About
In many ways, the Bar Harbor Village Improvement Association was the seed from which Acadia National Park sprouted. Once the BHVIA was formed in 1881, ( it was the first of its kind in the state) Village Improvement Societies were formed island wide. Two key figures from the local VIA’s, Charles Elliot and George B. Dorr, next created the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations as a land holding agency in 1901. In 1916, due to their tireless efforts, these lands were transferred to the federal government when Sieur De Mont National Monument was established and in 1919 became the first National Park east of the Mississippi known as Lafayette National Park. The name was changed to Acadia in 1929.