Acadia Centennial #240

David MacDonald:

Acadia is unique in the way its boundary weaves in and out of these communities and so there's no hard line where an issue stops here and picks up here. You're really in it together.

Cookie Horner:

Yeah, it just gets in your soul. I used to I couldn't sleep for weeks before we would come and I used to cry all halfway home when I left. And I always knew that I would live in Maine. I'd figure out how to get there and really especially to Mount Desert Island.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine radio show number 240, Acadia Centennial airing for the first on Sunday, April 24, 2016. This year marks 100 years of Acadia, Maine's only national park. Born officially on July 8, 1916, Acadia National park on Mount Desert island has brought joy to generations of people all over the world. Today we speak with David McDonald, President and CEO of Friends of Acadia, Cookie Horner, co Chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force, and her husband Bill Horner, President of the MDI Historical Society. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For many people in the state, Mount Desert island and Acadia are really probably one of their favorite places. So the individual that I'm speaking with today has a great job, I think. This is David McDonald who currently serves as the President and CEO of Friends of Acadia, a not for profit organization with more than 4,500 members and a 30 year history as a philanthropic and community partner of Acadia National park and Mount Desert Island. David joined Friends of Acadia in 2012 after a 20 year career in land conservation at the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. A longtime resident of soamesville and a 1982 graduate of Mount Desert Island High School, David has been exploring the trails, woods and waters of Acadia for most of his life. David loves enjoying the outdoors and the great state of Maine with his wife Caroline, daughter Eliza, and son Jessie. Thanks for coming in.

David MacDonald:

Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, it's a treat to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's really interesting to me that you are. You have so loved the place that you came from that you are back there again intensely. Because I grew up in Yarmouth and I have kind of gone out into the world and gotten educated and done various things, but I'm. But I still, I'm back in Yarmouth.

David MacDonald:

You feel that pull.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, there's something that really. And I think that this has specifically been an interesting thing for Mainers.

David MacDonald:

Definitely. Yeah. My parents moved our family up there when I was about 10. So I wasn't born there, but I grew up there. I went to grade school and high school there and wanted to get out for college and lived here in southern Maine for a couple of years. But it really sort of snuck up on me that it's not the same. The Maine coast is beautiful. I was in Portland and Brunswick in that area, but I really kept feeling myself pulled back to Mount Desert. And so to be able to go back there and get a job in the land conservation field, it's been. I've been very lucky.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I think that's. It's always kind of interesting to read about the brain drain and about people leaving the state and people who are in our generation that have gone elsewhere and then return. Because there is actually more opportunity in Maine than perhaps we realize. I mean, there are jobs in things like land conservation. There are jobs in ecological fields and in all sorts of areas.

David MacDonald:

Yeah, Maine has a, I think, has a growing reputation as a place for those kinds of fields. And I think there's more opportunity in a way than there was even when I was younger. I mean, I was lucky to make it back and get into this field, but I think there's a lot of promise now for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So the Friends of Acadia has been around for 30 years, but Acadia itself has been around. It's celebrating its hundred year anniversary this year.

David MacDonald:

Yeah, the centennial is pretty exciting. The park was founded in 1916 and so friends of Acadia has been around for about a third of the history of the park. And we have been planning sort of a year long community based celebration of the park where Lots of individuals and businesses and nonprofits really can celebrate what's important about the park to them and also how they relate to the park. And so one of the things that makes Acadia unique is the relationship with the surrounding community. And importantly, we're not just celebrating the park. We're thinking about the next hundred years as well. So our slogan for the centennial is celebrate our past and inspire our future. And that's really been the sort of ethos of what we've been doing, planning the centennial and now jumping in this year. So it's really fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What do you think it is about Acadia, Mount Desert island, that brings people really, from all over the world to visit?

David MacDonald:

I think you have to chalk some of it up to the sort of power of a national park, sort of that brand. I mean, Maine has a lot of gorgeous places, but Acadia is its one national park. And I think that resonates for people differently from other land trust preserves or state parks, which are wonderful. But I think a national park is sort of the gold standard in terms of land and recreational opportunities and multiple public values. So I think that has a lot to do with it. But I also just think it's a very, very unique island. There's no place like it, really, in terms of the concentration of mountains and lakes and ocean and trails and carriage roads. It's got a lot in a very small package. By national park standards, Acadia is very small compared to the western parks, which are millions and millions of acres. Acadia is only about 45,000 acres. So it's. It's a nice, compact package.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Having spent time up in Acadia, I've enjoyed learning bits and pieces of its history and the history of the island. And it's really quite fascinating. It's been drawing intellectuals and summer visitors for generations.

