SPECIAL REPORT: Rockefeller's role in dividing Otter Creek and park service

OTTER CREEK, June 7, 2024 - After the “advisory commission” of Acadia National Park summarily dismissed the request of the Town of Mount Desert on Monday for a sliver of park land so residents of Otter Creek may have access to its landing in the inner harbor, Town Manager Durlin Lunt said he is far from done with his mission to pursue the rightful claims of Otter Creek residents.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Lunt said.

It would have been an easy peace offering to help quelch some of the century-old resentment from residents here in what is the park service’s worst town gown problem on MDI.

Instead, the commission told Otter Creek to pound sand, stating the town would have to commit to a “land swap.” Lunt said that is the most difficult and expensive path, requiring surveys, public hearings and eventually town meeting approval.

He saw that as an indication of the park’s intransigence.

Carrie Jones had a full report of the meeting, so I will not attempt to cover the same ground.

However, the enmity for the park service expressed by some Otter Creek residents has lasted so long that I was curious as to its genesis. I knew of only lore repeated by Lunt and others about the questionable taking of land in 1936 and later by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

This week Patrick Callaway, collections coordinator at Mount Desert Historical Society, lent me a book which contained the most definitive history of that period written by ethnographer Douglas Deur in 2012, with assistance from the University of Washington and published by the park service.

The entire book may be accessed online. (Deur has authored other similar works such as this manuscript regarding Isle au Haut:
https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/481815)

I have excerpted the executive summary from “The Waterfront of Otter Creek: A Community History” and reprinted the chapter from how the Depression enabled Rockefeller to acquire the land around Otter Creek’s harbor.

Executive Summary 

“This report addresses the history of the community of Otter Creek, Maine, and  its historical connections with the Otter Cove waterfront in Acadia National Park. Sitting  on the southeastern end of Mount Desert Island, and now largely within the boundaries  of Acadia National Park, certain families gathered here in the early 19th century and  eked a living from the Cove and its adjacent waters as fishermen and lobstermen. Other  industries would come and go along the Cove – from granite quarrying to firewood  cutting – but fishing and lobstering remained the cornerstones of community life even  as the community began to provide service and support to the Rusticators in the latter  decades of the 19th century. In spite of many geographical and economic challenges, this  small fishing community persisted and even thrived in the years that followed.  

“Throughout its history, various forces brought changes to the community and its  relationship with the waterfront in Otter Cove. Interviewee accounts and a variety of  other sources attest to these challenges. The village grew up on either side of a municipal  boundary between the towns of Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert, which sliced through Otter  Cove and split the community in two. Later, as the affluent “rusticators” of Mount Desert Island began to transform island life in the late 19th century, many Otter Creek residents  became caretakers or landscapers for the sprawling and opulent ‘cottages’ of Bar Harbor, or raised crops and flowers for Bar Harbor homes - sometimes complementing  and sometimes undermining families’ participation in the fishing economy. However, it  was the events of the Great Depression and after that most transformed the relationship  of the community with the waterfront, in ways that were complex and enduring. John  D. Rockefeller, Jr., arriving at the height of the Depression, was able to acquire much of  the Otter Creek waterfront at little expense, in support of his larger vision for Acadia  National Park. Wishing to create a showpiece swimming pond for the new national park, Rockefeller enclosed Otter Creek’s inner Cove in a scenic causeway, and worked  to extinguish the waterfront access of the community while making informal agreements to allow Otter Creekers continued access to their fish houses on the outer cove beyond  the newly constructed shoreline drive. By 1940, much of Rockefeller’s vision for Otter  Creek’s waterfront – except the swimming pond – had been achieved, and over time  Rockefeller transferred his lands to the National Park Service for incorporation into  Acadia National Park. 

