The first known people to utilize the shores of Bar Harbor were the Wabanaki tribe, who would visit the area seasonally for fishing, clam harvesting, and to pick berries.
The area became known to the Europe in 1604 when French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovered it after damaging his boat on a nearby rock ledge. The community wasn’t settled by Europeans, though, until 1763 when English businessmen arrived and set up fishing, lumbering, and shipbuilding industries in Bar Harbor (known at the time as Eden after one of America’s earliest settlers, Sir Richard Eden).
In the 1800s the beauty of Bar Harbor began to attract the rich and famous from the mainland, who would build summer homes in Bar Harbor (the Rockefellers, Astors, and J.P. Morgan all had homes in the area), or would spend summer vacations in the town. After a devastating fire destroyed much of the town in 1947, tourism was hurt. The town eventually rebuilt and today it has a population of around 5,200 and is a popular tourist destination in Maine.
In addition to tourism, there is a large fishing industry in Bar Harbor and it is also home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laboratory. It is still frequented by prominent people, including the CEO of Burt’s Bees, who has a home on Mount Desert Island near Bar Harbor.
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