Russelli Jack (1943- 2 Sea also feles, Series IX on publication of C.A.N.P. Living in Acadia COMING HOME TO ACADIA Jack Russell F amiliar bridges marked my passage do to conserve Makenna's wilderness heritage home this spring. The high span over and heard him promise his best. My friends the Piscataqua to Kittery returned me will be watching. to my native state. The Route 3 hump over I have discovered that the gift conserved Mount Desert Narrows put me on island, in Acadia changes constantly. On carriage home at last after living away for 48 years. road walks and trail hikes, seaward vistas I At dawn the next morning, my first walk into knew half a century ago are now reshaped by Acadia under the Eagle Lake Bridge com- rising trees or reopened by fallen great ones. pleted the sacrament of return-or SO I Familiar sojourns surprise, made new by believed at the time. the time of day or turn of season. A well- I was born in Bar Harbor in 1943. I grew known granite face or mossy slope can refresh up here but do not have deep island roots. in ways as intimate as a good marriage. My parents, both geneticists, came in 1937 Life in the surrounding communities has to join The Jackson Laboratory. I was an also changed. Could John Gilley, memorial- island boy for my first 15 years. The tide of ized by President Eliot a century ago, make life drew me out to school, work, and life a home today on any of these islands? Much away, but I returned every summer for treas- Jack Russell has found peace in his homecoming to of the change is welcome, though. One can Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. ured reunions with family and the park. see the brilliant art of Wabanaki children at For a half-century, whatever the zip code the Abbe Museum in the very room of the du jour, park memories were my path back "For a half-century, whatever old YMCA where I learned to shoot pool. to the one place I could call home. When you When I go now to our fine new YMCA, I grow up in Acadia, personal passages are the zip code du jour, park often pause on Park Street to survey the ath- remembered 'in place.' Part of you remains memories were my path back letic field where my late brother and I played forever an inholding claimed by the park. to the one place I could call baseball until twilight or fog ended our game. My first park memories are of the burn- Today, young women play soccer there. My ing time in 1947. Our divorcing parents gath- home." field of dreams has become theirs. er us for a late night escape to the mainland Is my homecoming complete? As Enoch as great waves of fire flow over the moun- Boston, and the wider world of which I said to the magistrate, "Not yet!" I have tains. We return to a different house, burnt already dream. returned from away to the island of my youth woods, the drone of chainsaws gnawing at Place matters more than we can know to live the last, best third of life. I know now the wound, and a timely lesson in renewal. when we are young. We voyage outward that this homecoming will last as long as I Crunching through snow in December bound to explore. For the fortunate, when do. I will be coming home until my dust is twilight, carrying my papers and Weekly we are ready, a high tide brings us home. returned at last to lichen, moss, and ferns. Reader Cold War worries, I feel the sheltering Home now, living with the park each In Acadian grace, I have found paths back to presence of the great gray mountain masses. day, new passages blend with those of my family and community, and a trail ahead to High above, the last light from the west catch- youth. I have found new friends in Friends. what may be beyond the next bend. "Only es the contrails of SAC bombers homing down Most Tuesday mornings, Sandy and I volun- that day dawns to which we are awake," he toward their bases in the north. teer on Mike Alley's crew of regulars that tends wrote at the close of his Walden year. "There Amber August light slants through centu- the trails and carriage roads; I have not is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morn- ry evergreens above the Pretty Marsh shore as enjoyed good sweat and company as much ing star." is extended families gather for a last evening since I played on Captain Mike's high school Jack Russell at the end of their island summers. I am football team. bewitched by wood smoke and a golden I have taught my visiting granddaughter JACK RUSSELL and his wife Sandy Wilcox young aunt. to listen for wind songs in white pines, to live at the north end of Echo Lake. When not Hiking alone in spring up Sargent, flushed know the calls of loons, and to leave beach rediscovering Maine and his library, he flies with bright morning air and the muses of a stones undisturbed. Makenna has become an away to advise regional economic develop- young man, I stay at the summit to watch the island girl. Standing with Friends, have told ment organizations on strategic planning and day roll on down the coast toward Portland, the Secretary of the Interior what he must political communication. FRIENDS of ACADIA RNAL,,Summer 2007. Special Person JACK RUSSELL, ADVOCATE EXTRAORDINAIRE I t's always an exciting thing when a vol- environment in Washington changed, and unteer walks into the Friends of Acadia Jack swiftly learned how to build from the office with unique talents and life expe- local grassroots level to create a national riences, and a passion for Acadia National story to which Congress would pay atten- Park and the surrounding communities. Just tion. He said that if the cause is just and as Friends of Acadia hopes to enhance park the case is clear, anyone can be heard and programs and operations through its contri- have an effect in Washington. butions, volunteer contributions truly aug- Given this, what are the lessons for ment the organization's efforts to preserve and Friends of Acadia? Jack encouraged AC DAY protect the park and its gateway communi- Friends to continue to build its Acadia ties. Jack Russell, a dedicated member of the Advocacy Network, communicate with Acadia Advocacy Network, a contributing members regularly, and provide opportu- writer to the Journal, and a frequent partici- nities for Acadia's advocates to gather and pant in trail and carriage road work, has feel part of a team. He cited Take Pride in become an indispensable member of Friends Acadia Day, the November raking day that of Acadia. prepares the carriage roads for winter, as a Jack and his wife, Sandy Wilcox, joined perfect example of how people can under- Friends of Acadia when they moved to stand that they are part of a team with a Mount Desert Island in 1996. Jack, the son common mission that accomplishes great Jack Russell, rake in hand, shares his enthusiasm for Friends of Acadia with a fellow Friend at Take of Jackson Laboratory scientists, spent the tasks while enjoying the process. Pride in Acadia Day. first 15 years of his life as an island resi- dent, followed his family to the West "After a long night of hearing nominees are aware of and support the Coast, and eventually took on a career in comments, it was Jack's testi- Centennial Initiative as an important pro- Michigan. Jack estimates that he and Sandy gram that brings additional operating spend five out of seven days a week in the mony about the need for more funds to our national parks. park, "stepping with the multiple genera- park funding so that Acadia When asked about his hopes for the tions who secured the lands and created future of Acadia, Jack responded with two the park and trails system." would be there for his grand- priorities: 1) that the private inholdings Friends of Acadia staff first realized daughter Michaela to enjoy within the boundaries of Acadia National what a gem of a volunteer Jack is when that Secretary Kempthorne Park and critical lands bordering the park Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne be protected within his lifetime, if not by toured Acadia in September 2006 and held quoted." Acadia's (and the National Park Service's) a "listening session" in Brewer regarding Centennial in 2016; and 2) that the com- cooperative conservation. Most of the more Jack also suggested that Friends of munities and Acadia National Park