David MacDonald:

Yes. Yeah, you're right. And that's the other part of what makes it my favorite place in the world, is not just the natural beauty, but the richness of the community as well. It still has an incredible mix of people. And over 100 years ago, people were being drawn for the hiking. They were being drawn as artists to the landscapes. They were being drawn for the science. Really. A lot of the genesis of Acadian national park came from some students from Harvard who came up and did botanical studies and camped up there and just tromped around. And so you had this convergence of all these different values that really did put the place on the map. And thank goodness a lot of people had the foresight to conserve the place, because it could have been easily developed and had a very different future.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Acadia also was impacted by a fire that took place in Bar Harbor. And we had the College of the Atlantic. We had people from the College of the Atlantic come in and we talked about the impact on the college. How was the impact on the state park?

David MacDonald:

The fire, the fire of 1947. It was a year when there was quite a few forest fires around Maine. And in October, a fire started on Mount Desert. It burned about half the park at the time, as you said, mostly in Bar harbor on the eastern side of the island. And it really. It did a couple of things at the time. It was part of what started to forge a closer relationship, actually, between the park and the community, because you go through a trauma like that together, and you had park rangers and local firemen fighting side by side. So there was a bonding to it. But it was also devastating to the economy and also to the forest of the park. Of course, that regenerated. It's come back. If you look at an aerial or if you're hiking in Acadia, you can see the line where the fire burned, which is now all hardwood that has regenerated. And then on the western side of the island, it's more softwood and spruce and fir. The soils in the park, you know, the biology, really, of the park is changed irreparably by the fire. Nature does bounce back, but it is an eye opener, and it makes us think today about what other, you know, natural changes will the park go through in the future. We who have grown up there, I've grown up there, have this picture of Acadia, which is what it is right now, but it's going to change. It's going to keep changing. And the fire of 47 is an example of how it already changed dramatically in our past.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It also changed dramatically because at one point, it was a summer ground of Native Americans. And that isn't something that is as much recognized anymore, although there's a museum involved.

David MacDonald:

Yes, the Abbey Museum is an excellent museum dedicated to Native American culture and the history, not just on Mount Desert island, but in that part of Maine. And the park is very committed to celebrating certainly that chapter of the history as well. Yeah, I mean, the Native Americans took care of the place without having to call it a national park. I mean, there, you know, it was a very sacred place, still is. And, you know, they were fantastic stewards before the threats and the pressures of colonization. And, you know, the 19th century came along.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You spent 20 years with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, so You have done land conservation for, well, that amount of time. What have you found are similarities and differences between the job that you left and the job that you have had since 2012.

David MacDonald:

That's a great question. At Maine Coast Heritage Trust, I was mostly working with landowners and families coming up with conservation strategies for their. For their properties, whether it's a farm or an island or a woodlot. So being a partner with a landowner or family around the future of their land was very, very satisfying. It was fun, it was fascinating, and it was a real partnership. I miss that in my job now. But what I really love is that very democratic feel of a national park. It just. You've got people from all over who know this place and love it and use it, and it's theirs. It belongs to the American people.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And.

David MacDonald:

And that's very powerful. And I didn't realize just how much I'd enjoy that until I got into this job. It makes, it feels like an honor really to be working on behalf of a national park because it really does inspire people from all walks of life. Whereas the land trust work is fantastic. For a long time it's sort of been a very well kept secret. That's changing now. Land trusts are doing great work, getting out in the community more, but. But the jump to working for a national park has been great.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You brought up the community that coexists with Acadia, and I think that that's an important thing to discuss because it's not just, although the downtown Bar harbor area has great shops and it has great restaurants, but it's not just that. I mean, there's a whole community that continues around the island that waterfronts people who are making a living fishing and lobstering. Tell me what intersections the Friends of Acadia has with these groups.

David MacDonald:

