COMPASS HARBOR AND OLD FARM

Most people who visit Mount Desert Island or Acadia National Park may of never heard of Compass Harbor, and in part the Park Service is to blame for that - since compass Harbor has no markings or signs to help you locate it.  Even with the map I provide, you will still need to really be looking for that tiny parking lot. If you drove to the point where you see Schooner Head Road or Jackson Lab, you have passed it.

Abandoned Trails of Acadia - Compass Harbor

Compass Harbor was the place where Old Farm once stood - it's remains are still there to this day.  And if you don't know what Old Farm was - it was the George B. Dorr estate - the founder of Acadia National Park.  The area around compass Harbor has many signs from back in the days when Mr. Dorr walked his grounds.  By the side of the harbor is the remains of an old salt water pool where people once went swimming.  Along the shore is a set of Granite steps Dorr himself once used to access the water.  In the surrounding woods are several places where there are stone structures and just beyond where old Farm once stood is another foundation, over grown with brush, where the servants quarters once stood.

COMPASS HARBOR - OLD FARM, GEORGE B. DORR - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Paths lead to two beaches, and the one to the far right is where local kids go on a hot summer day to swim.   teens and young adults also come in here at late evening, often with guitars and drums, and party on the beach. At one point there is a very long series of granite steps that seem to go on forever through the tree's and up the hill side, they end at the remains of Old Farm.  I am pretty certain there was once a full foundation - but it appears to have been filled in with dirt, but the stone floors are all there, along with some sections of stone walls.  Years ago George B. dorr would of had a commanding view of Compass Harbor below.