Mr.Darris Island Wanderings." "A Peripatatic Edecat on: FOA Journal 20.42(Summer 2015). Acadia History A PERIPATETIC EDUCATION: MR. DORR'S ISLAND "WANDERINGS" By Ronald Epp Note: This article is adapted from the forth- coming biography of George B. Dorr, to be published in spring 2016 by Friends of Acadia. This is the second in a series of excerpts to be featured in the Journal, leading up to Acadia's centennial year. uring the last two decades of the D 19th century, George B. Dorr would routinely leave behind the com- forts of his family's Oldfarm residence in Bar Harbor for the challenges of the rug- ged landscape of Mount Desert Island. In due course he became very familiar with the seasonal strengths and weaknesses of its landscapes. In effect, Dorr opened him- self to the environment, enabling the island and its surrounding waters to educate him about the power of this place. Family heritage, education, and exten- sive travel through Mediterranean and European countries well prepared Dorr to pursue on the coast of Maine the natural landscapes where human events flour- ished and then faded. On lands histori- cally contested by the English and French, he was most interested in the enduring landscape features that survived those re- curring conflicts-which is not to say that he was disinterested in how the character of the landscape inspired humankind to realize new heights. Dorr used his wealth to protect lands that were not fully healed from damage done in earlier generations. Each outing on Mrs. Annie C.S. Kane and George B. Dorr walk on the Kane Path, on what is now named Dorr Mountain. the island's network of footpaths acquaint- ed Dorr with continuing threats to land What Henry David Thoreau called "bare posed by the surrounding sea, he surely re- wrecked by logging and fire. One promi- and pathless rock" forced Dorr and others called his countryside walking experiences nent tourist guide, Clara Martin, described to judge carefully where to plant the next in England, where footpath rights-of-way the island environment in the years follow- step, a difficult decision when bare gran- were deeply ingrained in common law. ing the Civil War: "The forest primeval is ite stretched for hundreds of feet-and the Walking was not undertaken for exer- gone; but huge stumps and scathed trunks footpath disappeared. Thoreau's favorite cise. Dorr's goal was akin to what Thoreau show what the axe and the fires have done. mode of walking was 'cross-lots' on a com- referred to in his posthumously published The three western mountains are covered pass line, a risky strategy that trespassed essay on Walking: "What business have I in with a second growth, but the other sum- private land. When Dorr instead followed the woods if I am thinking of something mits are bleak and bare." the island topography and the limits im- out of the woods." The sheer joy of explo- 12 Summer 2015 Friends of Acadia Journal Vol. 20, # 2 ration and of recovering one's bearings after restore and sustain historic and indigenous getting lost was balanced by Dorr's persis- conditions? Through repeated exploration tent effort to commit to memory exacting of the land and seascape, Dorr came to real- details of his journeys. This reservoir of de- ize that "The earth is our common heritage. tail proved critical in planning future trails, It is both right and needful that it should acquiring conservation properties, iden- be kept widely free in the portions that the tifying biological resources and geological homes of men, industry, and agriculture do features-not to mention the importance not claim." of this stored experience for later recom- William James, the father of American mendations to the National Park Service psychology, grasped the melding of the and John D. Rockefeller Jr. natural forces that Dorr experienced, the In planning new trails to wend their way "strength" and "character" of Mount Desert through the island landscape, Dorr ap- Island. He wrote to his wife, Alice, that his plied some advice contained in an Atlantic "Mt. Desert visit was a success, especially Monthly essay published a month after he For early summer visitors to Mount Desert Island, yesterday with its fine weather, which [he entered Harvard College in 1870. Therein, like this group atop Sargent Mountain around 1903, and Dorr] spent on a big walk over the a family friend, Unitarian minister, literary expeditions on foot to the island's summits and Mountains. I had no idea of the strength figure, and social reform activist, Thomas coastlines were an important social activity. of that Island." On that same day, in a let- Wentworth Higginson, extolled the bene- ter to experimental psychologist James M. fits of footpaths. "Instead of striking across officials, Dorr often referred to these pre- Baldwin, James referred to "a glorious day the natural lines, [the footpath] conforms European paths as single-lane footways yesterday-steam launch to Seal Harbor to them, nestles into the hollow, skirts only wide enough for one person. A central then over Sargent's Mountain. never the precipice, avoids the morass. An un- principle that Dorr promoted-and