“As interviewees attest, the relationship between Otter Creek and the National  Park Service became somewhat complex in the years that followed. Otter Creek was  the only town on Mount Desert Island to be fully encircled by the new park, and to effectively lose access to a working waterfront concurrently with the park’s creation.  These developments compounded the many other challenges facing fisherman on this Cove in the mid-20th century. Some of these were of longstanding duration, such as  the Cove’s exposure to waves and the ill effects of bad weather, but others arose from  newer economic conditions such as changing fish stocks and markets, and the industry’s  transition to larger boats and power-assisted technology. The few people who held on  to the traditional fishing lifestyle did so with great effort, and often out of great affection  for their heritage and for the traditions of small scale Maine fishermen. By mid-century,  only a very small community of fishermen remained, launching their boats from small  waterfront fish houses on remnant inholdings. At certain times, park staff demolished  fish houses, abandoned and sometimes not, as park management prioritized natural  resources and landscapes rather than cultural resources and landscapes in this portion of  the park. 

“The waterfront is still of profound importance to many Otter Creek families  and, though commercial fishing has largely passed from the scene, the attachments and  structures of these fishing families often endure – giving the place unique meaning to  the modern descendents of the historical fishermen of Otter Creek. Even when families  cease to fish, they make efforts to maintain symbolic connections to the waterfront. Some  memorialize their traditions, and attempt to preserve them on NPS lands. Impromptu  constructions - such as the Harold Walls memorial piling – sometimes appear on the  landscape where working structures once stood. Other families and individuals litigate  to seek an enduring footprint on the landscape. A longstanding community organization,  the Otter Creek Aid Society, was revived and now organizes community events, maintains  its own fish house, and has supported the restoration of a town landing developed out of  an agreement with Acadia National Park. No matter the method employed, it is clear that  this little cove means something significant to many Otter Creek residents, and that this  meaning is rooted in the distinctive history of this place.  

“The current study seeks to do justice to this long and complex story. This is a  historical survey, covering roughly 180 years of human history as it relates to a particular  landscape – Otter Creek’s waterfront. This document does so using the methods of  ethnography and oral history – allowing the words of Otter Creek families to often “speak  for themselves” in the pages that follow. Some 18 individuals with specialized knowledge  of Otter Creek history served as formal interviewees for the report, while a number  of other area residents provided informal input and guidance on the project. Archival  and published sources are used to provide a context for interviewees’ observations, recollections, and opinions. 

The Great Depression on Otter Creek Cove 

“Among all of the periods addressed in this document, the Great Depression was  among the most transformative. As was true in many parts of the United States, Otter  Creek families resumed certain economic practices and subsistence economies that had  been eclipsed by the economic developments of the preceding decades. In some respects,  the rural residents of Otter Creek were, in fact, better equipped to deal with the riveting  effects of the depression than many other American communities.

“Only marginally attached to the capitalist economy prior to the crash, [the  people of rural Maine] were accustomed to hardscrabble lives of semi subsistence farming supplemented by hunting, fishing, and woods work. 

“Most accounts suggest that use of Otter Creek cove for fishing did not decline  and – if anything – increased during the Great Depression. Interviewees describe it as  a bustling waterfront:

“as a kid…I spent most of my time down there, around the shore  there” (NW). Families resumed subsistence fishing practices that had waned for years,  taking fish and lobster, gathering shellfish, and picking berries along the cove’s margins.  

Otter Creek fishermen also sought to adjust to the decline in seafood sales  nationally by focusing on underutilized products and focusing on certain local markets,  which showed remarkable resilience. For the wealthiest families in the United States, the 

Depression had comparatively little effect on daily life. Bar Harbor cottages continued  to be occupied each summer by wealthy families eager to get away from the difficulties  of urban America during this period. Local families scrambled to find ways to offset the  decline in national sales of seafood by intensifying their efforts to sell to these wealthy  seasonal residents, while also following larger statewide trends in harvesting especially  low-cost seafood products for national markets. Some suggest that this was when the  Otter Creek fishermen most successfully expanded their lobster sales within local  markets: 

“I hear my grandfather talk. Grandpa was born in 1907. And, you know,  I did a lot of hunting and fishing with him, but he would talk about that’s  when the lobster business [really started] ‘cause back then, lobsters were a  poor man’s food. But then there was a market developing more because of  the people coming here, you know the summer estates, the summer tourist  business. And, so fishing, you know, a lot of restaurants, a lot of hotels, that  type of thing…There was quite a viable fishing area, you know, down in that  area. I remember him talking about it as a kid being involved with other older  people [lobstering during the Depression] (TR). 

