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Pemetic
The Wabanaki knew the island as Pemetic, the range of mountains
Bar Harbor was founded on the northeast shore of Mount Desert Island, which the Wabanaki knew as Pemetic, meaning range of mountains. They speak of Bar Harbor as Man-es-ayd'ik, the clam-gathering place, and left great piles of shells as evidence of its abundance. In 1604 the French explorer Samuel de Champlain ran aground off Otter Cliffs and met local people.
Gilded Age
Painters came first in the 1840s, then the rich built cottages
In the 1840s the rugged maritime scenery attracted Hudson River School artists including Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church. Journalists, sportsmen and rusticators followed. By 1880 there were 30 hotels, and tourists arrived by train and ferry at a Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island.
The name
Eden became Bar Harbor in 1918, named for a sand bar
The town was incorporated as Eden in 1796. On March 3, 1918, Eden was renamed Bar Harbor, after the sand bar that is visible at low tide and leads across to Bar Island. Twice a day, at low tide, the bar is exposed and links the town to Bar Island.
1947
The fire of 1947 burned nearly half the east side of the island
In mid-October 1947, after a severe drought, sparks at a cranberry bog near Town Hill ignited a wildfire that burned until mid-November. Nearly half the eastern side of Mount Desert Island burned, including 67 cottages and five historic grand hotels. The town's business district was spared.
Day 1, evening
It comes after Bar Island.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Bar Harbor, Maine, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.