that saw SO much character in SO few miles." conscious landscape-gardener there are was adhered to by Native Americans-was As the close of the nineteenth century a thousand concealed fitnesses in nature, that the "earth led the path, not human in- neared, new path development as well as rhymed correspondences of bird and blos- clination to 'challenge' the landscape." Path the marking of established paths attracted som, for which you must seek through the refinements were not intended to manipu- larger numbers of island residents, season- most hidden paths." late landscape but to adapt to it. al residents, and tourists. No other resort Higginson claimed that well-designed Some excursions were rambles; others could offer anything aesthetically compa- footpaths provided intimate knowledge of were focused efforts to decipher the power rable to the island's 'walk and talk' oppor- both nature and the walker. "It is only in of place. Each new hike enlarged his con- tunities, and only on Mount Desert Island the footpath that our minds, like our bod- sciousness of that power implicit in the did a person's social prestige depended on ies, move slowly, and we traverse thought, extraordinary natural variation within the the number of pedestrian miles accom- like space, with a patient thoroughness." island's one hundred square miles: that plished up and down the torturous trails The summer after that essay was pub- is, seascape, coastline, rugged headlands, each summer. lished, while hiking in Italy's Lake Como mountains, valleys, freshwater lakes and Dorr allied himself with Bar Harbor region, Dorr experienced what Higginson ponds, watersheds, wildlife, and more than Village Improvement Association Roads had described. Even earlier, in 1868, when four hundred species of plants. and Paths Committee chairmen Herbert the Dorr family first visited Mount Des- As cottage development during the Jacques, Waldron Bates, and Edward Rand. ert Island, Dorr's memoirs reveal a young last two decades of the nineteenth cen- The BHVIA initially led the way develop- man unconsciously mimicking Thoreau, tury accelerated, from his various footpath ing path-making techniques, stabilizing who "would fain forget all my morning OC- perches Dorr saw the loss of landscape as path conditions, erecting and standardizing cupations and my obligations to society." prominent families "from away" rapidly de- signs, building footbridges, and publishing Many of us who have experienced Acadia's veloped the shoreline. In his memoirs Dorr sophisticated island maps. Dorr collaborat- trail system may identify with Higginson's reflected on the consequences of residential ed with Jacques on a half-mile connector feeling that "he had never experienced SO development, of increased footpath use, of path-for walking and carriages-through much, existed SO thoroughly, lived SO truly, landscapes privatized and no longer open a heavily wooded area from Schooner Head and been so wholly himself, as during his to public access. Road to the base of Champlain Mountain to travels on foot." Dorr clearly felt the same. Might not the best response to the diz- Otter Creek Road. Dorr and Waldron Bates, widely con- zying consequences of rapid residential Two years earlier, as chair of the BHVIA sidered the island's two preeminent path- development lie beneath Dorr's feet? After Bicycle Path Committee, Dorr completed makers, believed that Native American all, had not Frederick Law Olmsted shown construction of a nearly mile-long path footpaths frequently provided the best that landscape possesses the power to around the Beaver Dam Pool on Bear Brook guidance for trail direction. In his cor- transform human aspirations? Might it be Valley land that he owned. This lovely shel- respondence with National Park Service feasible to develop natural reservations to tered sanctuary on the flank of Champlain Friends of Acadia Journal Summer 2015 13 Mountain held special significance for his is that "individual features of the landscape mother, Mary Gray Ward Dorr. Her friend, and its play of light and shadow" must not Marian Lawrence Peabody, described Dorr's be "swallowed up in an unbroken sea of path as "heavenly smooth with pine nee- mixed foliage." dles and the sun just flickering through." Dorr's years of European travel, im- Dorr reveled in the familiarity of his fa- mersing him in both formal and pictur- vorite places. From these sites he inhaled esque aesthetics, informed his belief in the fragrance of the flora and the soil that an aesthetic superiority of landscape that nourished it, straining his weak eyes sea- included open space, cultivated terrain, ward to watch shorebirds skirt the white or human habitation. His emerging con- crests of distant waves moving shoreward. servation philosophy was both pluralistic To be sure, he retraced his steps, climb- and cumulative. Dorr's uncle, aesthetician ing one more peak even though he had and banker Samuel G. Ward, expressed been there too often to keep count. New this view as well within the context of Eu- observations, photographed images, and ropean culture: "Painters' mountains must questions