Yeah, our mission, actually a number of years ago, before I came to the Oregon City, but they changed the mission, not just to serve the park, but also to serve the surrounding communities, which is really important and powerful, I think, because Acadia is unique in the way its boundary weaves in and out of these communities. And so there's no hard line where an issue stops here and picks up here. You're really in it together. And there have been stresses over the years. There's sort of an inherent distrust of the federal government or suspicion perhaps among a lot of us Mainers. And while I think the park has done an outstanding job, they've had to tend with some, you know, not ill will, but unease at times. There was a concern for many years that the park would Just sort of expand and take over the entire island and, you know, force people off their land. Well, they worked very hard to pass a permanent boundary. Senator Mitchell in the mid-80s, worked on that. And, you know, that put a lot of that to rest. There's tremendous economic synergy between. You mentioned the town of Bar harbor and there's four other towns on the island as well. Three other towns and then some offshore island towns. The park is just the economic generator for many, many people in that community. And so I think there's a growing appreciation for that, and there's more of a resolve to work together. Right after I started on the job at Friends of Acadia, we endured one of those horrible government shutdowns when Congress couldn't figure out the budget. And so the park, the gates were closed for, I think it was 16 or 17 days, the most beautiful October days that you could imagine. And that was a. I don't want to say it was a wake up call, but it really underscored for many in the community how important the park was and to the park, how important the community was. And the centennial that we're working on in 2016 really is trying to key off of that and really celebrate this connection between the community and the park. So many families are still there who were founding families of the park, a lot of great nonprofits you mentioned the coa, the Jackson Lab, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Abbey Museum. There's so many instruments, institutions that have sprouted up not because of the park, but in part because of the energy and interest that the park brought to our community. So it's made for a terrific community. And I think people get grumpy now and then with a park and maybe their management decision or a bureaucracy here or there. But for the most part, the centennial, I think, has really helped celebrate the park and let everybody realize how. How important it is to all of us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's always amazing to me when I go up to visit how large Mount Desert island is. People think, oh, it's an island. How big can it be? Yeah, but it's big.

David MacDonald:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I mean, if you're driving to Northeast harbor or Southwest harbor, or you go off the island and you go to Trenton, I mean, it's just. It's really. It's vast. It's quite varied.

David MacDonald:

It's diverse. Yeah. That's what's wonderful about it. And we talked about the fire, how that changed the diversity of the island and, you know, the mountains and the geology, the coastline. There are so many different options for you as a visitor in terms of what your interests might be. And sometimes you forget that you're on an island. But if you've grown up there and spent a lot of time there, it still does have that feel of an island, which is great. But yeah, it's the biggest island on the Maine coast.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me some of your favorite places there.

David MacDonald:

I love the park in the winter. I mean, this weekend was out cross country skiing and, you know, snowshoeing. And I think Sargent Mountain is my favorite mountain. It's not as tall as Cadillac, but it doesn't have a road to it, which makes a big difference. And it's got some fabulous trails going up it. I love Islaho, which is sort of the remote unit of the park out in Penobscot Bay. Go out there with my family, you know, in camp and the lean to's out there, that's just a completely different experience. And the carriage roads are just an incredible resource. They're very unique again, in the National Park Service and even in Maine, I think in terms of having this network of crushed gravel roads to ski on, to bike on, to jog on, that's a part of the park that we use all the time. And it's just a great recreational resource and cultural treasure, really.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm sure that people ask you when they come to visit what they should go to, what places they should hit before they leave. What do you usually say?

David MacDonald:

I encourage them to get out on the carriage roads. I encourage them to get out on the trails, get out on the water. I mean, taking the mailboat out to the Cranberry Isles or taking a little sail out of Bar harbor or whale watch. Getting offshore and looking back at the island and experiencing the wildlife and the beauty from a boat is fabulous. Do a kayak trip again. Get out on the water and get a little closer to the wildlife. The island can get pretty busy in the summer, but once you get offshore, it really, that kind of melts away. So if it's at all possible to get out on the water, I highly recommend that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think one of my favorite visits to Mount Desert was included a trip out to Frenchboro. And we went on this boat that was owned by a private lobsterman.

David MacDonald:

Lobsterman.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. And there was a. It was a fundraiser, so they had a little lobster bake.

David MacDonald:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We walked around the island and it really somehow spoke to me in a way that I hadn't experienced before at Mount Desert, because it was this little community. But I think that those little communities do exist on Mount Desert, all over the place.

David MacDonald:

They do, they do. Frenchboro is unique. There's nothing like Frenchboro. And being that far and having that close knit fishing community right around the harbor and then having the incredible natural beauty of the rest of the island. And again, that's a project that we worked on at Maine Coast Heritage Trust to conserve all that rugged shoreline and the trails. But yeah, Mount Desert has those quiet places too. And, you know, being able to get off the beaten path and being able to explore the park. A lot of times our family goes out at suppertime. You know, we get a picnic and we go out and that's when there's nobody out there. Go to sand beach and we've got it all to ourself. And that's really fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As you were talking about how special this place is to many people, really all over the world, the word sacred really rose to the top for me that this is a place that it's sacred because people go there with their families, they go there by themselves when they're trying to sort things out in their lives. They go there to get engaged, they go there to get married. Some people like you did are raised there and have. And other people like the Lunt family on Frenchborough, generations have been there. That's a very big. Well, I guess you recognized it. It's an honor to really be associated with this sacredness.

