SPECIAL REPORT: Is there a modern-day Luere Deasy on Mount Desert Island?

BAR HARBOR - How do you want to be remembered as a citizen of this Isle which at 108 square miles is Maine's largest island, and the second largest in the Northeast, next only to Long Island?

The extraordinary efforts of the titans of Acadia - George B. Dorr, Harvard President Charles Eliot, his son, landscape architect Charles Eliot, philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. and landscape architect Beatrix Ferrand - did not come cheaply and with plenty of angst about the commercialism of this fecund eden with its unusual geology jutting out into the ocean.

This island could easily have become the New England version of Sedona, Arizona with unchecked growth - motels and condos vying for space among the red rock. (Parts of it already have.)

Which is what makes Bill Horner a special man who will be remembered among his antecedents, especially his great grandfather, the Honorable Luere B. Deasy, the principal legal mind behind the crafting of Acadia National Park.

Horner and I shared a bench in a Bangor courtroom at the recent trial of the lawsuit against the town ordinance capping cruise ship visitors at 1,000 a day. He was there to testify on behalf of the ordinance.

Before that, during a recess, he told me about his great grandfather who inspired him and informed much of his conservation ethic, “part of which is to try to keep development in check.

“I wish I had been able to convey that to the court yesterday,” he wrote in an email the following day. “But I have learned that the best strategy under questioning is to give short and direct answers, however unfulfilling.”

In 2016, as part of the year-long centennial celebration of the park, Horner wrote a script for an event at the Criterion Theater in which he stated that his great grandfather was “the essential bridge between sophisticated summer cottagers (rusticators) and the islanders whose cooperation eventually conserved Acadia.”

On Jan. 17, 1884, Deasy became the first full-time lawyer to service Bar Harbor.

Almost from the beginning, Deasy combined his practice with banking. In 1887, he joined with four others to create the Bar Harbor Banking and Trust (my local bank). He possessed both a legal and business acumen.

Deasy, would go on to serve two terms in the Maine Senate (1907-1910), including one as Senate President (1909-1910). He was appointed by Governor Carl Milliken as a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court serving from 1918 to 1930.

But in the late Nineteenth Century, Deasy was at the cross point of conflict between local businesses and the well-endowed preservationists, Horner wrote in his essay.

“Rapid unplanned development on Mount Desert now troubled both summer colony cottagers and local leaders, such as Deasy, who cherished the natural beauty of the Island and knew that her communities needed sound infrastructure to guide growth.

“They were called to common purpose by President Eliot who, grieving for his recently deceased son Charles, an early landscape architect and pioneer of public reservation land in Massachusetts, now resolved to honor his offspring's vision of a Mount Desert whose exceptional beauty would be conserved forever and for all.

“Eliot framed the idea in a letter to George B. Dorr of Boston and Bar Harbor, dated August 12, I90I. He proposed a meeting of the Island village improvement societies to consider ‘the organization of a board of trustees or commission to hold reservations at points of interest on this Island, for the perpetual use of the public.’”

Later he said, “I approach the undertaking myself from the cottagers' point of view, but I believe it to be a measure on which all persons interested in the preservation of this island as a place for healthful enjoyment could unite.”

With the leadership of Deasy, the Charter of Incorporation for the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, the precursor to the national park, was approved by the Maine legislature on March 28,1903.

“Despite the successful legislation, Eliot worried to the point of despair about public acceptance, particularly among native Islanders,” Horner wrote. “On August 25,1903, Eliot wrote to fellow Trustee Lea McILvaine Luquer:

Horner wrote, “Knowing perhaps better than anyone the periodic tensions between the noble purposes of the Trustees and the concerns of permanent residents, and having done as much if not more than anyone to resolve them, Deasy must have felt deep satisfaction when, through the good works of George B. Dorr in Washingron, the great day came when President Wilson, using the powers given him in the 1906 Antiquities Act, proclaimed the creation of Sieur de Monts National Monument on July 8, 1916.

“Soon thereafter the public gathered at Kebo's Building of the Arts to hear a series of speeches by Charles Eliot, George B. Dorr and, among others, Luere B. Deasy. Eliot introduced Deasy as " . . . identified with the legal work involved in obtaining the great reservations . . . knows the history of the enterprise . . . knows what the meaning of the undertaking.”

