Cadillac Mountain’s summit: carved by ice, climbed by cog railway, used for radar

At 1530 feet (466 m), Cadillac Mountain is, the Park Service says, the tallest mountain on the eastern seaboard of the United States, and in winter the first place in the country to see the sunrise. Most of its visitors, according to the source, have never stood on its true summit, which lies a short walk from the Summit Loop, the half-mile trail around the eastern summit. There are three summits in all.

Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. NPS photo.

Why the top is bare

The summit has “subalpine-like” conditions, though the mountain is too low to be subalpine: shallow, dry soil (none at all in places), strong wind off the Atlantic and few nutrients make it inhospitable to many species. The cause goes back to the last ice age, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of what is now Canada and the northern U.S., Acadia included, and towered about a mile high. Its movement from north to south carved the landscape, and when it melted it exposed the bald peaks and the oddly placed large rocks seen across Acadia, leaving little soil behind.

The Laurentide Ice Sheet relative to present-day Acadia National Park. NPS image.

Plants there are specialized for little or no soil, harsh winters and low water, and wind can even dry out needles. The pitch pine copes with waxy needles that help prevent drying and freezing, and its dark green color helps absorb sunlight in early spring.

Names

Long before Samuel de Champlain named the island Isle des Monts Deserts, in the early 1600s, Wabanaki peoples used it as a central meeting place to gather, trade, hunt and fish. The Wabanaki are four tribes: the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot. Many knew the island as Pemetic, “range of mountains,” and one Wabanaki name for the mountain was Pesamkuk. Euro-American settlers called it Green Mountain until 1918, when it was named for the French nobleman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who was given the land by the governor of New France in 1688 and established a fort in Detroit in the early 1700s. His family seal is on the summit, the source says, but only the car company, founded in Detroit, adapted it for its emblem.

Rooms with a view

In the late 1800s, as visits increased, a road was built to the summit, then called Green Mountain. Early tourists found the ride in horse-drawn carriages tolerable but preferred to walk. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey installed a benchmark in 1858, and the summit marker came in 1954. The Brewer family, who owned the mountain, built the Mountain House in the early 1860s about 10 yards north of the summit, on a structure that had housed Coast Survey workers.

The Brewer’s Mountain House. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service, Acadia National Park.

The cog railway

Construction of the Green Mountain Cog Railway began in February 1883 and was finished in July of the same year, built by 175 laborers who were paid $1.50 a day. Its promoter, the lawyer Francis H. Clergue, had begun planning in 1882 with seven other investors and obtained a right-of-way up the western side from the Brewers. Visitors left their carriages at the north end of Eagle Lake, took the steamboat Wauwinet to the southeast end and boarded the train, which cost $2.50 round trip and ran at about 2 mph. Passengers would sometimes get off to pick blueberries along the way.

One of Clergue’s Green Mountain locomotives. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service, Acadia National Park.

In 1884 a spark set the roof of the Green Mountain House ablaze; the fire spread to the old mountain house about 50 yards away, and everyone escaped. Within 48 hours a Bar Harbor builder had a new hotel drawn on paper, and within a year of the temporary section the Summit House was ready. In 1889 it hosted the U.S. Signal Service, whose weather station was on its third floor. In the 1890s visits slowed, the railway closed owing $14,000, and little more than ten years after it opened the hotel had fallen into disrepair and was torn down and burned.

From park to radar

The land became Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916, the year the National Park Service was established, Lafayette National Park in 1919 by an act of Congress and Acadia National Park in 1929. The Summit Tavern opened in 1932, serving refreshments and souvenirs to hikers and to visitors who drove the new Summit Road.

The present-day summit, with its radio tower and parking area. NPS photo.

During World War II the mountain was closed to visitors but still in use, as a radar facility for early warning of aircraft. Its height and location gave strong signals, which is why the park still uses it for communications; the antenna now serves the Park Service, local police and fire departments and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Sources

• National Park Service, Acadia National Park, “Secrets of the Summit,” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/secrets-of-the-summit.htm; rewritten in hubnx’s own words.