David MacDonald:

It is. And I mean, it's a big responsibility. The Park Service takes it very seriously. Their. Their resources, unfortunately, are limited. And that's why Friends of Acady exist, to be able to supplement what Congress can do through the budget. We provide, you know, thousands of volunteers, we raise millions of dollars. And people do want to give back. That's why Friends of Acadia was formed. People wanted a venue to be able to give back to this place that they loved. And that continues stronger than ever 30 years in. And what's interesting is that, you know, we do want Congress to continue to fund our national parks. I don't want to get on a soapbox, but that the park can't manage this incredible resource that gets almost 3 million visits a year without adequate staff and funds. And people get that. They really do. And that's why we've been able to be successful is that people want to help protect this place that is sacred to them. And I also think that as beautiful it is, and you feel the connection, I think you also feel a connection to what people did to protect it. Again, whether you're in Central park or Acadia national park, you sort of think about the foresight of those people 100 years ago. And it's powerful. I think that's part of what resonates for people. Not just the beauty of the place, but the fact that people acted on that. That strikes a chord.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I think that's absolutely right. And when I was a resident at Maine Medical center, one of the doctors that we worked with was Richard Rockefeller, and his family, of course, was involved with the creation of this park. And they still have their own island, which they maintain a farm.

David MacDonald:

Yeah. Bartlett. Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And we went camping there when I was a resident. And unfortunately, Richard passed away in a plane crash, tragically not too long ago. And I think about what a gift that his family gave, because I knew him as a person.

David MacDonald:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I knew some of his family members as people.

David MacDonald:

I did, too. Yeah. Richard was a good friend of mine, too, at Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and very much a inspiration to me and a lot of people. And. And again, what's amazing is his grandfather did great things 100 years ago. Well, so did Richard in his time. I mean, they very much continue that legacy. And Richard's work up and down the Maine coast is so, so important, and it's a wonderful tradition. But yet he came back to that place on Bartlett Island. That was his sole place, for sure. You know, all of us have that spot. A lot of us on the Maine coast. That really resonates. And Bartlett definitely was that for Richard.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So that being the case, knowing that this is a place of history and natural beauty and sacredness and that you are the president and CEO of Friends of Acadia. How can other people become Friends of Acadia? Or how can other people help with your effort or celebrate the centennial?

David MacDonald:

Yeah. Yeah. We're very inclusive. We have lots of opportunities for people to volunteer, get their hands dirty out on the trails. We have people from all over the country and all over the world who are members, who follow our Facebook page and our social media just to feel that connection while they're away from this place they love. And in terms of the centennial, I've just been blown away by the number of businesses and individuals who have come on board, as we call them, Acadia Centennial Partners. We have over 300 now who are either organizing an event, designing a product, doing a painting, writing a book, writing a poem, making a film. I mean, there's just people who want to. Want to be part of this, and people should definitely check out the centennial website, which is acadiacentennial2016.org and there's just. There's a list of all the partners. There's a calendar that's in the process of being filled out. There's so many options for how to be part of this year long celebration. And then link to that is our website if you want to learn more about our projects or our volunteer drop in workdays throughout the summer or how to sign your kid up for the trail crew for the summer. I mean it's just, you know, countless opportunities.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And the website for Friends of acadia is friendsofacadia.org yes.

David MacDonald:

Yeah, thanks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, this has inspired me to celebrate the hundred years of Acadia and really, you know, it does cause me to think about all the times that I have spent in our national park and feel very grateful for it. So I appreciate all the work that you and the Friends of Acadia are doing and I appreciate your coming in and talking with us. Today we've been Speaking with David McDonald who is the President and CEO of Friends of Ackedia.

David MacDonald:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you so much for coming in.

David MacDonald:

It's been a treat. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

to speak with Bill and Cookie Horner. And actually we were going to speak just with Cookie and she brought her husband with her and I said hey, I would really like to talk to Bill too. So she agreed. Cookie moved to Mount Desert island in 1975. She is the co chair of the Executive Acadia Centennial Task Force and she's also on the Acadia National Parks Volunteer Trail crew and I happen to know that she was the school nurse at MDI High School for 17 years. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having us and thank you for bringing, of course, your husband, Bill, who is the president of the MDI Historical Society. He is a native of Bar harbor and an author of several articles in their journal, which is called Chebacco. Thanks for coming in.

Bill Horner:

Pleasure to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know we kind of roped you into being actually on the radio, so I appreciate your having that kind of willingness.

Bill Horner:

Well, thank you. I will limit my remarks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Okay. I'm excited to have you here because it is a hundred years now that we've had the Acadia national park in our Ferris State recognized as a national park. So it's a very exciting time for us. And both of you have felt passionately about Acadia national park for a long time. How did you get involved in this?