“In addition to lobstering, clamming expanded significantly during the Depression,  as residents relied on unconventional sources of income to make ends meet. Norm Walls  remembers that during the Depression…they went clamming. They cooked the clams and  shucked them out. There was a market. They loaded them in barrels. Most of  the able-bodied people dug clams (NW).  

“Similarly, Gerry Norwood recalls stories of this period, when families could earn  up to three cents a pound for shucked clams at Bar Harbor and other communities where  there was still a thriving summer population:  

“My father-in-law and some of those [men of his generation said] there  was quite a few fishermen there before the war… I remember during the  Depression my father-in-law telling me he used to lobster and dug clams.  And they got three cents a pound for short clams—dig ‘em, shuck ‘em out,  and sell ‘em that way...Because I think he said there were five or six guys down  there digging clams and shucking them out right there and selling them. And  that was one way to make a little money back then (GN).  

“Otter Creek fishermen typically cooked these clams before they were trucked out  of Otter Creek, building fires along the waterfront. The current site of the Otter Creek Aid  Society fish house was said to be the approximate site of one of the main clam cooking operations during that period: “When I was a kid there were piles of clam shells all over  there” (NW).  

Families also kept chickens, goats, cows, and oxen during this period – both for  personal use and for sale of eggs, milk, and meat to Bar Harbor and other Mount Desert  Island communities. Oxen were said to be especially popular during the Depression,  because they could alternatively serve as beasts of burden or as a source of meat,  depending on one’s needs during this uncertain period: “in the first year you used them  to haul firewood, then in the second they would butcher them for food.” (NW)  

Otter Creek families also turned their attention to the forests around Mount  Desert Island to help support their families. Norm Walls recalls that his grandfather, a  homebuilder, was able to supplement the family’s income by selling firewood:  

“during the Depression days, he would recruit people, he had a lot in Ellsworth,  and they would go and cut wood…to sell on the island (NW).  

“Other families cut firewood closer to home, often in areas that were later  incorporated into Acadia National Park. At Christmas time, these families trekked into the  forests to find greenery or Christmas trees for sale to local or regional markers. As Norm  Walls recalls, “my aunt had a place where she made wreathes. Some people cut trees and  sold them to Boston” (NW). 

“As Bar Harbor and other ‘cottage’ communities on the island continued to thrive,  service occupations were still available to some Otter Creek residents. A growing number  of women were compelled to join the work force to help families pay expenses, many  becoming maids in the grand homes of Bar Harbor. Marjorie Walls Cough remembers  working in Bar Harbor during this period: 

“That’s where I worked, where the college [College of the Atlantic] is used to  be the home of a very rich woman, and I worked for her for three different  summers. That was when I was 17, 18 and 19. [It]’s right where the college  is…the Burns house… it burned [in 1947] and they made a new one. It’s  utterly different now. But it was very nice then…That was all before the  college. [The family’s name was] Burns, James Burns…I was a kitchen maid.  I helped the cook and, you know, washed dishes and cleaned up, everything.  We had seven help. Just one woman, all alone. Seven people waiting on her  (MC). 

“Flower sales also continued, catering to the same affluent families. Norm Walls  remembers that his father had a greenhouse at Otter Creek where he grew flowers ‘for  the summer people,’ a job that continued to pay during the Depression. “Chauffeurs would stop with their big Pierce-Arrow and…my grandma sold sweet peas to them by the  bunch” (NW).  

“Still, while there was still life on the streets of Bar Harbor, Otter Creek was  suddenly quieter, as a declining number of cars passed through town. Interviewees recall  that, in winter, kids sledded on Route 3 where it passed through town, as the snows were  deep and traffic was light. A number of stores and businesses were said to have fronted  Grover Avenue and Route 3 until the Depression, but foundered during the 1930s. By  the late 1930s, there were three grocery stores in Otter Creek, owned by George Buzzell,  Percy Cameron, and a large one owned by Edward McFarlane (NW). A few of these  businesses were resuscitated during World War II, but the town never fully regained its  commercial ‘core’ after this period.  