have a than 100 attendees who testified spoke Acadia reach out make Acadia relevant to deep, healthy, resonant relationship such about a project to restore portions of the all Americans. He mentioned that minority that neighbors, especially children, see the Penobscot River, but there were several populations in the United States will soon park as their own-that it was created for individuals there to address park funding outnumber white Americans, and that them, that they have good fortune for liv- issues. After a long night of hearing com- Friends of Acadia and other park advocates ing here, and that they have an active role ments, it was Jack's testimony about need to engage minority communities in managing and protecting it. the need for more park funding SO that to ensure that they become the preserva- Thanks to the combined efforts of Jack Acadia would be there for his granddaugh- tionists of the future. In this presidential Russell and the other volunteers who con- ter Michaela to enjoy that Secretary transition year, Jack also specifically rec- tribute their voices to the Acadia Advocacy Kempthorne quoted. ommended that Friends of Acadia work Network and other programs, Friends of Jack gained his experience in the advo- with national partners, such as the Acadia's message is stronger and there is a cacy arena by working for years directing National Parks Conservation Association far better chance of making hopes like state and national centers representing the and the congressional sponsors of the Jack's a reality. needs and interests of small manufacturers. Centennial Challenge authorizing legisla- FRIENDS of ACADIA JOURNAL, spring 2008. History THE CCC IN ACADIA Jack Russell ll friends of Acadia National Park A revere Charles W. Eliot, George B. Dorr, and John D. Rockefeller Jr., the visionary founders of the heritage we serve today. In 2008, all who love Acadia also honor thousands of young men mustered from across Maine to work in the park and the sur- rounding communities as the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose 75th anniversary is observed this year. The park still benefits from the good works of those who came here in hard times to serve family, commu- nity, and nation. When Franklin Roosevelt became presi- dent in March of 1933, America had endured nearly four years of the Great Depression. Thirteen million were unemployed, a quar- ter of the national workforce. Throughout Maine, families suffered as towns struggled to provide relief. In mills from Biddeford to Millinocket, at the Bath ship yard, and in can- neries along the coast, workers lost jobs or took deep pay cuts. The County suffered most: St. John Valley potatoes sold for half their pre-WWI price if they sold at all; pay and jobs in the woods fell. Towns took farm produce and firewood as payment for taxes "Early Mess," an oil painting by Hugh Hegh, depicts a typical Civilian Conservation Corps breakfast at the McFarland Mountain camp. and gave them to their destitute. Hard times had also come to our own island. By 1933, more than 700 unemployed projects overseen primarily by the U.S. Forest owned property just south of Long Pond. (A men from Bar Harbor alone had registered Service and National Park Service (NPS). third camp was established near Ellsworth their need for work. Enrollees earned $30 a month of which $25 in June.) FDR acted swiftly on many fronts to pro- was sent home to their families. The letter of During the next nine years, thousands of vide relief and inspire hope. Of all the New one Maine mother speaks for most parents young men came to these camps for six Deal proposals passed by Congress during with a boy in the CCs: "If you didn't send months or more to work, learn, and grow. the Hundred Days, none helped families as home $25 a month, we couldn't get by." Most were sons of Maine farmers, woodsmen, quickly nor changed the American landscape Superintendent George B. Dorr, ever polit- mill workers, and quarrymen. Some were as deeply as the Civilian Conservation Corps ically-agile, quickly brought the CCC to high school graduates, more were not. Some (CCC), enacted on March 31, 1933. Acadia. By Memorial Day, when Mr. Dorr had labored in fields and woods but few came The "CCs," as it was fondly called by hosted Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes with employable skills, SO they were eager enrollees, gave jobless young men new skills, and National Park Service Director Horace to learn. As the superintendent of the basic education, and healthy bodies through Albright at Old Farm, two CCC camps were MacFarland camp said, "They eat, sleep, employment in conservation work. Men 18- under construction on Mount Desert Island. work, and think as any other healthy Maine- 25 years old from families in need could The first was on MacFarland Mountain at the raised boys do and they are just as interest- enroll for periods of six months. They went current site of park headquarters on Eagle ed in their homes and families as you would to CCC camps run by the army to perform Lake Road. The second occupied privately- expect any Maine man to be." Dorr would 12 Summer Fall 2008 Friends of Acadia Journal portion of the plan? What is the logic behind ing-that they would present as an option destroying natural habitats for the purpose the possibility of a purchase of the property of building ecological centers to interpret by conservation buyers, and that they would RESOURCE what naturally existed in the first place? deliver Friends' request to meet directly with VALUES OF THE Through opinion editorial pieces in local the landowners. Friends believes that the con- SCHOODIC PENINSULA and regional newspapers, public listening ses- sultants followed through with both prom- sions, and kitchen meetings, Friends began ises, but to date has not been able to meet the process of engaging community members with the landowners and does not know if Adapted from information provided by in discussions about the proposal and their the "eco-resort" plan will be pursued, aban- the National Park Service desires for the future of their peninsula com- doned, or revised. munities. On May 14, the landowners' con- Friends continues to reach out to com- The following resource values have sultants held a public meeting on the munity members in partnership with con- been identified on the Schoodic Schoodic Peninsula to present the "eco- servation colleagues 10 understand commu- Peninsula: resort" concept to residents and to solicit feed- nity ideas for economic development, to lis- back. Friends encouraged Gouldsboro and ten to their concerns or support for the "eco- Habitat connection between the Winter Harbor residents to attend the meet- resort," and to share the important conser- park and interior lands, which ing, ask questions, and decide for themselves vation and park values associated with the helps prevent the isolation of whether this large-scale development fit the 3,200 acres adjacent to the park. Friends vegetative communities and values of their communities and was appro- maintains an open and respectful relation- wildlife populations priate for the boundaries of a national ship with the project consultants and con- resource like Acadia National Park. tinues/ to hope for a direct meeting with the Approximately 1.1 mile of The May 14 public meeting was attended landowners. shoreline is state-mapped wildlife by approximately 250 people. The consult- Friends recognizes that the large-scale habitat of significance for ants discussed the elements of the proposed development being explored at Schoodic has waterfowl and wading birds development that they viewed to be environ- national implications because of its location mentally-friendly but did not address specif- on the boundary of one of America's most Bald eagle nesting territory ic details about when the development would popular national parks. This proposal mer- be built, how much and what type of hous- its regional and national scrutiny, SO Friends Possible archeological sites, ing would be provided, nor the market they is partnering with state and national organi- as well as other cultural resources looked to for such an ambitious development. zations, such as