPS supe- first to recognize that the "surprising num- expensive route was chosen and finally in- riors a circuitous summit road. Although ber of visitors" raised concerns "that this spected by Interior Secretary Ray Lyman John D. Rockefeller Jr. became his ally parking space will be enough." The size Wilbur, whose visit was intended to en- in the larger effort to develop a compre- of the parking lot footprint was judged sure that all preparations were in place for hensive motor road system, in the decade inadequate eighty-four years ago. Today the road's highly publicized dedication. leading to the FDR administration con- some still call for parking lot expansion, Several weeks later, on July 23rd, 1932, troversies arose about extension of both although the park's management plan surrounded by the press corps and film- 8 Spring 2016 Vol.21,#1 Friends of Acadia Journal makers, Dorr was greeted atop Cadillac National Park. Secretary Dixon suggested issues (although, ironically, the existing Mountain by spirited march music. Hun- that no time should be lost in erecting a bus fleet is not able to serve the Cadillac dreds gathered there primarily to revel in bronze plaque to Dorr, while others pro- Summit road). Nonetheless, vehicular and the fine macadam underfoot. This pave- posed naming one of the island peaks af- human traffic continues to impede the ment represented the unacknowledged ter him. Before the party of five hundred power of the Acadian landscape to pro- contributions of day laborers, heavy invited guests sat down for lunch, Judge foundly affect us. equipment operators, stone masons, en- Deasy asked for a moment of silence in Two decades ago NPS historians Richard gineers, architects, and construction fore- tribute to Charles W. Eliot-another fig- Quin and Neal M. Maher completed the men. ure who had greatly influenced Acadia's definitive study of Acadia's motor roads The Bangor newspaper reported that Development. under the auspices of the oldest govern- "this wonderful scenic highway has come One historic consequence of his death ment preservation program, the Historic into being as a monument to the foresight was the installation of Mather memorial American Buildings Survey, and its com- and hard work of one man-George B. plaques in all national parks. Nearly three panion, the Historic American Engineer- Dorr." In point of fact, it was the eldest weeks before the Summit Road's official ing Record. Quin offered therein a sound son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. who shared dedication, on July 4th-Mather's birth- general appraisal that applies to conges- with Dorr the cutting of the white silk rib- day-an impressive plaque was mounted tion issues: "it was community debate, not bon to officially signal the opening of the beside the summit loop trailhead adjacent community solidarity, that ultimately de- road. His father contributed to the dedica- to the already-overcrowded parking lot. termined the final shape of the park's mo- tion expenses but was prevented from par- To exhibit the landscape was Dorr's larg- tor road system." ticipating due to a painful case of shingles. er intent, a noble public purpose that not This tension between wilderness ad- The officials included the secretary of only resulted in growing popularity but a vocates, federal policy enforcers, visitor the Navy, Charles Francis Adams III, rep- host of complicating factors unanticipat- expectations, boundary disputes, and the resenting the Hoover administration, and ed by Dorr, Rockefeller, and Eliot. Today, economic worries of year-round locals Joseph W. Dixon, a Progressive Montana Friends of Acadia initiatives like the Island makes this gently sloping macadam park- governor and former Bull Mooser who was Explorer bus service offset some persistent way a public road in the truest sense of first assistant secretary of the Department the word. of the Interior. Thirty-seven naval officers The first century of the NPS provides from vessels moored in Frenchman Bay, historical evidence of successful progress, the governors of Maine and Rhode Island, CREATING though not resolution of all issues. The and numerous United States senators and ACADIA 1932 celebration opened easy summit ac- representatives were also present. The cess to Americans. Since then two hun- presence of hundreds of other prominent NATIONAL PARK dred million Americans have been added individuals from island towns and beyond RONALD H. EPP to the population. displaced any thought that this was exclu- The Biography of The day is long past when park visita- sively a Bar Harbor festivity. George Bucknam Dorr tion is touted as an unalloyed blessing. Quickly rain and fog enveloped those Sensitivity to the historic tension between on the summit. A torrential downpour preservation and use has prompted many prompted the master of ceremonies, Judge visitors to modify behavior. Like Dorr and Luere Deasy, to relocate the program to his guests atop Cadillac, let us approach the Malvern Hotel where Charles Francis the next century with confidence that this Adams III spoke to those present about much-enlarged democracy will devise so- an emotional incident fifteen years earlier, lutions through conversation to preserve when he had stood with Dorr on Schoo- the original intent of the National Park ner Head and heard his friend expand at Creating Acadia Service. length on what the park should become. National Park: Over and over again speakers affirmed The Biography of George Bucknam Dorr RONALD H. EPP is a historian and pro- that the Cadillac Summit Road would By Ronald H. Epp fessor of philosophy with a background in make the park's natural wonders more ac- Published by Friends of Acadia scholarly publishing and academic library cessible to the public. Now available! leadership. His research over the last two John E. Nelson, who had succeeded decades into the Massachusetts families Visit www.friendsofacadia.org John A. Peters in the US House of Repre- that influenced the development of con- "Readers will come to know Dorr the man, sentatives, likened Dorr to the first direc- not only his triumphs and generosity, but also servation philanthropy has led to the April tor of the NPS, Stephen Tyng Mather, who his frailties, his blind spots and ultimately, 2016 publication of Creating Acadia Nation- had recently passed away. Peters declared his humanity. al Park: The Biography of George Bucknam that what Mather had been to the Na- -Earl Brechlin, Mount Desert Islander Dorr; this essay is based on his research for tional Park Service SO was Dorr to Acadia and in part excerpted from the book. Friends of Acadia Journal Spring 2016 9