Rockefeller and NPS Acquisition of Otter Cove 

“The Great Depression, of course, would have other, major consequences for the  waterfront of Otter Creek. In time, the devaluation of land in coastal Maine opened the  waterfront of Otter Creek for easy acquisition by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Philanthropist,  industrialist, and heir to the great Rockefeller fortune, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. had been a  promoter and benefactor for the national park concept on Mount Desert Island since its  inception. A regular visitor to Mount Desert Island with a family ‘cottage’ of his own,  Rockefeller had been instrumental in helping establish the initial Sieur de Monts National  Monument on the island in 1916, had played a catalytic role in the redesignation of the  NPS unit as Lafayette National Park in 1919, and had been involved in the rededication  of the park as Acadia National Park in January of 1929. As early as 1915, J.D. Rockefeller  Jr. had been planning, designing, and personally financing the development of the park’s  unique carriage road network - continuing work on this system of roads, bridges, and  associated features until his death in 1959. Certainly, these roads established new socio spatial boundaries between affluent park visitors and their blue-collar counterparts  living on the island. Yet, with formal road planning beginning a mere seven years after  the arrival of Ford’s Model T, Rockefeller’s development of this road network was also  a prescient response to the growing pressures on the island – creating uniquely scenic  passageways through the park that would not be congested by the growing motorized  traffic of fisherman and Bar Harbor tourists alike (Roberts 1990; Dorr 1948, 1942).  

“Otter Creek was one of those portions of Mount Desert Island that was of  particular interest to Rockefeller. On its waterfront, Rockefeller sought to make an enduring imprint, by making elaborate plans for a park road and other recreational  infrastructure while simultaneously attempting to place most of its shore in National  Park Service management. A number of interviewees discussed plans that Rockefeller  had developed to turn inner Otter Creek cove into an impounded swimming facility, to  be developed by the NPS with the assistance of the Army Corps of Engineers. Original  proposals to develop a swimming beach for park visitors at Seal Harbor were met with  organized opposition by residents of that community; some suggest that this development  is what led to proposals for a protected swimming beach on the inner cove of Otter  Creek: ‘they wanted to build a salt water swimming pool over in Otter Creek to attract  the people to a warmer area and get them off the Seal Harbor beach. That was the whole  point of it’ (SS). As explained by Paul Richardson, 

“Rockefeller had envisioned that that inner harbor would have been a  recreational facility. The whole complex would have been recreational,  because he knew that the sand beach was not – you know, when interviewed  once someone said to him, ‘well, what do you think about the beaches?’ He  said, ‘well, obviously everybody goes to the Ocean Drive sand beach. It is a  beautiful beach but extremely cold water.’ And he said, ‘they come to Seal  Harbor where the water may be a little warmer,’ but he didn’t really want  them over to Seal Harbor, okay?...the village, that’s not what they wanted.  So he would have put in a beach in there and it would have had canoes and  this type of thing. And when that bridge was built, those three arches have  stopgaps so that they could slide in huge planks to hold the water back inside  that cove (PR). 

“Rockefeller’s correspondence from the period appears to confirm the general  descriptions of Otter Creek interviewees. Here and there, Rockefeller alludes to this  swimming beach project in meeting notes related to park expansion; even into the late  1940s, he makes such references in correspondence with NPS leadership: ‘We discussed  the Otter Creek swimming pool project and made some progress toward its further study  and development.’

“For the Causeway and swimming pool design, Rockefeller sought the assistance  of the Olmstead Brothers company – perhaps the preeminent landscape architecture firm  of that era. The two structural elements of this plan – the Causeway and the impounded  swimming area – were fundamentally linked. The original Causeway design, for example,  called for barriers that could be placed under the arches to impede the flow of water,  as well as structural elements that reinforced the Causeway so that it could withstand  impounded water on its northern face – a point recalled by some local historians today.”

Lunt said Rockefeller’s vanity which drove him to pursue the swimming pond idea was the single biggest mistake which led to today’s landlocked Otter Creek Village and the continuing resentment.

He shared this scan of a letter written by Rockefeller himself: