The great French explorer Samuel de Champlain gave Mount Desert Island its name: L'Ile des Monts-Deserts, and even today the local pronunciation is "dez-ZERT", following the French style.

When steamships and railroads were opening up America in the 1800s, they also opened up Downeast Maine, and by the end of the century, Bar Harbor, a small town on rocky Mount Desert Island, boasted almost as many palatial summer "cottages" as Newport RI, although the ones here were perhaps not quite so lavish—but pretty close.

Smaller towns, such as Southwest Harbor, draw a much smaller number of visitors, those who enjoy relative peace, quiet, and the less obvious beauties of the island.

Looking north from Cadillac Mountain, Mount Desert Island.

Acadia National Park takes up something like half of the land of Mount Desert Island and much of that on the smaller surrounding islands, and is one of the few national parks in the eastern United States. It draws a large numbers of visitors every year.

Near the southwesternmost point on the island, Bass Harbor Head Light is a quintessential New England lighthouse perched on the rockbound coast of Maine.

—by Tom Brosnahan

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