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Bar Harbor

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A well-known summer resort of Hancock county, Maine, U.S.A., an unincorporated village, in the township of Eden, on Frenchman's Bay, on the E. side of Mount Desert Island, about 45 m. S.E. of Bangor. Pop. of the township (1890), 1946; (1900) 4379; of the village (1900), about 2000, greatly increased during the summer season. Bar Harbor is served by the Maine Central railway and by steamship lines to New York, Boston, Portland and other ports. The summer climate is cool, usually too cool for sea-bathing, but there is a large open-air salt water swimming bath. Rugged mountains from 1000 to 1500 ft. in height, a coast with deep indentations and lined with bold cliffs, a sea dotted with rocky islets, clear lakes, sparkling rivulets, deep gorges, and wooded glens are features of the attractive scenery here and in the vicinity. Several fine hotels and a number of costly residences occupy a plateau along the shore and the hillsides farther back. The Kebo Valley Club has fine golf links here; and since 1900 an annual horse show and fair has been held at Robin Hood Park at the foot of Newport Mountain. Bar Harbor is usually a summer rendezvous of the North Atlantic Squadron of the United States Navy. The name Bar Harbor, which displaced East Eden, was suggested by the bar which appears at low water between it and Bar Island. Although the first summer hotel was built here in 1855, Bar Harbor's development as a summer resort began about 1870, after some artists had visited the place, and made it widely known through their pictures.

(See MOUNT DESERT.)