Anemone Cave Trail, Acadia National Park, Hancock County, ME

Anemone Cave (Devil’s Oven) was one of the early attractions on Mount Desert Island, once considered an essential experience by early rusticators. Clara Barnes Martin, writing in her guidebook, mourned the destruction of the anemones at Devil’s Oven by too many visitors. "Such was the name it had of old. Fancy has called it now, 'Anemone Cave.' Pretty as the name is, it grieves one to say that this will shortly be a misnomer, for the beauty and splendor it had is already quite gone. The few little anemones which have escaped the eager hands of admiring visitors, seem like the forlorn late flowers that survive the first attack of the frost, only to die its last victims. The old lovers of Mount Desert must protest against the selfishness which not only strips Anemone Cave of its treasures, but robs the loveliest dells of their moss and ferns. If the present destruction goes on, the strict assertion of private ownership will be the only means of preserving the beauty of the woods or the shore" (Clara Barnes Martin, “Mount Desert on the Coast of Maine” (Loring, Short, and Harmon, Portland ME, 1877, p. 35 [ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027220097&seq=56]).

The private ownership that Martin was referring to was that of Bostonians Charles and Eliza Homan whose estate, purchased in 1873, included Anemone Cave. In 1907, Eliza Homan donated the Bowl and Beehive, one of the earliest gifts of land to the Hancock County Trustees for Public Reservation (HCTPR). With the death of Charles and then Eliza, their heirs sold the property in 1924 to George Dorr, with financing provided by Louisa Satterlee. George Dorr promptly conveyed the property to the HCTPR, who then conveyed the land to the United States in 1928. In 1931, the Park renovated the Homan house and turned it into a guest house for visiting U.S. Interior Department guests (Bar Harbor Times, December 2, 1931, p. 1; Hancock County Registry of Deeds, personal communication David Goodrich, Feb. 2024). The house and the surrounding landscape burned down in the fire of 1947.

In 1934, under the supervision of Vernon Lunt, the Civilian Conservation Corp constructed a new trail leading to Anemone Cave, located north of the guest house to allow the guests privacy. The 1934 records of the CCC McFarland Field Camp describe the following work: "Anemone Cave Trail - This project consists of constructing a new trail from the highway [Schooner Head Road] to and along the shore front at a point near Anemone Cave. Its purpose is to open to the public a little known, wildly beautiful, section of shore line having as its principal attraction the above mentioned Anemone Cave. It leaves the highway at a point about one-sixth mile below Schooner Head and sloping gradually leads one down through a forest of mixed hard and soft wood to the shore point, a distance of about one half mile.

“The work consists of swamping, cleaning and stumping of way, grading, filling, and graveling of trail and minor cleaning of woods directly bordering trail. The nature and location of terrain necessitated the employing of a horse and driver to move materials" (CCC records, National Archives). The 1934 records of the CCC McFarland Field Camp continue, “This trail has been built with great care, avoiding steps and rough terrain so that these feature combined with its comparative shortness renders it possible for older or infirm people to enter and enjoy this area. This trail is about one fifth of a mile in length….an otherwise little known spot on Mount Desert's shore line will now be accessible to visitors of the Park.” Two photographs are included in the report that show the path through the woods to the shore and the trail along the shore showing the approach to the cave" (CCC records, National Archives, and 1956 Topographic Map, Acadia National Park, U. S. Dept. of Interior.).

Many CCC paths needed follow up work; for example the Anemone Cave Trail required more drainage structures. Without these, much of the surfaces eroded by the 1950s. In 1958, during the Mission 66 period, a new Anemone Cave Trail was constructed south of the preexisting CCC trail. Harold MacQuinn contracted with Superintendent Givens to build a spur road overtop a preexisting substandard road (Homan driveway), and a parking lot called the Schooner Head Overlook (Bar Harbor Times, 05/22/1958). The upper section of the new trail was rerouted to this parking area and the path paved with asphalt. The easy path brought many more visitors to the cave, accelerating trampling of fragile natural sea anemones. "By the late 1960s concerns that frequent visitation was having negative effects on the marine life were raised. Between the summer of 1969 and 1971 the National Park Service removed Anemone Cave from the park-issued maps and brochures. Sign and rails were also taken down around the same time to discourage visitation" (Madeline Motley and Ariana Rambach,"History of Visitor Use and Management of Anemone Cave", College of the Atlantic, 2014 [ https://www.coa.edu/live/files/1257-anemone-cave-history-003]).