Cookie Horner:

With the park?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, with the park.

Cookie Horner:

Well, I always wanted to work on the volunteer trail crew. So when I retired from my nursing job, that was the first thing I did was sign up for Trail Crew, which goes out three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. And it's just a great group of people. There's kind of a steady year round group. And then we get lots of summer visitors who give time when they're here, when they're in Acadia on vacation. So the trail crew, you know, snips and clips and cuts vistas and rakes ditches and makes trails and it's just really fun to help keep the park beautiful.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Cookie, you've been coming to Maine as a summer resident before moving here in 1972, but since 1946, when I was one year old. Well, that's impressive because not that many people have that sort of longevity as far as being a visitor to Mount Desert Island.

Cookie Horner:

Yeah, it just gets in your soul. I used to. I couldn't sleep for weeks before we would come, and I used to cry all halfway home when I left. And I always knew that I would live in Maine, I'd figure out how to get there and really especially to Mount Desert Island.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're originally from Philadelphia, right? So how did your family start coming to Maine in the first place?

Cookie Horner:

My grandparents did. They knew other people. I mean, there were a lot of people from Maine, Philadelphia, New York and Boston who came in the summers, and they were one of them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You were telling me that the place that you stayed in on west street was one of the few houses that did not get burned down in the great fire.

Cookie Horner:

Right. And I don't know exactly what year they bought it, but it's going to. It's being renovated right now. We sold it in the early 80s and another family had it until just last year. And now I'm really glad to see it restored.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Bill, you have a very different connection to MDI and Acadia. And in fact, your connection is. Well, it's impressive in that there probably aren't that many people who can say that they were actually born there.

Bill Horner:

Natives.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Natives, yes.

Bill Horner:

Yeah, I was born there in September of 1941 and went to public schools. Loved growing up there. And as I said before, I think to grow up in an environment like that with a national park there and also knowing so many people who worked at the national park. One of my parents best friends was a fellow named Paul Favor, who was the park naturalist. And so that's what kind of got me oriented toward thinking about maybe I'll be a park ranger someday, which I

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

love and is also interesting because instead of being a park ranger at first, you had a very different job.

Bill Horner:

Yes. You know how we make decisions, we sort of climb the tree and we come to a branch and I knew I was interested in biology, loved biology, loved natural history. And as I went to college and got into that, it became increasingly clear that I wanted to try to be a doctor. So got a little further out on the branch and you know how it goes. But the love of home never left. In fact, Bar harbor was my first practice location when I finished my training in 1972, and I was there for about 10 years. So it's really firmly rooted, I think, in both of us. Cookie almost can claim a birthright at this point.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Pretty close if you're one. They've got to at least give you honorary stuff.

Cookie Horner:

Never, never. You're just always a year round summer person.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I understand both sides of my family are from Maine, but I was born my father's last year of medical school in Vermont, so I cannot claim to be a native, which is a little ironic. So you and I, we feel each other's pain on this one. But fortunately, it's a nice group that still lets us honorarily be here. Tell me about the Acadia Centennial Task Force.

Cookie Horner:

Well, the Centennial Task Force was created from Friends of Acadia and Acadia national park in figuring out how to put together a community group that would help Acadia to celebrate its centennial. We began actually in December of 2012 with our planning, and some of the people on the task force are from the park staff and the staff of Friends of Acadia and board members of Friends of Acadia and some community people. And so we've been working really, really hard for all this time and now it's bearing fruit. It's very exciting.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of your favorite things that are going to be happening this year that you've been working on?

Cookie Horner:

It's hard to know where to begin, but we, we really wanted to reach out community wide from the whole of the park, not just Mount Desert island, but all the way from Winter harbor, the Schoodic Peninsula to Idaho and actually throughout the state and all the communities in between the surrounding communities and hope that they would partner with us. And to our astonishment, we now have more than 300 partners and it's still growing and that's just really exciting. And people can become partners with a financial donation or if they're non profits, they can plan a program or an event. They can produce a product and sell it and give a percentage to Friends of Acadia for programs in the park, or they can buy one of the existing products and do the same. And so it's just a huge variety of things. We've started off in January with the kickoff event, which was the Baked Bean supper for more than 400 people. And we aired for the first time a centennial film done by a young movie maker, Peter Logue, featuring among others, Bill and me and, and quite many other people as kind of an archival product of how the centennial was celebrated. And hopefully that'll go into our time capsule at the end of the year. All of the local libraries from throughout the surrounding communities celebrated with a big community read in February where they read three books, a Young person's Book, Spoon Handle by Ruth Moore, and the End of Night, about dark skies or not dark skies. And then there was also a winter festival held between Camp Beach Cliff and Schoodic for families, for children with all kinds of activities. It was supposed to be all snow related and there wasn't any snow. So they just came up with all sorts of great other things. And so there's so many things coming up. I. Give you a few other ideas. One of the family things that's going to start in April is Acadia Quest, the Centennial Edition, which is youth and family centered challenges. And you do it at your own pace. And the Friends of Acadia and the interpretive Rangers in Acadia national park put it together and the idea is to get kids just out there and loving it. And it's sort of an experiential scavenger hunt. And it goes on throughout the year. And there's going to be the opening reception at the Abbey Museum for their new exhibit which is cataloging their time in Acadia from 12,000 years ago. And there are actually six musical choruses and festivals, each of whom have commissioned an original piece of music honoring Acadia. And first one is the Acadia Choral Society in early May and the Bagadoos Chorale later. The Bar Harbor Brass Week faculty is giving a huge brass concert in June. Mount Desert Summer Crowd Bar Harbor Music Festival. It's very exciting. Park Science Day, which is one of the events that Acadia national park is actually responsible for entirely. And that's going to be the reopening of their nature center at Certimont with an emphasis on climate change. And that's another family and child friendly event that's in June. And, of course, the 4th of July parade will be themed to the centennial. With the park in full dress at the head of the line, and hopefully lots of floats about the centennial. There's going to be an open garden day where all the garden clubs on the island have kind of planned it together. And there'll be some old gardens, historic gardens, and some newer gardens for everybody to see. The main Historic Historical Society in Portland is going to have an exhibit that I think starts in June or May and goes through till December about the conception and design and layout of Acadia National Park. There's a few.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There's a lot of things to choose from.

Cookie Horner:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So anybody, if you have an interest in history or gardens or if you have a child, you can just kind of pick the thing that best celebrates 100 years of Acadia.

Cookie Horner:

Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Bill, you're the president of the MDI Historical Society, and I know that you and I were talking before we came on about the fact that you were a trauma surgeon. You actually. You did a very different thing. And now you've gone back to these interests as a naturalist and a historian. What are some of the things about the history of MDI that particularly appeal to you?

Bill Horner:

Well, I think it goes back to my being a native son in the sense that I'm very fortunate to have family roots there. And one of the things I wanted to do when I retired from surgery is to more intensively study some of my family history as it relates to the island history in general and get involved with the history community and do some writing. And my initial research focused on the group of men who came together in initially 1901, called themselves the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations. And they were a combination of summer people and local people who sort of built the foundations for the subsequent land acquisitions that in series, ultimately became Acadia National Park. And my great grandfather, as it turns out, was one of those original founders, along with President Elliot from Harvard and a number of other luminaries of the day, who had great education and great wealth so that they could formulate this idea. So that was an area in which I was very interested in what motivated these people, got very interested in the history of conservation going back to the early part of the 19th century and how it came to pass on Mount Desert Island.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know that both of you love the trails of Acadia. Do you have any favorites that you visit on a regular basis?

Cookie Horner:

Absolutely, we do, but actually we're doing a. We decided we're going to do a personal centennial challenge and do the 26 major peaks, which adds up to about 48 miles, and then finish the rest on the trails and carriage roads to do 100 miles. But we decided we would do them in a different way because you sort of end up doing, you know, going on the same trails in the same way. So we're going to try to do them from some different directions, different trails.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And when is this going to start for you?

Cookie Horner:

We already started.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Excellent.

Cookie Horner:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And so some of the trails are actually clearer and available to walk on even now.

Cookie Horner:

Well, the carriage roads are closed still, actually. They may have opened them again because it froze up, but they usually close them to all traffic, including foot traffic when the ground is soft. But they'll open soon.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Cookie, I know that there are a few more important events that you want to make sure that we talk about.

Cookie Horner:

Yes. One of them, this is a very exciting one, is the Maine Windjammer Association. They are going to bring six, seven, or eight windjammers up on the 2nd of August, and they are going to convene out in the western way and then sail up Somme Sound. And it's just going to be a glorious sight, and it will give people an idea of what it might have been like a hundred years ago. One of them actually did ply the waters of Mount Desert a hundred years ago. And so that's really going to be an exciting event. And then in August, there's also going to be a reenactment of the celebration of Acadia's founding with the descendants of people who were originally involved, including Bill. And I just wanted to mention, also he mentioned Elliot. And I'd like to mention George B. Doerr, the. Who is known as the founding father of Acadia National Park. And one of the events happening this week is the sort of formal launch of the first ever biography of George B. Doar by historian Ronald Epp. And that's happening this week. And I know Bill has already.