the National Parks Some residents expressed interest in the Conservation Association, the Sierra Club, Undeveloped entire islands: short-term economic benefits presented by Downeast Audubon, and the Natural Sargents (15 acres) and construction of the resort, but Marge num- Resources Council of Maine, to raise the pro- Thrumbcap (2 acres) ber of attendees that spoke expressed skep- file of this proposal and to engage a larger ticism and concern about the feasibility and audience in the analysis of the proposal. Undeveloped gateway corridor ecological-soundness of the plan. Many res- If and when the consultants submit appli- along Moore Road from the village idents commented that the educational pur- cations, or pre-applications, for review before of Winter Harbor to the park poses of the environmental centers included the planning boards in Winter Harbor and in the plan seem to duplicate the efforts of Gouldsboro and before Maine's Department Undeveloped landscape that the existing Schoodic Education and Research of Environmental Protection, Friends of dominates the middle ground Center at Acadia. Acadia will review the plans and take fur- viewshed from points on the Acadia National/ and Friends of Acadia ther appropriate action in an effort to pre- peninsula and Mount Desert Island have identified this proposal as the single serve the precious conservation values of biggest threat to the park. The consultants the Schoodic Peninsula. presented the public feedback on the pro- posed "eco-resort" to the landowners in late ERIN HITCHCOCK FOGG is the former May. Friends secured two promises from the communications coordinator and editor at developers' consultants prior to this meet- Friends of Acadia. Friends of Acadia Journal Summer Fall 2008 11 write that they "furnished the park with all baseball, hockey, basketball, boxing, plays, the labor it has had, road construction apart "A family visiting Acadia today and, most important of all, dances. A few and have enabled it to carry on, uninter- CCCers married island women and stayed. rupted, important work." might camp at Blackwoods, When other New Deal programs employed The important work of the CCC enrollees greet the sun with a walk along island men with quarry and road-building endures throughout Acadia. In 1933, once the Ocean Drive, and enjoy the skills, they occasionally taught CCC boys, as they built their year-round camps, they cleared did the local hands of the Rockefeller road brush and deadfall for fire control. But from mid-morning views from crews, when their work converged with CCC 1934 on, the CCC men maintained and Beech Cliff every step of projects, as they did on the Ocean Drive dur- improved the established trails within the park their passage through Acadia ing 1933-1937. and built new ones. Their labor built most of The CCC work still serves. A family visit- the trails in the rapidly expanding "park exten- would have been opened for ing Acadia today might camp at Blackwoods, sion" on the western side of MDI. CCCers them a long lifetime ago by the greet the sun with a walk along the Ocean made many short connector paths to the Park Drive, and enjoy the mid-morning views LoopRoad and the growing system of carriage CCs." from Beech Cliff. After a swim at Echo Lake roads steadily advanced by Rockefeller crews. they could take the Lurvey Spring fire road over to Long Pond for a walk up the west- ern side and a picnic on the rocks, followed by a hike up the Perpendicular Trail to admire the beautiful stone step work. Their good day might end at sunset beneath the century evergreens of Pretty Marsh. Every step of their passage through Acadia would have been opened for them a long lifetime ago by the CCs. The CCC ended in 1942 with national mobilization for World War II. Three million young men had enrolled in the CCC. More than 90 percent of them served in the war, fully a sixth of all those in uniform. After the war, these men and the families and com- 20 12 munities they had served were champions for conservation. Fifty years after he worked in Acadia, Charles Arnold of York could say, "It was the best thing that ever happened to me!" Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps at work In 2008, we can say that the Civilian and at play during their time in Acadia. Photos Conservation Corps was one of the best courtesy National Park Service. things that ever happened to Acadia. Some 14 truck trails for fire and recreational design standards and, from 1935 on, were access were built by the boys. They con- conducted under the careful supervision of JACK RUSSELL and his wife, Sandy Wilcox, structed campgrounds and picnic areas, built park landscape architects. live at the north end of Echo Lake. When not 27 foot bridges, and planted thousands of The surrounding communities welcomed volunteering on Acadia's trails, he flies away trees and shrubs to help reclaim areas tem- the CCC boys. They donated furniture and to advise regional economic development porarily disturbed by road and trail develop- books for the camps. (Atwater Kent provid- organizations on strategic planning and polit- ment. All of their projects met established NPS ed a top-of-the-line radio.) Towns hosted ical communication. Friends of Acadia Journal Summer Fall 2008 13 New Members We are pleased to welcome our newest friends: Bar Harbor Bank Mark and Lynn Adams Lorraine Loeper William Alberino Trust salutes M&M Painting Mr. and Mrs. Oral Applegate Judith Maines-Lamarre Friends of Acadia for AT&T United Way Employee Giving Campaign Janet Marcimak David Avery Donna Marincas helping preserve the Kyle and Lelania Avila Patricia Matulaitis Bruce and Sharon Beckley Susan McKinnon Park for future Leonard and Jean Berkowitz Robert and Debra Milotte generations. John P. Bobiak David and Elizabeth Morgan William and Shirley Bossenberger Kevin O'Reilly Vincent and Brenda Bristow Irvin and Cindy Paradis Michael Camilleri Roberta Parritt Mr. and Mrs. Terry Chambers Charles and Linda Pasquariello BAR HARBOR Charles Clement Raab Collection LLC BANK & TRUST Merle and Allie Cousins TD Bank Financial Group MEMBER Ruta Dzenis Zachary Reissman FDIC What's on your horizon? Elizabeth Stone Mills Revocable Trust John Sagaser For the cyclist looking Donna Elliott John and Joanne Salmon for a difference. Darci Fredricks SRA International, Inc. Nicholas and Rita Hall Karen Stray-Gundersen BAR HARBOP Patrick Helsel George and Betty Tassara Virginia James Paul and Theresa Waldron BICYSHOP Jensen Baird Gardner and Henry Chrysandra Walter Steve and Pat Jewell Ira Weissman and Sally Healey Locally owned and operated Anandhi Johri Kimberly Whitney for over 25 years Beatrice Jordan Eileen Wukitch 141 Cottage Street, Bar Harbor Tel. (207) 288-3886 Barb, Andy, and Kevin Kalish Karen and Chris Zimmerman www.barharborbike.com Catherine Kashanski and Eric Sorenson Kathie Krieg Steve Levitt March 1 - May 31, 2008 Birch Bay Retirement Village Bar Harbor birchbayinfo.com 207 288-8014 BRUCE JOHN RIDDELL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 27 PINE STREET BAR HARBOR, MAINE 04609 207.288.9668 Creative & Innovative Landscape Architecture for Residential & Estate Gardens 14 Summer Fall 2008 Friends of Acadia Journal History BOB PATTERSON'S FIRST WORK ON MDI Jack Russell atrons of the Jordan Pond House will P projects, many within the expanding park know the photograph: A gentleman in where the young designer's skills were a his sixties surveys the dining room, welcome resource for Benjamin Breeze, the hands at rest on lapels in the manner of park's landscape architect. 