By then Deasy was already a well-know orator. But his speech that day was transcendent, a must read for every island resident, every student and every person who makes a living off of the natural blessings of this place:

The establishment of this Monument guarantees that it will be perpetually open for the use of the public, under due restrictions, not as a matter of suffrage but as a matter of right; it guarantees that it will be protected against devastation or commercial exploitation; that its animal, bird, and plant life shall be conserved - something that could not be accomplished under private or even corporate ownership. These guarantees are worth far more than the Park has cost. This great Park lies midway between Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor and Bar Harbor. It is equally accessible to them all. All have a common interest in it. It reaches out to each of these resorts and binds them together into one community. But to him who possesses imagination and vision, the opening of this Park has a wider and deeper significance. That these mountains standing at the very edge of the Continent, looking out across the ocean far beyond our Country’s domain, should remain in private ownership, bought and sold by metes and bounds and used for private gain, is incongruous. That they should be held by the Nation in trust for all its people is their appropriate destiny. The man who lives in the interior of the country has very little to remind him of the Federal Government under which he lives. But go with me upon the crest of any one of these hills and look seaward; upon every headland a lighthouse; upon every sunken edge a buoy or spindle. The safe channel along the whole coast is clearly marked; and when the fog curtain falls, the Nation does not forget its children upon the water, but guides them to safety by signals. It is fitting that the Nation should be given this unique post of vantage, these mountains by the sea from which its most beneficent work may be observed. It is fitting it should hold them in trust for the public, because of the lessons they teach of ancient geologic history and Nature's ways; because of the exceptional lessons and interest of the life they shelter, plant and animal; and because of their historic association with the early exploration of our coast and its attempted occupation by the French. For these, alike, and other reasons of which I have no need to speak, so familiar are they to all, we do well to celebrate this occasion.

“These were the progressive views of a common man of the Maine coast, seasoned in law and politics, with the hard-won wisdom to entrust a precious part of the commons to the safe stewardship of our collective will acting through the government. He saw a good future for the Park and surrounding communities, sensed that the Park could become a world heritage, and affirmed that this commons had been conserved from the degradation of division and development for profit by private hands,” Horner concluded.

Who is Bill Horner?

Photo of Bill Horner by Liz Graves in the Islander

By Bill Horner

BAR HARBOR - I was born in 1941 at Mount Desert Island Hospital and graduated from Bar Harbor High School in 1959. As most of you readers know, there were three high schools on MDI in those days and competition in sports and for girls was pretty intense. I remember being thoroughly chastised for inviting a very attractive young lady from Mount Desert to my senior prom. I thought this was a major coup, especially since I was a terrible basketball player.

I didn’t know much about what was going on in towns outside Bar Harbor then, except that there were a lot of summer people in Northeast Harbor and a lot of fishermen in Southwest and on the outer islands. I went away to college and medical school.

I returned to my hometown in 1972 as a newly minted general surgeon and began to see patients from everywhere: Swan’s Island, Frenchboro, the Cranberries, Ellsworth, Downeast Maine and, of course, from every square inch of Mount Desert Island.

By then the island had managed to consolidate the three high schools and I began to appreciate the true character of island residents and, despite differences in geography, how much we had in common.

People had really interesting stories to tell about their families and lives, many of which intersected with my own - and with “my” town. Rather than as separate villages and towns with separate histories, I began to understand that we were one very interesting community of islands, each of our stories fitting together.

I retired from surgery in 2007 and, having island roots, began to explore my family’s history and stories, many of them handed down orally and having taken on rather dubious if not mythic qualities.

I aspired to do research, discover the truth and write. This led me to a particular family member who became a community leader in 1880s Bar Harbor and subsequently had much to do with the formation of Acadia National Park.

His local interest had quickly translated to the regional. He lifted his eyes above the small town of Gouldsboro, where he was born, and saw the entire region from the tops of mountains. He saw Acadia not as a pretty island park but as a grand public resource, a gift to the country to be held in trust for the benefit of every American. He inspired me.

I wrote his story and in my search for truth found historical resources I had not previously imagined: people, collections, both private and public, and institutions.

The closer I got to completing my manuscript, the more suggestions of resources came in. Where was all this stuff? How could I access it?

I gathered a number of interested friends and we decided to form a collaborative, to be known as the Friends of Island History (FOIH). Included were Acadia National Park, the College of the Atlantic, the island libraries and museums, several historical societies, and individual collectors and historians. FOIH had a cordial if untested relationship.

Aside from the libraries, FOIH members had little to no history of collaboration. This was a very new idea. And given the old competition among towns, it wasn’t entirely clear that we completely trusted one another.

As we held these candid discussions, one essential philosophical point became clear: With regard to our institutional collections, we were stewards, not owners. We were, in effect, trustees — just as the founders of Acadia National Park called themselves, The Trustees of Public Reservations.

Then came the idea of a History Trust and further realizations. As an initial group of 11 organizations, the History Trust could support individual organizations’ efforts to maintain their autonomy, protect and catalog their collections, digitize them and create sophisticated metadata — a digital archive — so that they could be easily searched by scholars from fifth grade to graduate school and by the general public.

We could also tap numerous opportunities to economize and take advantage of synergies. Together, we could seek funding from hitherto untapped resources in the form of grants and enlightened private philanthropy.

In essence, we would be engaging our communities and schools in telling their stories and passing them on to future generations, preserved and improved.

To date the following organizations form the History Trust: Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association, Thorndike Library of College of the Atlantic, Great Cranberry Island Historical Society, Great Harbor Maritime Museum, Islesford Historical Society, Jesup Memorial Library, Maine Seacoast Mission, Mount Desert Island Historical Society, Seal Cove Auto Museum, Southwest Harbor Historical Society, and Tremont Historical Society.

The History Trust’s governing council has begun the strategic planning process that will establish clear goals and deliverables to achieve the organization’s mission and vision.

The group has defined the mission of the History Trust as the following: The stewards of Mount Desert Island regional collections, united as the History Trust, work together to improve collections care, enhance digital and physical access, and engage the public to better understand and use these essential, irreplaceable, historical and cultural resources.

The History Trust collaborative has been doing the hard work of creating an organization that can save the region’s archives, develop a common catalog so that anyone can see what is in them, engage young people and preserve and appreciate the rich histories that define this place to which we always return, the place we all call home.

For this native son, that is a dream fulfilled. That is progress!

An incomplete version of this article was inadvertently attached to a previous post. I apologize for the sloppy handling.

LETTER: Bar Harbor not just a tourist town

BAR HARBOR - Not all witnesses at the the APPLL lawsuit against the town were called. Several were dismissed after the plaintiffs objected to their sameness. Judge Lance Walker agreed that the defense witnesses were getting repetitive in their answers.

One witness dismissed was former Warrant Committee member Cara Ryan, who sent the following letter to the Bangor Daily News and Portland Press Herald. The BDN published it this week:

By Cara Ryan

The recent federal trial of APPLL v. Bar Harbor, concerning a new ordinance reducing cruise ship visitation, ended with several subpoenaed witnesses not called to testify. We were disappointed, hoping to show the judge a different side of Bar Harbor - neither business owners suing for continued cruise ships, nor town staff diligently managing their impact.

I wanted to answer opposing counsel’s repeated question about Bar Harbor being a tourist town with a no, because it’s not all or even essentially what we are. We’re also a college and science town, a fishing and arts community, among many things. We may be struggling with the tsunami of “tourist town” pressures, but we still have the spine (and numbers) to vote against resignation. We want to grow and protect our year-round life.

I wanted to argue for scale. With a population barely over 5,000 and wide open to the millions who drive or fly here, we can’t also reasonably welcome as many cruise passengers as our population in daily disembarkations. The new limit ( 1,000 per day) is still, proportionately, generous.

The judge heard from a few residents that they avoid downtown because of crowds. I would have added that we aren’t alone in avoiding Bar Harbor. Friends from across the island and beyond now avoid our town. We’re being displaced and isolated by one of the most polluting forms of travel, sailing under foreign flags. That’s why, while so much of the world burns, we voted for change. We hope the law supports us.