Saturday, October 18, 2014

HOW TO LOCATE THE LOST HOUSE

Funny how things work out some times, you can have all the money in the world, buy up the nicest piece of land with a million dollar view, get well underway to building your perfect dream home, and BAM.....it all goes up in smoke.
Eagle Lake Phantom Trail - Acadia National Park
CLOSE UP OF ROCK WALL

Back in the mid 1800's that was exactly what happened along the shore of Eagle Lake in Acadia National Park.  The National Park service knows of the Lost House, and so do many of the volunteers wo work in Acadia National Park each summer.  They know because the Park Service takes them to such locations, and one person who works for the park said that volunteer's and ridge Runners will go to the Lost House on their dinner breaks when working in the area.

First - once your at the Eagle Lake parking lot off route 233, follow the carriage road to the left side of the lake.

Walk until you come to a supporting wall in the side of the earth along the left side of the carriage road - it looks like a small stone wall, small rocks on top of rocks.

Abandoned Trails of Acadia - The Lost House of Eagle Lake


When you reach the supporting wall, turn around and head back in the direction you came, about 7 to 8 car lengths, to where a drainage ditch passes on both sides of the carriage road. 
A worn path enters the woods a few feet beyond, unmarked, making its way toward the water and the abandoned house.

As stated, the supporting wall is key to finding the old abandoned house.  The wall may not be very tall, but it goes on a long distance and there is no way you can miss it.  It is the only section along the carriage road on that side of the lake with such a stone wall in the side of the earth like that.

The story of how the Lost House of Eagle Lake came to be began in the 1800's, when a family decided to build their dream house on the shore of Eagle Lake.   At the time George B. Dorr was very active in acquiring lands for his dream of one day establishing a National Park here.  It was Dorr who approached the family and pleaded his case for them to not build their house along the lake. Dorr wanted to preserve the landscape for future generations as well as protect the areas drinking water.   In the end, the family agreed to stop building, and in doing so they left what had been built in place.
George Dorr did not want homes built along the lake because once one wnet up, others would soon follow, ruining the views of the lake and surrounding mountains.  Once he got this family, unnamed, to stop building their home, he wnet before the legislature and lobbied for bills that would forever protect some of the ponds and lakes on the island, including Eagle Lake, Bubble Pond and Jordan Pond. 


ABANDONED HOUSE VIDEO

2 comments:

  1. the below link will take you to History of the Bar Harbor Water Company. Which I just recently discovered. Great Read and interesting photos.

    http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/487158?accessType=DOWNLOAD

    Page 71- 73 refers to the Old stone tower and the new filtration system. The filtration fields are still there and a very unusual sight to see. The filtration fields can be found at
    these coordinates. 44 22 39.9 N 68 14 44.1 W using NAD83



    on page 78 "In the meeting of January 17,
    1910, the executive committee discussed not only the desirability of preventing Livingston from building a cottage, but also, for the first time on record, the need to develop a comprehensive plan to safeguard the future purity of Eagle Lake."


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for posting this, great information and a nice find. I just downloaded the pdf. I am currently working on a video of the abandoned George B. Dorr bike trail and the area where the Wild Gardens of Acadia were first located. If one looks hard enough one can discover a lot of old history out there on the park.

      Delete