18th-century portraits. Those who knew him One of Patterson's first assignments was can imagine this composed man offering to conceive an expansion and integration of advice in a calm voice on the right moss for the Beech Cliff and Beech Mountain trail sys- a garden recess, how to feather a paddle tem, building on the achievements of the stroke in wilderness waters, a fresh way for Southwest Harbor Village Improvement morning light to flood a room-to-be, or a Association. A parking lot and short trail up path to compose the needs of town and park. to the cliffs were roughed in by island men The man is Robert Whiteley Patterson, employed by the New Deal CWA program known to many as a leading architect of late in 1933, but heavy snows had halted 20th-century coastal Maine. Less known is them. In the spring of 1934. Bob Patterson's his earlier contribution-to composing CCC lads finished this work and built the nature and design in our park. trail loop around the cliffs. working to his Patterson was enabled by the Acadian design that "one of the most important visionaries. Born in 1905, he was just four requirements in stone work here is that it years younger than the conserving collabo- looks harmonious and unobtrusive in its sur- Photo of Robert Patterson that hangs in Jordan ration of Eliot and Dorr, and the Harvard Pond House. roundings of beautifully lichened ledges." The from which he graduated in 1927 was still 29-year old designer wanted the Beech Cliff the University of President Eliot less than loop trail to be "safe and passable, but noth- twenty years after his retirement. Patterson From the beginning, he was ing more, leaving the route as unchanged as came to Mount Desert Island in 1934 in time a man of vision, committed to possible. It remains so after 75 years. to participate in Superintendent Dorr's last conservation and mindful of Young Patterson's design aesthetic also full decade of park development when he shone in the challenging Perpendicular Trail joined New Deal resources and private phi- the frailty of the trails his up the rugged east side of Mansell, also begun lanthropy. John D. Rockefeller Jr., the prin- CCC crews created. in 1934. "The requirements of the trail are cipal source of that philanthropy, was then at first scenic beauty. either in distant views or work on his grand bequest of lands, roads, sion in architecture, returning to the Graduate nearby forest stand: second, an ultimate and bridges when Patterson arrived. Patterson School of Design in 1932 to specialize in objective point climaxing the hike; and third, would design and build for Rockefeller's chil- landscape architecture. He had already found there must be embodied in the trail itself a dren, and for many islanders for whom park personal happiness with Barbara Brown, also natural change of pace-for example, from roads were and are a way to work. of Wayland. They wed in 1931 when he was steep rock climbs to level moss or needle sur- From the same good New England soil as 26 and she 19, and it was she who first faced walks. The ultimate objective of his Eliot and Dorr, Patterson was raised in mod- brought him to Mount Desert and Acadia. design was achieved in full only in 2007, est comfort in the well-wooded village of The couple enjoyed a summer stay in 1932 when the Acadia trails crew finished the with her relatives who were sec- Wayland, Massachusetts, only a short ride upper section with an aesthetic worthy of ond-generation rusticators in Southwest from Boston. His father died when he was Patterson. Harbor. two, but a strong mother and aunt filled some The Perpendicular Trail clearly engaged all The island drew him back. In January of of the loss, and older brothers guided him 1934, in the depths of the Great the skills of the young artist. who saw the through the woods and waters near his town, Depression-and into a howling blizzard- need for strength, delicacy, and design against nurturing the future conservationist. Soon the Pattersons and their baby daughter drove despoilers. In one section, the problem [was] enough, the tall, young Noble and north to Maine, where they made their home one of securing substantial steps as security Greenough man straight-arrowed through for the next 54 years, save two away during against heaving by the ice and frost action, academic and athletic achievement to World War II. Soon employed on the staff of or a rugged coping of a size defying move- Harvard in 1923. the new Civilian Conservation Corps camp ment or dislodgement by any one or two indi- viduals' efforts." In other sections. his attempt sould be to "soften and naturalize [the] rocky the old Park Headquarters at Park and Lower frugal townsmen, as well as Astors and by clothing ragged and bare surfaces Main, it seems likely that the vigorous octo- Rockefellers. The public service he began in moss and mats of rock fern, such as genarian enjoyed good talks with this young the park would lead to many of our ameni- grow for the most part throughout the talus park employee, a Harvard man and proper ties, from wading pools and wharfs to land- slope." As the authors of Pathmakers would Bostonian who shared Dorr's passion for scaping for schools and churches. The observe more than 70 years later, in a telling plants and lived just a few steps away. thoughtful young park designer would break from their usually austere style, "The Robert W. Patterson's future, however, was become a wise counsel for both park and trail is one of the most highly constructed only a few steps more in another direction, towns on the long path to recovery after the on the island [the] views are grand to the toward the shore at Reef Point Gardens, and 1947 fire. The lover of things wild, drawn to southeast, but the stonework steals the show." into history. His long professional association Acadia in his twenties, would found the By 1935, Bob Patterson had become the with Beatrix Farrand and commitment to her Maine Natural Resources Council, and fur- full-time assistant to Ben Breeze at Acadia vision led to many commissions, and to his ther conservation of our northern wilderness. National Park. From the beginning, he was essential roles in honoring the decisions of Friends of the Acadia that Bob Patterson a man of vision, committed to conservation Farrand's final years, and saving the plants cherished might pause at his portrait on their and mindful of the frailty of the trails his CCC of Reef Point for their lasting life at the Asticou next visit to the Jordan Pond House, to reflect crews created. As he would soon advise his Azalea and Thuya Gardens, created by his on the unsigned works that the young artist supervisors, there is a "fundamental princi- good friend Charles K. Savage. contributed at the beginning of his career on ple [that] areas used by the public (unless The young Bob Patterson who came to our island. is most carefully planned for several decades of the portal of that future had already found an time), tend to destroy themselves for the par- island aesthetic while high on Acadian slopes, JACK RUSSELL and his wife, Sandy Wilcox, ticular park purpose for which they are used." directing young CCC men from across Maine. live at the north end of Echo Lake. He thanks Did George B. Dorr hear the distinctive Lessons learned working on the Beech Cliff his neighbor Robert Whiteley Patterson Jr. voice of his designer? Documentation does and Mansell trails as he began his decades (Lee) for generous guidance on this essay. not confirm this, but since the Pattersons here helped guide the hand that gave us more They are now, as once their fathers were, good rented a home on Livingston Road very near than 40 MDI houses, grand and modest, for friends. 