Acadia-Nationalpark
The Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine in Hancock County is known for its rocky cliffs and rugged landscape with mountains and lakes. It is the only national park in New England and one of the ten most visited parks in the United States.
Location
The park covers about 192 km ² coastal area of Maine. Most of the park is located on Mount Desert Iceland ( about 122 km ²), smaller areas on the upstream Isle au Haut (11 km ²) and the nearby Schoodic Peninsula (9.2 km ²) as well as many smaller islands.
Mount Desert Iceland is connected via a short causeway to the mainland, the nearest towns are Ellsworth and Bangor ( Penobscot County). The park covers only a part of the island, the rest is populated and has very high property prices due to the great environment.
In the northeast of Mount Desert Iceland the old fishing port Bar Harbor, capital of the island and entrance to the park is located.
Landscape
The main attractions are found along the Park Loop Road in the eastern part of the island. Along the southeast coast one finds the characteristic jagged, umtoste from the surf rock coast.
Inland lies the Jordan Pond in a shaped by the glaciers of the Ice Age landscape. The highest mountain of the island, Cadillac Mountain ( 505 m above sea level. M. ), allows of its treeless summit a view over the park. There is also the point in the United States sees the sunrise first.
On the southwest tip of the island, near the village of Bass Harbor, there is a picturesque, idyllic lighthouse: the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
History
The first traces of human origin on the island back more than 5000 years back. Then the tribe of the Abenaki Indians lived on the island. In 1604, finally, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain described as the first European to the island. Since he had the impression that the relatively high mountains devoid of vegetation, he gave the island the name " Isle des Monts Deserts " in English of Mount Desert Iceland.
In the following 150 years the island was in the war between the French, British and Indians too unsafe for habitation. Only in 1761 have settled British settlers.
Mid-19th century, the island was eventually discovered for tourism. The super-rich from the nearby cities of the east coast, billionaires such as John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford and members of the Astor family, bought land and turned the island into a place of luxury and high society.
But you is also the emergence of the park due to: A group led by John D. Rockefeller and Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard University, bought on 1901 land to protect it. On January 16, 1916, the park was established as " Sieur de Monts National Monument" and donated to the State under the obligation to establish a reserve. On February 26, 1919, the Congress declared the area to Lafayette National Park ( after the French supporter of the American Revolution the Marquis de Lafayette ), then the only east of the Mississippi River. On January 19, 1929, the Park Acadia National Park has been renamed.
Today the park with nearly 2.5 million visitors ( 2003) is among the ten most visited national parks due to its proximity to the cities of the east coast.