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 . . ."
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
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.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Steam to the Summit,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Steam to the Summit (Paperback)
I was very excited to find this wonderful book. I am a National Park Service employee at Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, where the Green Mtn.cog rail train originated and operated before the National Park acquired the property where this wonderful piece of history began.
I only wished that the National Park Service had been supportive of this cog railway and keep it in operation like the one on top of Mt. Washinton in New Hampshire. Thank you for offering this wonderful book. Sincerely, Everett M. Austin
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