1934 photograph of Bob Patterson (front row, far right) with the staff at Camp Braun, the CCC camp in Ellsworth. Friends of Acadia Journal FOA Journal Spring, 15 2009. Cultural Resources ACADIAN PASSAGES Jack Russell illions who come to Acadia M admire two special features of our park. Every visitor to the summit of Cadillac sees mountains rise from the Atlantic for seaward vistas like no others on Earth. Most also enjoy some part of our network of trails, carriage roads, and motor roads. These passages through Acadia afford visitors of all ages an easy and intimate access to nature that is unique in our national park system. As we move toward the 2016 centennial of Acadia, we should celebrate the historic artistic achievement-requiring time, vision, and community-that opens our park to the world. Time Humankind has walked these hills from ancient times. Wabanaki forebears moved Two granite stones artfully embellish a turn on Dorr Mountain's Emery Path. The trail was built in for millennia over the lands and waters 1916 under the leadership of George B. Dorr; almost a century later, it was restored and an ANP trail that would become Acadia. During the first crew placed the vertical spire at the left. century of permanent settlement on MDI, ago. And pathmaking continues in Acadia plan-and the acquisition, integration, and pioneer generations built roads and today as the Acadia National Park trails donation of the lands through which the opened foot trails. Recreational pathmak- crew continues planning and constructing roads pass. We can appreciate the carriage ing surged after the Civil War. Benjamin new hiking trails and Friends of Acadia and motor roads as the visionary master- Franklin DeCosta's 1871 Guidebook lists conserves the heritage through the Acadia work of two great hearts. nearly 30 paths that would become the Trails Forever program. Two of America's eminent landscape routes of Acadia National Park trails. architects-Fredrick Law Olmstead Jr. and By the turn of the century, island path- Vision Beatrix Farrand-worked with Rockefeller making had come under disciplined man- During the middle third of these 150 years on the roads' design. Together, they served agement by path committees of the several of pathmaking, a man of vision invested a great philanthropist who desired nothing village improvement societies and associa- nearly half a century, great care, and much SO much as free days in open air, helping to tions. When Lafayette National Monument treasure to build Acadian passages that make a carriage road turn and rise with was established in 1916, over 220 miles of complement the hiking trails and have amazing grace. paths were marked and maintained on opened the park to millions. From 1912 to MDI by these committees. 1958, John D. Rockefeller Jr. conceived Community Superintendant George B. Dorr led and commissioned the carriage and motor We may also understand the creation of development of memorial paths in the new road networks as a gift to Acadia and the our Acadian passages as a communal park and the path committees continued American people. This labor of love is well achievement. The trails and roads of our their work in the 1920s. During the Great documented by both park and private his- park were built by many hands working Depression, thousands of young men from torians. We know the will, the diplomacy, together in a spirit of respectful interde- impoverished Maine families brought fresh and the extraordinary, decades-long part- pendence. Summer colony leaders such as trail-building energy to Acadia through the nership between Rockefeller and Dorr that Waldron Bates and Rudolph Brunnow Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). We carried the work through many trials-any served as Bar Harbor path committee still walk on stones they placed 80 years one of which might have subverted the chairmen, but the superintendent of paths 10 Fall/Winter 2012 Friends of Acadia Journal Vol.17,*3 (2012) from 1892 to 1931 was Andrew Liscomb, the son of a Bar Harbor farmer. Liscomb and his path workmen, some who served for decades, built many of the iconic trails we enjoy today. George B. Dorr credited Liscomb with the design of the Sieur de Monts complex. By the 1920s, with carriage road con- struction booming and the motor roads begun, hundreds of island men provided back labor for good pay and operated machines that opened the way. Their work continued through the Great Depression, when they were joined from 1933 through 1942 by over three thousand Maine CCC lads. Charles Simpson, a self-taught engi- neer from Sullivan, and then his son, Paul, CCC workers quarry stone from Dorr Mountain (then known as Dry Mountain) to build steps for the were the chief engineers of carriage road Ladder Trail, elsewhere on the mountain. construction for two decades. When the motor road was cut up Cadillac, Water at the summit of Cadillac. Using your Thousands of Artisans Hills of Bar Harbor was a chief engineer. godly powers, a few twists and tugs frees The sculpture was formed by many hands. Labor and skills from island communities the great relief sculpture of trails and roads Some were resourceful people from away: built most of our Acadian passages. from the bedrock curves that have Bates, Brunnow, Dorr, Jaques, Stebbins, Olm- shaped it. sted, Farrand, Attebury, Bosworth, Staughton, Our Great Acadian Sculpture The sculpture comes free in good repair, Patterson, and Rockefeller. Some were of this On the cusp of Acadia's centennial, are and with it come the microenvironments place: Simpson, Clement, Candage, Liscomb, there fresh ways that we may see and value to which each element in the web was Norton, Hartford, and thousands of unre- the passages built through Acadia? accommodated: a bit of Otter Creek at the membered artisans and CCC boys. And some Appreciation of complex achievements can causeway, the moss gardens of the Valley still serve: Stellpflug, Barter and Farnsworth. be focused by metaphor, but sometimes Trail at the eastern base of Beech Thousands of artisans, some renowned, most the reach for metaphor helps us under- Mountain, and thousands of other Acadian unknown, placed personal signatures on stand, instead, the true nature of achieve- glories. some part of this work. Visionary conserva- ments. The integrated hiking trails, car- The dimensions of the sculpture are tionists, local stone workers, great artists, riage roads, and motor roads of Acadia are monumental. It is 1,500 feet high and island artisans, guiding philanthropists, and not "like" a great sculpture-they are such many miles wide, reaching from Schoodic poor boys from across Maine labored togeth- a sculpture. to Isle au Haut. The shape of this work of er to open paths and roads for all. Their Sculpture, according to Mirriam- art is the imprint of ancient stone, but retaining walls stand strong. We climb today Webster, is "(a) the action or art of processing human choice has also turned the elements on rungs they placed. All were trail workers, (as by carving, modeling, or welding) plastic of the web this way or that to open a grand and together they created a great work of art. or hard materials into works of art; or, (b) a vista or bring an intimate moment with The hiking paths, carriage roads, and work produced by sculpture." That is exactly nature, near. Those who made the deci- motor roads of Acadia National Park are a what the pathmakers and road builders of sions that made this sculpture knew the magnificent cultural achievement. These Acadia have done-they have created a transforming passage of light through a day linked Acadian passages form a great sculp- monumental sculpture. Its shape is that of or seasons through a year. They anticipat- ture carved into ancient stone by the patient the ancient rocks formed by forces flowing ed our illumination. hands of a diverse community who worked through more than four hundred million Artistic intent flows through the ele- with common purpose through more than a years. Cut from this great work piece, ments of the great work of art carved on century. The great Acadian sculpture they placed by nature, the Acadian web of paths our island. Rockefeller, Dorr, Olmstead, created is part of the world's cultural her- and roads has become, in time, a true relief Farrand, and Charles and Paul Simpson itage. In proper time, may such recognition sculpture-a complex form in three worked together on the passage of the park and honor come. dimensions. roads through nature. Drive down the To see this grand sculpture in full, play Stanley Brook Road to Seal Harbor. Walk JACK RUSSELL, a member of the Friends of Zeus. Stand high above Mount Desert down the Seven Sisters to Gilmore Acadia Board of Directors, was born and grew Island, lean down, and grasp the miles- Meadow. Through their enduring design, up on Mount Desert Island. He writes occasion- ally on the history and culture of his native wide sculpture firmly at its highest point, you change-every time. island and Acadia National Park. Friends of Acadia Journal Fall/Winter 2012 II 12/13/19 Notes for a Three-Course Sequence of Acadia Senior College Courses on "Our Place Through Time" Passages in the History of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park To Be Offered in 2011 Course One: Provenance (January-February 2011) Class 1: Perspective: Ways of Seeing Local History