Acadia National Park - Culture

People

They traded up and down the coast with other American Indians, and European explorers and fishermen. In the 1800s, they taught tourists and summer residents how to canoe on Frenchman Bay and crafted baskets for sale to the burgeoning tourist trade. The French navigator-explorer, Samuel Champlain, made the first reliable European record of the area in 1604, though because of the turbulance that followed between the French and British, it was not until 1762 that a permanent European settlement was established. These hardy folk subsisted here, farming and fishing, and eventually opening their homes to paying tourists, called “rusticators”, who enjoyed the rustic lodgings and the primitive and wild state of the island.

Tourism flourished beginning in the mid-1800s, and the island supported a population of wealthy summer residents who came here to escape the pressures of city life. Acadia National Park was founded by those who wished to see their favorite views and special places preserved for the future, rather than developed and harvested. Thanks to their stewardship and foresight, the island retains a little of its wild nature, which first attracted visitors in the 1800s. Today, three million visitors a year enjoy what the park founders fought to preserve.