Mount Desert Island has attracted scoundrels and scandals for more than 100 years. Steady as the tide, every summer brings a rush of summer residents from eastern cities to the island and nothing thrilled them so much as a good scandal. In its heyday, Mount Desert was a wild oasis where the summercators could carry on in comparative privacy. Today, unfortunately, unlike Las Vegas, what happened on Mount Desert doesn’t always stay on Mount Desert. The scandals that were the talk of the picnics and outings that filled the summer visitors' days are brought back to life in Bar Harbor Babylon. Murderers, thieves, cheaters and scammers have all made their mark on the tiny towns of Mount Desert. This book will take the reader on a tour of the misadventures and misfortunes that punctuate the island's wealthy and privileged past.

From the 1880s to the end of World War I, the fashionable resort of Bar Harbor attracted thousands of summer visitors with the money and leisure to pursue the simple life on a grand scale. Eighty-six vanished summer palaces are pictured in Lost Bar Harbor. Many never before pu...

From the end of the Great War until the onslaught of the Great Depression, Americans had a good time, and nowhere was that more true than in Bar Harbor during high season. Amid peace and prosperity, the wealthy flocked to Mount Desert Island, foxtrotted at the Swimming Club and tangoed at the Dreamwood Ballroom on Ireson's Hill. Rumrunners made covert pickups from isolated coves along the Mount Desert Narrows while Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Astors coasted serenely in and out of Frenchman's Bay. Horse-drawn carriages found a haven in the quiet roads of Lafayette National Park while roadsters sped along Bay Drive. Year-round residents faced brutal winters, but even then they had spirited celebrations with Winter Carnivals and Hayseed Balls as the '20s roared on in Bar Harbor.

In October 1947, Maine experienced the worst fire disaster in its history. Wildfire Loose describes how the fires started and spread so quickly through rural villages, down Millionaire’s Row in Bar Harbor, and across southern Maine beach resorts. Originally published in 1979, it remains the definitive account of “The Week Maine Burned.”

At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile. Within a decade, despite crisis and catastrophe, they built a thriving settlement at New Plymouth, based on beaver fur, corn, and cattle. In doing so, they laid the foundations for Massachusetts, New England, and a new nation. Using a wealth of new evidence from landscape, archaeology, and hundreds of overlooked or neglected documents, Nick Bunker gives a vivid and strikingly original account of the Mayflower project and the first decade of the Plymouth Colony. From mercantile London and the rural England of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I to the mountains and rivers of Maine, he weaves a rich narrative that combines religion, politics, money, science, and the sea. The Pilgrims were entrepreneurs as well as evangelicals, political radicals as well as Christian idealists. Making Haste from Babylon tells their story in unrivaled depth, from their roots in religious conflict and village strife at home to their final creation of a permanent foothold in America.

Evoking the political intrigue of the Gilded Age, The Rough Rider and the Professor chronicles the extraordinary thirty-five-year friendship between President Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Theodore Roosevelt was a uniquely gifted figure. A man of great intellect and physicality, the New York patrician captured the imagination of the American people with his engaging personality and determination to give all citizens regardless of race, color, or creed the opportunity to achieve the American dream. While Roosevelt employed his abilities to rise from unknown New York legislator to become the youngest man ever to assume the presidency in 1901, that rapid success would not have occurred without the assistance of the powerful New Englander, Henry Cabot Lodge. Eight years older than Roosevelt, from a prominent Massachusetts family, Lodge, was one of the most calculating, combative politicians of his age. From 1884 to 1919 Lodge and Roosevelt encouraged one another to mine the greatness that lay within each of them. As both men climbed the ladders of power, Lodge, focused on dominating the political landscape of Massachusetts, served as the future president’s confidant and mentor, advising him on political strategy while helping him obtain positions in government that would eventually lead to the White House. Despite the love and respect that existed between the two men, their relationship eventually came under strain. Following Roosevelt's ascension to the presidency, T. R.’s desire to expand the social safety net—while attempting to broaden the appeal of the Republican Party—clashed with his older friend's more conservative, partisan point of view. Those tensions finally culminated in 1912. Lodge's refusal to support the former president's independent bid for a third presidential term led to a political break-up that was only repaired by each man's hatred for the policies of Woodrow Wilson. Despite their political disagreements, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge remained devoted friends until the Rough Rider took his final breath on January 6, 1919.