We would begin with an introduction and orientation in which / offer perspectives on the entire three-course 18-class sequence, suggest multiple ways of learning, seeing, and sharing local history, and lead a discussion of these themes among the co-learners. (I would allow at least 30 minutes for true self-introductions in which co-learners are encouraged to talk about their own lives and families in relation to the island, our communities, and park.) Class 2: Fire, Ice and Life / would offer a natural history of our "place" from the Singularity (Big Bang) through the evolution of the cosmos to the formation of our solar system and Earth, in whose cooling crust plate tectonic forces create, over many millions of years, the sixteen distinct bedrocks of MDI and bring them to this place. That is the Fire. Then the last great glacier does the finish work on our mountains and valleys. This is the Ice. And finally the return of robust animal and lush plant life to our island, to create the place first beheld by human eyes perhaps 10,500 years ago. Life. This may sound like an ambitious ramble, but / could bring it off! (Perhaps / could involve the Night Skies guy, Peter Lord, for some cool visuals and dialogue on cosmology. / have several serious geologist friends with island expertise. And as an amateur archaeologist acquainted with the Maine record, / could do the reconstruction of life credibly, / think.) Class 3: Dawnland People Here we would review the full history of Native Peoples in our region from first appearance to King Philip's War (1676). / would summarize what is known -- and how -- by anthropologists about the stages of human lifeways here and near here from the Paleo-Indians to first contact with Europeans. This would end with an appreciation of Wabanaki culture on the eve of first contact. Then we would try to reconstruct the Wabanaki perspective on the first eight decades of that contact, from first encounters through the Great Dying to the increasing pressure on the tribes, trying to appreciate the distinct modes of tribal response to the ways of the English and French, and follow the initial devolution into the long conflict in which the Wabanaki homeland was lost. To the maximum extent possible, the story would be organized from the Wabanaki point of view. (I would draw on Abbe Museum resources, personal and physical, and perhaps a tribal representative.) Class 4: Contests for Dominion This class would follow the long contest for supremacy in mid-coastal Maine among the English, French and Wabanaki from first contact to the British defeat of the French in 1759/61 and the dire consequences for that defeat for the Wabanaki. We would assess the motivations and modes of English and French colonialism and the Wabanaki coping responses from the early seventeenth to mid-eighteenth century. Co-learners would piece together early accounts of our region. The class might end with a sorting out who got what between English and French claimants - to he extent that this mattered on the ground, to the squatters on island. Class 5: Settlement, Independence and Enterprise Down East Here we would follow the drama of MDI settlement, from the arrival of Abraham Somes in 1761 to the outbreak of the Civil War, by which time there were 4,000 souls, many churches, 22 grade schools, several enterprises, and five towns founded on this Rock. Through contemporary accounts and documents and good monographic histories, we would comprehend the pioneering settlement of the outer islands, listen to island people in Revolutionary times, chart the growth of the Somesville economic hub, envision subsistence farming from flinty soils, and mark the service of coastal markets and the growth of wider trade on the seas. As a decent social historian, / would provide some sense of daily life on early nineteenth century MDI and some offer some life stories. We would try to see MDI in the wider world as Maine became a state and look at mid-coastal Maine as American society and economy rapidly developed in the first half of the nineteenth century. Finally, we would look for island voices as the nation tried and failed to cope with the burden of slavery. Class 6: For the Union Dead Perhaps / would open with Robert Lowell's poem, a favorite. This class would bring forth what we know about island men who became soldiers and how the communities here fared during the Civil War. We might ask how the island of the 1850s responded to the national turmoil about slavery and the coming of the war, how volunteers and substitutes were mustered from island towns, and share what is known of their experience, contribution, and fate. / would seek letters to and from the home front and explore the record of service from each town, as we have it. It seems natural to conclude with a look at the enduring significance of the GAR and its memorialization. / would end with homage to John. M. Gilley, a Bartlett island-born carpenter, who fell at the Second Battle of the Wilderness and rests now in the Wasgatt Cemetery up on Beech Hill. 2 Course Two: Preservation (April-May 2011) Class 7: Before the Rusticators: MDI to 1865 Semester Two would begin with a reprise overview of Semester One to orient new co-learners and afford continuing participants an opportunity for review and further reflection. Class 8: From Away Without succumbing to the local virus "Rusticatorus Genuflexious," this class would comprehend the widening knowledge of MDI as a natural wonder and restorative retreat, assess the role of painters from the Hudson River School on as conveyors of our place as a sublime destination, note the importance of steamship and then rail transport in building the grand hotel and then grand cottage phases of the summer colony, and reflect on the multiple motivations of those who came here in the years following the Civil War. / would try to acquire a series of art slides based on the excellent Inventing Acadia and The Artist's Mount Desert to carry the discussion of art "inventing" Acadia. Class 9: Eden Transformed The surging post-Civil War American economy would have changed island life in many ways without the coming of the rusticators and development of the summer colonies, but that force transformed Eden and, in distinct ways, every island community. The narrative of hotel and then great cottage development is well known and would be reviewed here, but the primary focus would be on those who did the work required - who built the structures, made the meals, washed the linen, provided the amenities, kept the livery and how they lived, made families, worshiped, educated their young, and tried to enjoy their place and lives. The Wabanaki encampments first at the shore near the bar to Bar Island and then at the athletic field in Bar Harbor will be part of the story. We will follow a few lives through the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s to make this history up close and personal. Class 10: Vision of Acadia The story of President Eliot's vision and the establishment of the Hancock Country Trustees of Public Reservations is well documented and well told (and will be even better told with publication of Ron Epp's forthcoming biography of George B. Dorr). / believe many ASCers would welcome an opportunity to know this story in more detail and with a wider perspective. This class would summarize the origins and early implementation of Eliot's vision, assessing the risks posed to the island by continuing development and privatization, the forceful combination of powerful summer people and local professionals mustered through the Trustees, and their early efforts in conservation. There would be a section of the good works of the Village Improvement Societies, especially in trail building in what would become Acadia. This story would be framed by the wider turn-of-century concerns that urbanization and growing immigration could dilute 3 American vigor and the explosion of conservation on a national scale during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Every effort would be made to follow the thinking and actions of the local communities as the vision of Acadia formed. Class 11: Conservation of Acadia How did the monumental vision become the