Bill Horner:

I've read the book. It's phenomenal, monumental achievement.

Cookie Horner:

He read the whole thing yesterday.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm so envious.

Cookie Horner:

Yeah. And then the big event that Acadia national park is doing is because this is, of course, the CO Centennial with the National Park Service. And so August 27th will be a big event at Jordan Pond, where there will be, you know, speakers. And that's sort of the closest date to the actual date of the anniversary of the National Park Service. And there will be a hundred junior rangers sworn in on that day. And we're going to have a chorus of a hundred singers to sing this Land Is yous Land and America the Beautiful. It's going to be fabulous day, and we will hope for good weather.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Between the two of you, you have six children and 11 grandchildren, seven of whom live on MDI. Will they be part of these festivities?

Bill Horner:

Well, we're hoping we can get them out for at least some of the remaining 24 peaks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Bill Horner:

But, yeah, all of them are active people. Our oldest, who's a freshman in college, can't wait to get home for the summer. She's got her summer job lined up already, and she's eager to get out there.

Cookie Horner:

And another one is volunteering at Friends of Acadia, helping with the centennial duties.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I think you said your youngest grandchild is two.

Cookie Horner:

Yeah, they live in North Carolina, sadly. But they will be here for a week in the summer, and we'll have them out doing things. Things in the park, for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

There you go.

Cookie Horner:

They're old enough to go up a small mountain now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

A lot has changed in the years since Bill, you were born there, and, Cookie, you started visiting when you were one. What are some of the positive changes that you've seen with Acadia and MDI in general? Well,

Cookie Horner:

the park, trails and carriage roads are in much better shape. You know, there was a. I don't know, 30 years ago, they weren't in such great shape, but there's now an endowment to keep the trails going and the trail volunteers. There's so many of them that help. And so that's a huge change.

Bill Horner:

Yeah. My window is about 55 years, and obviously, I can see a lot of changes in the towns themselves. I think it's particularly striking in Bar harbor, which is now entirely a tourist economy. And of course, over the last decade or decade and a half, we've seen that boom with the addition of cruise ships and so on and so forth. But we've also seen a wonderful influx of incredible retired people. There is an entity called Acadia Senior College, which goes on, among other places, on mdi. And it's really a pleasure to live there in our retirement now. And that's a demographic that's very, very much changed since I was a kid. I think the other thing is as part of this centennial, it's an opportunity for us to look back 100 years and look at some of the issues that were hot at that time and think about them now. And one that immediately comes to mind, of course, is the automobile, which between 1903 and 1913 there was a so called decade of the so called automobile wars because automobiles were prohibited on Mount Zert island for at least a decade beyond their arrival elsewhere in the state. And there was a big kind of, not necessarily so nice on occasion, civic discourse between people representing both points of view. And it's interesting to look back at that as for example, the Seal Covar Museum is doing with their exhibit and put that into the context of some of our present day concerns about automobiles and the issues raised for the park in terms of the quality of the visitor experience because of the great number of vehicles that we have to deal with.

Cookie Horner:

And the park and the centennial task force have taken some really proactive steps to address the concerns about visitor, you know, spike in visitation. And so of course we have the Explorer bus system, which is fantastic and been there for about 16 years. And so we're messaging to prospective visitors to plan their visits, thinking about how they can have the best quality experience. And that includes leaving your car at your hotel and taking the bus and walking on the trails to get into the park or taking a bike and how to go to places maybe that are a little different than some of the most iconic ones, or go at different times when it's not so busy. And also to think about not just right there, but spreading out and seeing what other adjoining communities have to offer and exploring that which is good for Acadia and good for those communities. And also to realize that the centennial activities are year long and that they don't have to come right in the middle weeks of July and August. And so we're trying to get that message out in all kinds of media.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Cookie. How can people find out about the centennial activities on Acadia?

Cookie Horner:

Go to the Acadia website, acadiacentennial2016.org and it's a terrific website. There are at least 100 events posted on there. You can read about all the 350 partners. There are products that you can find out where to buy them or some that you can buy right online. There are so many products that are being produced for the centennial, from jam to beer to coffee mugs to all kinds of artwork, all kinds of crafts. Oh, and I thought of crafts reminded me there's going to be a fantastic quilt show and also a rug hooking show that'll be on in May and June and July. So that's an exciting thing for people. Yes, lots of art, of course. All the, you know, I mean the artists were the first ones there after, you know, and starting in the 1800s. And so there's just so much art and, and art galleries. Everything's themed to Acadia and it's going to be wonderful.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you said the Abbey Museum will be featuring people who were there probably even before the artists, I would guess. Oh, way before the Native Americans.