received attention later when he be varied with peaks and hollow curves consulted specialized publications in his and associated with human habitation or extensive libraries at Oldfarm and the ad- occupation to relieve their austerity." Dorr jacent Storm Beach Collage. saw varied terrain elements as necessary These "wanderings," as Mary Dorr de- for the sake of the larger whole, suggestive scribed the island journeys of her son, were of the ecological philosophy that would be often in the company of relatives, friends, developed by the scientific community a and village improvement acquaintances. half-century later. Even in their company, Dorr scrutinized As the new century beckoned, Dorr trail conditions, paying attention to the would repeatedly travel across America effects of erosion, glaciation, distinctive through landscapes with neither footpaths landforms, water level fluctuations, and nor seascapes. In 1902 he engaged in field the ways in which the trees and plants re- research and exploration with Harvard sponded to human intrusion by overuse colleagues in the southwestern states and or logging. New trail routes were mapped two years later spent several months bush- and routing consultations with others took whacking the eastern Sierras and climb- ©2015 Aimee Beal Church place, then rigidly supervised work crews ing pathless Mt. Whitney. Whether or not constructed the trail. there was an existing path to follow, Dorr's Canon, a leading provider The pull of unfamiliar places both on course was clear: Mount Desert Island of consumer, business-to- and off island still vied for Dorr's attention. held untapped resources that could-and business and industrial In October of 1895, he took a two-week should-be turned to public purpose. digital imaging solutions, is canoeing and camping trip through the committed to giving back to northern Maine wilderness, from Moose- RONALD H. EPP, Ph.D. has worked in the communities in which we head Lake north through Chesuncoook university teaching, scholarly publishing, live and work. Whether it's Lake and ending on the second longest and academic library administration, and supporting youth initiatives or river on North America's Atlantic coastline, is the retired director of Shapiro Library at sustaining the environment, the Saint John. The adventure followed a Southern New Hampshire University. His Canon is dedicated to creating route familiar to students of American lit- longtime research into Acadia's early history programs and products erature-through the wilderness described and personages has led to published articles that aim to make a positive by Thoreau in 1846 and 1853. in the magazines and newsletters of many difference for our planet. Of the woods seen from his canoe Dorr Acadia-area organizations. Ron and his wife wrote, even if they be fine in themselves Elizabeth, who passed away in 2013, first Learn more at are monotonous when one sees them joined Friends of Acadia in 1995. www.usa.canon.com/ stretching on unbroken by civilization, environment unrelieved by open ground or any sign of human homeliness [for] if the woods be Canon open, one should walk in them, under and among the individual trees to realize their 2015 Canon U.S.A., Inc. beauty and grasp the feel of their charm." All rights reserved. Canon U.S.A., Inc. One core landscape value articulated here Summer 2015 Friends of Acadia Journal 14 5/31/2015 XFINITY Connect XFINITY Connect eppster2@comcast.net + Font Size - Fall 2015 FOA Journal: Epp Submission From : Ronald Epp Sun, May 31, 2015 05:47 PM Subject Fall 2015 FOA Journal: Epp Submission 1 attachment To : Aimee Church Hi Aimee, Attached is my draft of the "footpaths" article for the Fall 2015 issue of the Journal that we discussed when I last visited. While many paragraphs are clearly lifted almost exactly from the final copy of the manuscript, I have paid deeper homage to Thoreau here and modified the vocabulary and emphasis here and there. It is overly long: 1,850 words. The two paragraphs concerning the VIA could be abbreviated or excised. See what you can do to cut it to an acceptable 1,700 words. In describing the article for FOA readers I think it best to call it an adaptation. I'll see what images I can find to accompany it. Regarding the article title: I was trying to be ironic. As you likely know, Aristotle was the father of the Peripatetic School of Philosophy. In its original application, it referred to his manner of teaching by constantly being on the move, walking about as he engaged his students in conversation and delivered his lectures. Later the term shifted meaning to walking about, even if education was not the objective. I'm adapting it here to refer to Mount Desert Island educating Mr. Dorr when he traveled the island on foot--or his being educated through his sauntering. One of my failings, trying to be too clever at times. See what you can devise. I received chapter 13 and agree with you about Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts. I'll prepare an endnote explaining this. Best, Ronald Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 532 Sassafras Dr. Lebanon, PA 17042 717-272-0801 eppster2@comcast.net FOA Journal615.docx 23 KB https://web.