Establishment of Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park occupies much of Mount Desert Island, along with other parts of the coast of Maine, and combines rocky shoreline, forested hills and granite mountains such as Cadillac Mountain. It was the first national park created east of the Mississippi River, and began as a national monument, a status raised later to that of a national park under the name Lafayette. It was given its present name in 1929. The park owes much to private citizens, notably George B. Dorr and Charles W. Eliot, who assembled donated land, and to John D. Rockefeller Jr., who paid for a network of carriage roads. The park is one of the most visited in the United States and protects habitats for seabirds, whales offshore and many other species.

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