Green Mountain It is said that the idea of a cog railway on Green Mountain (now Cadillac Mountain), Mt. Desert Island, Maine, originated with a stout lady who could not ride up the old, rough wagon road to the top. She had ascended New Hampshire's Mt. Washington cog railway and one in Switzerland and wondered why a similar means had not been used on Green Mountain. Another story is that Francis Clergue, a Bangor lawyer, wrote to the owner of the side of Green Mountain facing Eagle Lake asking his permission to use the land. Clergue believed that if it paid small boy's to collect informal road tolls on the rough mountain road that it would pay to transport people by cog railway to see the sunset and stay overnight on top. Whatever the reason, Clergue proceeded in 1881 with capital stock of $61,000 (later increased to $87,500). At subsequent meetings the ten stockholders elected W.B. Hayford as president and F.H. Clergue as secretary and treasurer. The railway was to be a duplicate of the Mt. Washington cog railway using 4'-7 1/2" gauge. A LEASE OF 240 acres of land passengers the 2 1/2 miles across was railed. In the center was a 10' for twenty years was obtained on Eagle Lake to the railway's base square, glassed-in observation Taken not far from where the old Mountain Road Green Mountain with a perpetual station and a hotel erected on the room, its floor being 20" above 160 ft. right of way from Eagle mountain's summit. The latter the roof, with a large mounted now crosses the Green Mountain Railway roadbed Lake at the base to the summit. A was about 1,528 ft. above telescope inside. The top of the and looks down on the base station at Eagle Lake. Steamer was to be used to carry tidewater. observation tower tapered off in a Survey work for the railway spire which was 23' above the flat was done in below zero weather roof. On clear days it was possi- by the experienced engineer, ble to see Grand Manan, some 90 A.F. Hilton, during December miles to the northeast, and Mt. Green Mountain MT. 1882 and January 1883. The Katahdin to the northwest. The Railway, MAINE. steepest grade was one foot in hotel, connected to Bar Harbor by three with most of it being one telephone and telegraph systems, foot in four. "T" rails were or- cost about $8,000 and was leased dered from New York and the cog to Horace Chase of the American rails from the Atlantic Works, House, Bangor. East Boston, Mass., for a 6,300 While this work was progress- foot track length. ing, a work car and a passenger WHEN THE SNOW disap car were begun, about March 1, peared from the mountain, in the 1883, at the Hinkley & Egery Iron spring of 1883, the area was Works, Bangor The latter was cleared of brush down to the stone similar to the Boston open horse ledge. One inch iron bolts were cars using heavy, canvas side placed in drilled holes in the rock curtains normally seating 48 and extended from the surface persons but sometimes crowded 8-12". They formed the supports 74 in it. This car was built in sec- for the base logs that were laid tions at Bangor and assembled at against them. Across these logs the railway's base station. were placed two parallel, vertical THE STERN-WHEEL steamer logs fastened to the base with two "Wauwinet" was bought from 7/8" bolts on each side. Then 6" General B.F. Butler and E. thick ties were spiked to the top logs and the "T" rails lag screwed to them. The cog rails were laid in the center of the track and the ties were notched out 2" on each side of them to pro- Taken from the cover of an early brochure. vide clearance for the engine's cog wheels. The first rail was laid on May 9, 1883, and the last one on June 22, under the supervision of F.W. Cram who was superinten- dent of The European & North American Railway located in Bangor. On April 29, 1883, the founda- tion work began on the Summit House under the direction of the architect, W.E. Mansur of Bangor. The main house was 41' 50' with an eight foot wide piazza on all sides having four en- trances, two each on the north and south sides. A 30 X 41 dining room on the west side seated 125 persons and from it led a staircase to the second floor. In the east end were two separate parlors, one for women and one for men. The second floor had ten sleeping rooms and the attic held six more, each room having two windows in them. A 30' X 26' ell was attached to the main building having on the ground floor the