Beginning in 1768, Bar Island was the homestead of successive generations of the Rodick family. During the 1800s, the family ran a weir operation for bait fish and had a path leading to the top of the highest point on the island where they hoisted a flag to let passing fishermen know that bait fish was available, which is the upper portion of the present trail.
The family had an extensive fish smoking operation that included metal rails for carting fish to the shorefront smoke-house, where the present day trail begins. They also stored and repaired yachts for summer residents. They kept extensive flower gardens to provide flowers for their large hotel, the Rodick, that they owned on Main St. in Bar Harbor (Jack Perkins,
Parasols of Ferns: A Book About Wonder, 1994, and “Eben M. Hamor Manuscript, Books 1 & 2” at Northeast Harbor Library Digital Archive [
https://nehl.digitalarchive.us/items/show/5265]. Item 6185.).
The Rodicks sold the mid section of the island to Mrs. Mabel Hunt Slater in 1907. (
Bar Harbor Record, 5/22/1907). The Slater family constructed a summer estate, the Bungalow, and accessed their house by a right-of-way road to their property, which is the mid portion of the present day trail.
In 1909, summer resident Edward T. Stotesbury purchased the western third of the island from the Rodick family.(Bar Harbor Record, 10/13/1909). Stotesbury then sold his parcel to John Rockefeller, Jr. who gave the land to Acadia National Park. The Rodicks rolled their family house across the island to the eastern third.
In 1943, the Slater property, the mid third of the island, burned in a fire, (Bar Harbor Fire Department records, 07/03/1943) and eventually was repossessed by the town of Gouldsboro for failure to pay taxes. In 1981, Jack and Mary Jo Perkins purchased the mid section of the island and built their cottage over top the ruins of the Slater estate. They sold their property to Acadia National Park in 2003. (
Bar Harbor Times, 01/30/2003). The eastern third of the island, still in the hands of the Rodick family, was lost in 1934 in bankruptcy, and changed ownership several times. Eventually, Acadia National Park acquired the eastern third of the island property.
