Steam to the Summit: The Green Mountain Railway, Bar Harbor's Remarkable Cog Railroad - Softcover

Peter Dow Bachelder

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966483111 ISBN 13: 9780966483116

Publisher: The Breakwater Press, 2005

Synopsis

Steam to the Summit chronicles the history of the Green Mountain Railway, a cog railroad that during the 1880s operated between Eagle Lake and the summit of Cadillac Mountain, within Maine's Acadia National Park. The intriguing tale is set during the era when Bar Harbor, Maine, was rapidly emerging as a national travel destination and bold visionaries were aggressively searching for ways to capitalize on the growing throngs of enthusiastic visitors. Although ultimately doomed by a lack of sustainable interest, the curious attraction enabled thousands to marvel at the grandeurs of Mount Desert Island in a fashion most could otherwise have only imagined. It also brought the region a substantial measure of public awareness that has helped ensure its ongoing existence as a preeminent resort community. The book is liberally illustrated with some 90 vintage images that vividly bring to life the railroad's unusual, often controversial tale and depict many of the people involved with its relatively brief existence. The little-known story is liberally documented with more than 200 endnotes and supported by an extensive bibliography. Maine State Historian Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., calls it " . . . thoroughly readable and well researched . . ."

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Dow Bachelder is a Maine native and a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono. Following a brief stint with the U.S. Weather Bureau, he devoted his career to service within Maine’s tourism industry. He spent 30 years as Director of Information Services at the Maine Publicity Bureau. For several years, Bachelder wrote a column about shipwrecks and lighthouses that appeared in The Portland (Maine) Evening Express. He has since authored two books on these subjects: Shipwrecks and Maritime Disasters of the Maine Coast and The Lighthouses & Lightships of Casco Bay. More recently he wrote the well-regarded volume Four Short Blasts: The Gale of November 1898 and the Loss of the Steamer Portland. He also created the text for a series of highly popular lighthouse maps and guides for the New York-based Hartnett House Map Publishers. In 1998 he published a book called The Great Steel Pier, an illustrated history of the Old Orchard Ocean Pier—the long-standing attraction that drew millions of enthusiastic visitors to this popular southern Maine beachfront community during the early and middle years of the twentieth century.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Breakwater Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0966483111
• ISBN 13: 9780966483116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176