kitchen, serving room and pantry. The second floor held six sleeping rooms for the personnel. Stairs led from the second floor to the roof through a Original Summit House bu sliding scuttle and a flat roof 1522 feet above sea level. Looking up the railway from Eagle Lake wharf. formed a 19' X 28' platform that Railway Moody Boynton (famous for his barges, made in Cambridge, Bicycle Railroad at Coney Island, Mass., carried passengers from New York) owners of the Pen- various places in Bar Harbor to tucket Navigation Company for Eagle Lake. Until the equipment $2,500. She was built in 1872 at was ready gravity furnished a New Bedford, Mass., as a tug and fast trip down the mountain for S rebuilt in 1881. The boat was 65 the workmen using a board 3 long, flat bottom, 11.51 gross tons mounted on small wheels. The 5 and held 150 persons. The same arrangement was used on d steamer arrived at Bar Harbor Mt. Washington and the record on April 1, 1883, and it took seven- time down Green Mountain to the teen days to haul it the 2 1/2 miles base was one and a quarter 0 overland to Eagle Lake. F.C. minutes. d Wiggin was the engineer that The barge trip from Bar Harbor to the lake took about for- morning carried across the lake e first summer. Engine No. 1 with the first open car built in Bangor. The ten ton locomotive 1, MT. ty minutes, another fifteen on the and then up to the summit. Eight days later a temporary hotel RICHMOND. The railway ran DESERT, built by the steamer and some thirty minutes Manchester Locomotive Works, up the mountain, the round trip opened for business. two round trips with the special cost being $2.50 per person. No The regular season closed Sep- fare of $2.00 each. That fall the Manchester, N.H. arrived with tember 20, 1884 and was good as company steamer WAUWINET the "T" rails at Bar Harbor train pedlars were allowed. The 5,500 persons rode the railway. A was widened three feet and re- By Richard F. Dole aboard the schooner STELLA company had only scheduled to special excursion was run in con- built. A new hotel was voted by LEE on April 18. It required four- run four daily round trips but due Photos by W.H. Ballard junction with the Portland, the directors and to locate it on teen horses and two pairs of oxen to the increased demand changed Bangor, Mt. Desert & Machias the brow of the mountain to over- to haul the engine on skids to it to six round trips. The road Eagle Lake. A long scow ferried stopped for this season in middle Steamboat Company from look Bar Harbor. her over to temporary tracks on of September 1883 and the results Portland between September (Continued on page 34) 13-16 on the steamer CITY OF the company wharf and then were good. A total fo 2,967 moved some 200 yards to the persons rode it, the company passenger depot that was used as earned the sum of $7,840 with a a shop. The first engineer was surplus of $1,335. A $600 dividend A.S. Randall who had worked on was paid the stockholders but it the Mt. Washinton cog railway was the first and only one ever oreleven years. declared. THE TRACK LAYING was de- THE COMPANY decided that lated for a time as fifteen fall to buy a second engine from laborers struck on the morning of the Manchester Locomotive April 16 for higher pay, they were Works, to build a longer paid $1.50 per day and wanted passenger car in their own shop $1.75. The contractor refused to and to sell the barges as they meet their demand and soon after were too expensive, and sub- the men returned to work at the stitute buckboards for them. 2 G.M.RY old rate. When the track was Clergue petitioned the Maine placed halfway up the mountain Railroad Commissioners to build the first train load of ladies made a 3' gauge steam railroad, to be the trip in the afternoon on May known as the Mt. Desert 30. The grand opening Railway, from Bar Barbor to the ceremonies were held on June 23, cog railway terminus. This was 1883, with ex-Vice President Han- approved October 31, 1883, and nibal Hamlin, one of the the company organized on Nov- stockholders, on hand. Sixteen ember 17. The proposal created considerable opposition and after several more hearings the original approval was rescinded on February 4, 1884. Most cot- tagers desired to keep Bar Harbor free of any further "urban improvements" that would constitute a fire hazard as well as disturbing their peace and Engine No. 2 with the original passenger car at the