Bill Horner:

Thousands of years.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thousands of years. So that's a nice.

Cookie Horner:

Before Champlain supposedly discovered it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, there's a lot of excitement going on up at Acadia, so I appreciate your book coming down and having a chance to talk with you. We've been speaking with Cookie Horner, who moved to MDI Mount Desert island in 1975. She's the CO chair of the Acadia Centennial Task Force and also in the Acadia National Parks Volunteer Trail Crew. And as an added bonus, we've been also speaking with her husband, Bill, Dr. Bill Horner, who is the president of the MDI Historical Society. He is a native of Bar harbor and the author of several articles in their journal, Chebacco. Thanks for coming in.

Cookie Horner:

Thank you for having us.

Bill Horner:

Thanks very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've been listening to Lovemain radio show number 240, Acadia Centennial. Our guests have included David McDonald and Cookie and Bill Horner. For free preview of each week's show, sign up for our e. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We'd love to hear from you. So please let us know what you think of lovemain Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Mean Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Acadia Centennial show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life Love

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

some of the issues that you hear from students or from parents who are from other countries or have a different religious background and they're trying to interact with a school or a community? What types of things come up that you hear about?

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, so I'm going to take off my hat as a staff member for Portland Empowered. I wear so many hats and I'm also not speaking as a school board member. I'm speaking as me, somebody who does a lot of work in the community. I think some of the issues that comes up in my engagement with families and students in the community is some of the claims that the students or some of the families that meet at that, that either there is a language barrier on both sides or misunderstanding or miscommunication of situation with the young people. The Portland Public School is very diverse in terms of racial and language and religions. We have kids who are coming from many different backgrounds. The staff at Portland schools do their best to understand where and who is coming from where. Unfortunately, it's, it's, how do you say it? It's a tall list of things that you have to learn. And so there's bound to be somebody being called names and and somebody being referred to as this or that by other students who may not necessarily even know what they are saying. Yeah. So there are situations like that. Not specifically. You hear stories here and there. Yeah. With the I'm a Muslim, so I have a I talk to people a lot in the Muslim community, in the immigrant Muslim communities. In the recent national, the recent national platform, political rhetoric did yes. Increase or created a few instances here in Portland where there's a parent, a woman from Iraq who was another bus stop, she didn't specifically said which bus stop where somebody was talking to her and the person look at her and spit on her face. And this one doesn't speak any English, so she doesn't even know what to say. And there was an instant where someone was in another waiting room in one of the big hospitals in. In Portland and another patient start yelling at her and telling her to go back where she come from because her people don't like Americans. What is she doing here? In both situations, these people don't necessarily speak good English, so they didn't know how to react. And it's unfortunate that both situations happen to women based on the way they look, because I can walk down the street, yes, I'm a black man. Someone will see there's a black man and prophecy, he's an immigrant. But the person can know whether I'm what I worship or what religion or what is my faith based on the color of my skin or how I look. And also, I don't dress specifically like any. I don't wear any religious edifice that shows that this person is a Muslim or a Jew or a Christian or whatever it is. So it's difficult for mostly women and children.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I just think about if I was. As a woman, if I was in another country, standing at a bus stop, and somebody spit in my face and said something to me, and I didn't even understand them. I can't even imagine how that would

David MacDonald:

make me feel, right?

[Unidentified voice]:

And there's been an instance where a young woman was at a gas station here in Portland. I think that's about a year ago. And so another person who was buying gas, he happens to be a veteran. He's not from Portland. It's actually not from Maine. He's from Connecticut or somewhere, and he's been to Iraq. And he kept calling her all sort of names. He said he was gonna kill her. And the gas station attendants have to literally hold on the door and tell him that he was not welcome there. The good thing was that he's already finished paying for his gas, so there's no need for him to get into the building. They took his license plate number and handed it over to the police. And it came out that the car doesn't even belong to him. It's for his dad, and he lives in Connecticut. He was a veteran. I don't know how that case ended, but the police were working on it at the time that I know of it. So, yeah, it's difficult, and it's so

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

complicated because you have on one side people who may be refugees who have their own set of painful circumstances, right? And then you have people who are veterans or have their set of their background and their experience, and there's. There's enough pain for. There's enough pain to go around.

[Unidentified voice]:

Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But we all have to coexist. We all have to live here together. So how do we make that happen?

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, try to understand each other. I believe, I'm a firm believer that speaking to people, irrespective of who they are or what your beliefs are, try at least to reach out to that person, talk to that person, understand where that person is coming from. Yeah. Having that conversation opens a lot of doors and a lot of opportunities for us as humans to live peacefully next to each other, irrespective of what we believe or what we lean on. I believe that we all are looking for the same thing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It.