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=294952&tz=America/New_York&xim 1/1 6/7/2015 XFINITY Connect XFINITY Connect eppster2@comcast.net + Font Size Re: Ron Epp From : Maureen Fournier Sun, Jun 07, 2015 07:02 AM Subject : Re: Ron Epp To : Ronald Epp Good morning, Ron. I share your frustration with communication, especially with the Park (and I work for them and live on the island)! but am a little surprised with Tim not responding as he usually is very responsive. I have the day off tomorrow and plan on going over to MDI Hist Soc on another matter - I can mention the Eliot box to him. Did I tell you that I was asked to join their Board? Also, I recommended the book, "France and New England" to him. While reading that title's volume 3, I came across mention of the granite slab with the words "Eaux Douces de l'Acadie" engraved on it - this I have known to be lying in the woods close to Sieur de Monts, as if discarded to be lost forever. I have never known its origin but the book states it was the threshold for the "office" at SDM I suggested to Marie and Becky it would be great for the Centennial to resurrect it from the woods and restore it to its original home. You can give me a call any evening this week. Home from work after 5 - home phone is 207-244-9987. I hope the problems aren't anything unsurmountable. Off to Park training for the day - not the way I would prefer to spend a beautiful day in Acadia, but tis the season. Til we talk, Maureen On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 9:25 AM, Ronald Epp wrote: Dear Maureen, I hope that you have been well since we met three weeks ago. I copied you on an email I sent to Tim about your role in accessing the Eliot family papers but have not heard back from him. For many years I've been frustrated with poor communication between park HQ and researchers "from away." Specifically, about new publications such as the OCLP cultural landscape reports as well as those that they contract out to independent researchers. Marie has been most helpful and after no little effort I came across a couple of interesting NPS publications available online. I wondered whether you were familiar with them: the NPS newsletter called Courier which ceased publication after a lengthy run in the last quarter of the 20th century; and Ranger: the Journal of the Association of NP Rangers which has fascinating thematic issues. On an entirely different matter, is there a time in the week ahead when I can speak with you? There are some worrisome issues relative to the Chapman Archive and the Mellon Foundation grant where I believe your input would be helpful. Enjoy the weekend! Ronald Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 532 Sassafras Dr. Lebanon, PA 17042 717-272-0801 eppster2@comcast.net https://web.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=296480&tz=America/New_York&xim=1 1/1 5/31/2015 XFINITY Connect XFINITY Connect eppster2@comcast.net + Font Size - Re: Off they go! From : Bill Horner Sun, May 31, 2015 12:54 PM Subject : Re: Off they go! To : Ronald Epp Hi Ron, Thanks for your complimentary remarks which coming from you I value greatly. You may certainly adapt the remarks noted. And I look forward to receiving your documents. The Door One Road illustration was printed in the Bar Harbor Record of the time. Stay tuned. Best, Bill On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 8:40 AM, Ronald Epp wrote: Hi Bill, This morning I skimmed your "Auto Wars" article to determine whether you had referenced the two relevant documents that I uncovered last week in the Chapman Archive. Since this was not the case, I'm posting them to you tomorrow. But I wanted to renew my praise for the quality of the article! You structured the diverse currents of reason and emotion in a such a interesting way, compelling the reader to turn yet another page--even though the outcome was a foregone conclusion. And thank you for including the Dorr One motor road map. I was not aware of its existence. Last night I finished adapting a chapter of the Dorr manuscript for inclusion in the fall issue of the FOA Journal. It is a celebration of the Island footpaths during the two decades before the close of the 19th-century. My essay reflects the wordsyou wrote: that Dorr "breathed the essence of this place, as we can, too--native and visitor alike-- if we but climb high enough or penetrate more deeply into the forest, away from the sound of the engine." Mind if I adapt your words for my article? Enjoy the day! Ron From: "Bill Horner" To: "Pauline Angione" Cc: "Clem Guthro" , "Doug Chapman" , "Rhodes Erin" , ruth@fentonlawfirm.com, "Fisher Adam (MSL)" Adam.C.Fisher@maine.gov>, "Epp Ron" , "Eveland Ruth A." Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2015 9:50:39 PM Subject: Re: Off they go! An historic occasion indeed. I have more news that I'll get out in the next day or 2. Thank you, everyone. On May 30, 2015 7:54 PM, "Pauline Angione" wrote: https://web.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=294881&tz=America/New_York&xim 1/2