Traveling Through History of Bar Harbor takes readers beyond the postcard version of Maine’s famous coastal resort and into the surprisingly complicated story of how Bar Harbor became Bar Harbor.

Long before summer mansions, elegant hotels, wealthy visitors, and bustling tourism transformed the shoreline, Mount Desert Island was shaped by Native history, fishing, farming, maritime work, and the rhythms of a rugged Atlantic coast. Then came a new kind of visitor: wealthy Americans searching for cooler air, spectacular scenery, and a summer escape far from the cities.

Bar Harbor soon became one of the most fashionable summer destinations in the United States. Millionaires arrived, grand estates appeared, tourism accelerated, and the small coastal community found itself at the center of the Gilded Age summer world. Behind the glamour, however, was a town navigating enormous changes in land, labor, architecture, transportation, social life, and identity.

This journey follows Bar Harbor through its rise as a coastal resort, the people and industries that helped shape it, the extraordinary wealth that descended upon Mount Desert Island, the devastating events that altered its landscape, and the gradual transformation of the community into a destination known around the world.

From working waterfronts to lavish summer estates, from fashionable visitors to local residents, Traveling Through History of Bar Harbor reveals the history behind the scenery—and the strange, fascinating story of what happens when a quiet coastal town becomes somewhere the wealthy decide they absolutely must spend the summer.