national monument? This class would build the story of Acadia from the early acquisitions to the establishment of Lafayette National Monument in July 1916. How did George B. Dorr work - in Washington, in August, on his wealthy neighbors, and with the essential local leaders without whom there would have been no park? What currents of opinion about the enterprise flowed within the island communities? The session would end with the celebration of a celebration, the summer gathering at the Building of the Arts in Bar Harbor where President Eliot, Mr. Dorr, and the Honorable Luere Babson Deasy, with others, memorialized the establishment of the National Monument. Class 12: Growth of Acadia How did the new Monument fare? Lafayette National Monument becomes a National Park in 1919 and is renamed Acadia National Park in 1929. John D. Rockefeller Jr. carries out major land acquisitions and builds the carriage roads, bridges, and Park Loop and Cadillac Mountain roads. Dorr guides Schoodic segment into Acadia. We would try to explore 1920s and early Depression views of the Park within the surrounding communities. / would provide an assessment of FDR's New Deal in conservation and the National Park Service and Dorr's artful use of New Deal federal funds for major acquisitions of the west side of MDI. Drawing on oral histories and pictures at ANP, / would tell and show the story of Civilian Conservation Corps on MDI and in Acadia. This class would end with the coming of World War // and the death of George B. Dorr (1944) ad an appreciation of his contributions to island life. Course Three: Perseverance (September-October 2011) Class 13: Island and Park to 1916 Once again, the first class of the course would be for a sweeping review of island history up to our "launch year" of 1916, robust self-introductions by co- learners, and some talk toward consensus that in this class we will work as historians of an (our!) emerging present. Class 14: After Eden: MDI 1916-1947 Perhaps the change of name by the town was prophetic? In this class we would try to follow the stories of the communities surrounding Acadia from the eve of World War / to the year of the Great Fire. How and why did the summer colonies change? What were the first four years of the Great Depression like on MDI? How did social and civic life evolve here during FDR's New Deal and as a home front during World War // and when the boys (and a few gals) came home? 4 Some of what we would seek can be found in census and voting records, but of the 1940s at least may still be recoverable through living memory. / would try and seek help, perhaps from the MDI Historical Society. Class 15: 1947 Fire Many from away want to know more about our great trauma and some of us who lived through it as young people have tales to tell. There are some good written records and a powerful photographic record. / would build a narrative of the conditions that brought the conflagration to our island and many other Maine communities that fall and draw on testimony, written and perhaps still spoken, to tell the day by day the story - including, just this once, my own. We would begin to assess what was lost, how different the experience and impact of the fire was for each community, and how the wider world responded to our need. Class 16: From the Ashes: MDI 1947-1960 How did the island communities, especially Bar Harbor, and Acadia try to recover from the fire? / would attempt a close narrative of the months immediately following the fire as NPS experts, including some locals, tried to assess the depth of the wound and envision the course of the healing. Extraordinary acts of kindness also eased the burdens of many who had lost much. Institutions such as the Jackson Lab made clear commitments to rebuild on MDI. But the fire was clearly the end of the Bar Harbor-based summer colony and a huge devaluation of the local tax base that would require retrenchment of municipal and school finances and new conceptions of the town's economic future. The course forward for Bar Harbor would diverge from those of Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor and Tremont, communities that were less disrupted by the 1947 fire. / would try for a coherent island-wide narrative of the decade following the fire and seek to convey how towns and park pursued recovery. The stories of communal action would be, as always, spurred by the initiative of some local leaders who, in their modest ways, have had as virtuous an influence on our place as the properly celebrated trio of Eliot, Dorr and Rockefeller of the previous generation. Class 17: Island Currents, Island Challenges: MDI 1960-201? How to engage the times through which most of the co-learners will have lived, many of them here on island? Such "history" is both easier to study because we have more living voices and a robust record, and harder because we have less perspective. / might try to structure this class through looking at perhaps five major dimension of island life through the half-century from 1960 to the present: Work (employment, job content, the economy ) Education (schooling, school organization, governance and finance Health (how it has been defined, delivered and afforded ) Homes (who lives where, why, and how ...) and Environment (how we have cared for our place, including the Park ...). Within this pentagon, / would offer some perspective and encourage co-learners to share their own, asking how things changed in each of the five dimensions, 5 what issues, events and decisions made milestones, what roles rapidly evolving technologies may have played, how change in our local ways and means was influenced by the wider world, the institution and organizations that shaped island life, and how our experience of challenge and change has been expressed in our political passages. We'd see! Class 18: Island Life in the 21 st Century It seems natural to conclude a year-long, three-course, 18-class adventure in local history with a session that looks forward from the present. Asking willing and now-seasoned co-learners to generate some "team perspectives" on dimensions of our possible futures on island might do this. Or perhaps asking each co-learner to write a single page in which they envision MDI in 2030. Or perhaps inviting a few committed younger folks to envision the future with us. (Elsie Flemings would surely do this for me, her political schedule permitting.) / would encourage the now exhausted co-learners to apply their freshly-honed historical perspective to the challenge. And, not without some ego, / would own the last ten minutes. Some Course Themes: Relationship between our island history and the development of the wider world; From 1901 on, the relationship between the park and the surrounding communities; Evolution of social complexity and the means through which it has been managed; and Does our island history offer lessons for our nation, world and species? Course Methods: A blend of pedagogical modes: some "relaxed lecturing" because folks expect to learn from a teacher, plenty of softly-directed discussion among co-learners because they know things and want to know and be known by one another, occasional guest speakers with expertise, visual, video and audio resources as I could secure them, perhaps some co-learner projects if they are so inspired, perhaps a site visit or two if we can manage, and now and then some spice from my own writings on the themes addressed; In the rough plan above, there are many opportunities to involve cooperating institutions - to name a few of the most obvious, the various historical societies, especially the MDI-Historical Society, our wonderful island libraries, the Abbe Museum, Acadia National Park, and the Jax Lab. There are many more. Depending on how far we at the MDI Historical Society get in translating our good intent into firm and funded plans to lead the island in a celebration of our 250 years of settlement since 1761, this sequence of three courses could be a co-branded venture of ASC and MDI-HS. That envisioned, I also own that I would not be excited by a sustained hot tub of group process and organizational adjudication. It seems a virtue of the ASC to trust their volunteer faculty to shape and serve their courses as they see fit. One cook per kitchen. 