summit. quiet. Clergue proposed an elec- tric railway in 1889 but this was denied for the same reasons. ENGINE unnamed, was built at Manchester, N.H. on February 15, 1884, and arrived at Bar Harbor in early March. The new and longer passenger car was un- der construction at this time. Regular runs began on July 7 although special excursions were run before that date. At 8:15 p.m., Saturday, August 2, 1884, the wooden roof of the Summit House caught fire from chimney sparks and was badly burned although the observatory and railway were unharmed. There were no overnight guests in the hotel at the time. A tent was erected the next day and meals were served on the following Monday TIMBER WAS ORDERED and sawn at Ellsworth on Monday, loaded during the day on Maine Central cars, shipped to Mt. Desert Ferry and that night built in 1883, burned in 1895. taken by steamer to Bar Harbor. It was hauled to Eagle Lake that same night and on Tuesday Steamer Wauwinet on Eagle Lake, Mt. Desert Island. the nine cannons of bangor THE SALTONSTALL CANNON ON KENDUSKEAG MALL Just as the proverbial New Yorker is blind to the Recovered from the Penobscot River in August of 1876, this relic is steeped in history. In 1779, during historically valuable landmarks about him, so is the American.Revolution it was sunk in Bangor Harbor aboard one of Commodore Saltonstall's sloops- many a Bangor resident. This is nowhere more ap- of-war, during one of America's most abortive marine episodes, the Penobscot Expedition. The ship was sunk by its own crew under hot pursuit from the British, who followed the American fleet many parent than in the city's old cannons. Dotted about miles when it unsuccessfully and unskillfully attempted to capture Castine from them. History town in an unassuming manner, the metal relics are, has bypassed one notable participation in the Expedition, Paul Revere's, which was punished when the in some ways, anachronistic mementos of a vanished Patriot returned to Boston. era when war was glorious only after it had been won, and the last shot had been fired. Astute businessmen pass several of the historical relics by the dozens each day, not realizing their great significance. Ironically, just as with the vis- itors to New York, the tourists of Bangor appreciate the cannons' value more than do the locals. Here then, is a photographic sampling of the 9 cannons of Bangor, reflecting in their historical re- levance that many items of worth lay in our own backyards, yearning to be recognized. THE MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY CANNON Along with 4 other similar guns moved to Bangor 75 years ago, this relic was recovered from a Civil War gun boat and symbolizes the staunchness that made the Union forces formidable competi- tion. Behind the cannon is a miniature blackhouse which, along with the guns and several Civil Wae graves, forms an impressive monument to the century-old conflict. Sadly, vandalism has also taken its toll here, evinced by the recent removal of the cannonballs from the triangular platform to the right of the cannon, and the submersion of a fifth cannon weighing over 1,000 pounds in a nearby pond. Due to its obscurity in storage now, it is not generally counted as one of Bangor's 9 cannons. By Richard N. Shaw THE SIMPLE G.A.R. CANNON AT THE MUSEUM ON UNION STREET A fine representative of the War Between the States, especially Maine's noteworthy contribution, this gun is forgotten by most as an insignificant, outdated piece of metal. Around 1966, someone, with little respect for our heritage, vandalized the cannon and stole the beautiful carriage on which it rested. It was never retrieved and so today, an inferior foundation of cement replaces it. THE SPANISH BRONZE CANNON ACROSS KEN- DUSKEAG MALL FROM THE SALTONSTALL GUN More imposing and far heavier than its nearby counterpart, BANGOR-MERRIFIELD this cannon played a role in the Spanish American War in the OFFICE SUPPLY Caribbean. Cast at Seville in 1787, the ancient cannon was brought out of mothballs in 1898 and saw heavy service at Fort Toro in 14 State Street Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 1899, through the efforts of Bangor Bangor, Maine Mayor Chapin and Representative Boutelle, the cannon was Tel. 942-5511 shipped to Bangor where it has stood ever since, withstanding the fierce Bangor fire of 1911 when all of the surrounding buildings were devastated. 20