An Area Of Many Names: Compass Harbor
If you look up Compass Harbor Trail, you might find it. Or you might find: Dorr Point, Cromwell Cove, Compass Cove. There are a slew of different names for the point of land and trails that were once the estate of George Dorr, Acadia National Park’s first superintendent.
The trails in the area are well loved by dogs and humans and give walkers a .8 mile round trip loop.
However, there are some extra trails connecting through the forested path that comes to a rocky coastline.
At the coast, you can look out on Frenchman Bay and Ironbound Island. Little rocks and big ones have provided many local children places to play and explore.
THE OLD FARM
“The Oldfarm estate stood on approximately 100 acres of land at Compass Harbor, to the south of the village of Bar Harbor. Prior to donating his Oldfarm home in 1942 to the National Park Service, the landscape had been developed significantly, and incorporated gardens, nursery grounds, recreational trails, and expansive lawn areas. Now approximately a 58-acre site, managed by the National Park Service as a natural area, the property remains a destination for community members and visitors to walk, hike, and picnic, and to witness the dotted with small clues from its past, such as former driveways, foundations, and specimen trees,” according to Rebecca Cole-Will, Acadia National Park chief of resource management.
Information about the area is available on a kiosk and via a QR code that links to videos.
“Dorr’s parents, Charles Hazen Dorr and Mary Gray Ward Dorr, purchased the property in 1868 and built the Oldfarm Queen Anne Shingle-style “cottage” in the late 1870s under the direction of Maine architect Henry Richards. George Dorr lived at Oldfarm for most of his life (1853-1944) and donated the property to the National Park Service in 1942. The estate included the large cottage, numerous outbuildings (barns, garages, and a caretaker’s cottage), a tennis court, a saltwater swimming pool, expansive English-style gardens--at least one of which was highlighted by noted landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand who also resided in Bar Harbor. Dorr started a commercial operation, the Mount Desert Nurseries, and added greenhouses, gardens and plantings, a pond, roads, and paths. The National Park Service at Acadia National Park did not redevelop or use the property and in 1951 the mansion was torn down. Today, the property is largely managed as a natural area,” Cole Will wrote.
THE HIKE
The trailhead is at a parking lot on Route 3. You can walk on a new sidewalk up to this trailhead from downtown Bar Harbor, but there is also limited parking here.
At the junction, you want to turn left and head to the shore.
At the shore, the park advises that people should continue into the woods, up some old granite steps and to the remains of the Door estate. There had been a saltwater pool here. There are still bits of gardens and old, gnarled apple trees still.
Once you are at the foundation go another .1 mile and you’ll hit the loop back to the junction you began at.
Leashed dogs are allowed
There is no fee and it is open year-round.
According to the park, “Compass Harbor Trail is mostly accessible. Go straight rather than left at the first junction to utilize a fairly level trail to the historic site. The trail is rocky and uneven near the shoreline. There is no restroom at the trailhead.”
VIDEO OF OLD FARM
LINK TO LEARN MORE:
https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/acadia_oldfarm.htm
Photos: Carrie Jones/Acadia Adventures/Bar Harbor Story