6 2/21/2016 The call of Acadia brings organizer Jack Russell home Acadia National Park on My Mind Musings about the Maine National Park The call of Acadia brings organizer Jack Russell home One in a series of Acadia Centennial features Jack Russell spent a lifetime organizing people and heeding the call of public service. He didn't stop when he returned 10 years ago to live year round in the home where he was raised on Mount Desert Island. Russell, 72, is co-chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force, which is organizing the celebration 11 of Acadia National Park's 100th anniversary this year. A son of geneticists recognized for their work around the world, Russell came back to Maine with his wife, Sandy Wilcox, and moved into a home his family has owned since 1937 at the north end of Echo Lake. Jack Russell, co-chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force, helps organize volunteers during the annual Take Pride in Though he worked in government and private Acadia Day, to get carriage roads ready for winter. (Photo nonprofits in Michigan much of his life, Russell courtesy of Jack Russell) said his longing for Acadia was powerful and he returned virtually every summer for a vacation. "Whatever zip code I lived in, I was very clear where my home was and I was clear I would be coming back," he said. Jack Russell brings organizing, activism to Acadia Centennial planning While his parents were noted for their genetic research, Russell's passion was in politics, grassroots http://acadiaonmymind.com/2016/02/call-of-acadia-brings-organizer-jack-russell-hom 1/5 2/21/2016 The call of Acadia brings organizer Jack Russell home activism and later economic development in rust belt Michigan. After getting his bachelor's degree from Marlboro College in Brattleboro, Vt. and his master's from Brown University, he traveled 30,000 miles in a Volkswagen Bus in 1970-71 as an organizer with the New University Conference, a group of mostly students and faculty that led protests and events in support of causes such as ending the war in Vietnam and racial equality. The Civilian Conservation Corps in Acadia National Park is He later moved to Detroit, a city ready for social one of Jack Russell's historical interests, and a focus of a progress during an era of national upheaval. couple of his Acadia Centennial Partner presentations. (NPS photo) He was a community organizer for six years in post-riot Detroit, working to improve neighborhoods when poverty, crime and race sharply divided the city and global economic trends were taking auto jobs and leaving behind massive empty factories. He later became a staffer for Detroit City Councilor Ken Cockrel Sr., the Michigan State Senate and then for Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard. Russell said his time in Detroit taught him to speak to all kinds of people and groups with different interests. "You had to learn to be effective," he said. Russell said he is still seeking to inspire people as co-chair of the centennial task force the past three years with Cookie Horner. Both are also longtime board members of the Friends of Acadia, the nonprofit organization that has 1916 donated about $20 million for programs and projects at the 2016 park and surrounding communities. Russell said he is happy and proud to be co-chairing the centennial celebration, which includes a year-long calendar of events. He said the work on the task force is a full-time job, The official Acadia Centennial logo but he and Horner were aware from the start that it would take a big commitment. http://acadiaonmymind.com/2016/02/call-of-acadia-brings-organizer-jack-russell-hom 2/5 2/21/2016 The call of Acadia brings organizer Jack Russell home "The park is central in our lives and in our community," he said. "If we get significant support, it is worth doing." Lessons learned as a boy growing up on Mount Desert Island Russell's deep connections with the park began as a young boy when his mother gave him free range to hike anywhere he wished. He said he remembers hiking to the peak of Sargent Mountain, the park's second highest peak, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean and believing there were mountains all the way to Florida. Russell said he was "a lab brat" because of his parents, William L. Russell and Elizabeth S. Russell, had both been scientists at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. His parents divorced and the father spent most of his career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where his trials on mice led to standards for the effects of radiation on humans. His mother did her genetic work at Jackson and was known for discoveries in pigmentation, blood-forming cells, and germ cells. Both parents were so accomplished that they were elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors in science. The great fire of 1947 devastated the park and virtually destroyed the lab. The fire killed 90,000 mice, a research Sear Guardian Fire 1947 a The Cvt. 25 - 20.2 Our 1PM ou 24:25 colony developed over 30 years, Russell said. Go & His mother coordinated the retrieval of Jackson Laboratory mice from scientists around the world so that the lost inbred strains could be reestablished, according to her obituary online at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicines. As a single mother, she was also raising four small children, Russell said. Users Russell was 4 years old when the fire struck and his family was among the first group of people to evacuate from The shades of red on this map show the wide Mount Desert Island. swath of damage from the great fire of 1947, which Russell witnessed as a little boy. The The Russell family slept two nights in the municipal building route of the MDI Marathon route is in Ellsworth and then stayed with a family on a farm in http://acadiaonmymind.com/2016/02/call-of-acadia-brings-organizer-jack-russell-home 3/5 2/21/2016 The call of Acadia brings organizer Jack Russell home Ellsworth for a week. He said it was astonishing how people superimposed. (Photo courtesy of College of pulled together and helped each other out in the wake of the Atlantic GIS Lab) the fire. "You learn what community means pretty quickly," he said. Maybe that is partly the reason that prompted Russell to work to improve communities during most of his life. After years in city and state government in Michigan, he was also vice president of the Industrial Technology Institute in Ann Arbor and then founder of the Modernization Forum. Now, his challenge, along with Horner, is to lead the effort to mark the centennial of the Maine National Park. Russell said one key to involving people from throughout the region was establishing the "centennial partners." Under the program, people define their bond to the park by helping to plan events, make donations or design and sell products connected to the celebration. As a partner, Russell, among other volunteer tasks, is teaching an eight-week course on the history of the park and organizing a reprise of the 1916 celebration of the founding of the Sieur de Monts National Monument, a forerunner to the park, and dedication of a time capsule for organizers of the 2116 bicentennial. Not long after he returned to Mount Desert Island, Russell buttonholed then Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne during an event in George B. Dorr, pictured along the shores of Jordan Pond Bangor to support a boost in federal dollars for in 1926, far right, fought to protect the lands that would national parks. He told Kempthorne the money become Acadia. Russell and others are bringing that was needed to help preserve Acadia for his two step-granddaughters, Makenna and Madelyn history to life during Centennial celebrations. (NPS photo) Buist, ages 11 and 8 respectively. During his formal remarks, Kempthorne later cited his conversation with Russell. When Makenna and Madelyn visit Acadia during the summer, they can hear the loons on Echo Lake. Russell said the calls help remind him that all the organizing might be worth the effort. http://acadiaonmymind.com/2016/02/call-of-acadia-brings-organizer-jack-russell-hor 4/5