Above Route 3 in Bar Harbor, ME atop what is called
The Bluffs lies an abandoned Acadia National Park trail. Named the Gurnee Path,
it was financed by the Gurnee family. Construction of the trail began in 1925
and was completed the following year. It started just north of Duck Brook and
nowadays Sonogee Rehabilitation & Living Center, crossed over The Bluffs
and ended opposite Canoe Point.
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| Gurnee Path over The Bluffs |
The local newspaper that same year reported, "The
Gurnee Path begun on August 31st last year was built as far as Canoe Point
during the
autumn. The views of the Bay and the
Gouldsboro beyond are very beautiful and the path has proved very enjoyable to
many people. The funds to continue this Path towards Hulls Cove for nearly a third of a mile have already been
given and work will be started very soon."*1
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| View from Gurnee Path |
In its August 1928 report
the Bar Harbor VIA “Voted that the grateful thanks of the V.I.A. be and hereby
is extended to Miss Bell Gurnee, Mrs. H.H. Thorndike, and Mrs. F.L.V. Hoppin
for their generous gift of a one thousand dollar bond for the endowing of the
Gurnee Path through the woods above the Bay Drive [Route 3] from opposite the
Fabbri garage to near Hull’s Cove. It is understood that only the income shall
be used each year to keep the path in repair, and that all unexpended income of
any one year shall be carried over to the next year.”
A 1928 path guide depicted the trail, as follows: "The
Gurnee Path (Bar Harbor) begins on the Bay Drive to Hulls Cove, a short
distance northeast of Duck Brook, at sign, "The Gurnee Path". It
extends above the road for about a mile. A broad graded path but not entirely
level. Good views of Frenchman's Bay. Round trip about 40 minutes."*2
The Gurnee Path was destined for
trouble, however, as a result of its end points being alongside Route 3. In a 1941
newspaper article conveying minutes of a Bar Harbor VIA meeting, the following
appeared: "Miss Bell Gurnee
brought to the attention of the Association the bad condition of the Gurnee
path in that it was cluttered with branches and rocks, due to the construction
of the new road, and was dangerous for anyone walking on it. A. FitzRoy
Anderson spoke briefly of the fact that the National Park had jurisdiction over
the paths and that it seemed that they should care for their upkeep."3
The Park abandoned the trail about 1960, when Route
3 was being widened, which eliminated the street-level access to it. In its
August notes of that year the Bar Harbor VIA stated the following: “Mr. Cleaves
[VIA president] reported that he had been approached by Acadia Park personnel
regarding the Gurney [sic] Path and they pointed out that the new Bluff Road
[Route 3] fairly well obliterated this path and the expense and process of
rebuilding and relocating the path made it practically unfeasible. Mr. Cleaves
has contacted the Gurney family who have consented to the diversion of the
Gurney Path fund for similar purposes of maintenance and upkeep on the Shore
Path.”
At the time of the path's
construction, the head of the Gurnee family was Augustus Coe Gurnee. Born in
Chicago, he was the son of Chicago mayor, Walter S. Gurnee, and a Harvard
graduate (1878) and banker. In Bar Harbor he had constructed a 3-storey cottage
called Beau Desert on 10 acres off Eden St. He had an estate in Nice, France, as
well, which he shared with wounded soldiers during World War I.
He was among
the original incorporators of the Bar Harbor VIA. He died in July 1926 at age
71 from heart failure while at the Hotel Stephanie in Baden-Baden, Germany and
was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, NY. In his will he gave $25,000 to the
Bar Harbor Hospital to endow a bed to be known as the A. C. Gurnee Bed, $10,000
to the town of Bar Harbor for an educational trust to provide income to defray
the college costs of a student with the highest standards in scholarship,
$10,000 to the Bar Harbor YMCA, and $5,000 to the Bar Harbor VIA to maintain
the How memorial on a triangular lot he deeded to the VIA in 1916. There is a
memorial in the lobby of the Bar Harbor hospital that is in memory of
individuals who gave and endowed free beds to the hospital. Augustus C. Gurnee
is among them. The Mmes. Gurnee, Thorndike
and Hoppin, who established the Gurnee Path endowment, were his nieces.
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| Augustus Gurnee - 1921 |
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| Gurnee Path |
obfuscated. The best way to
access it is from the north opposite the Bar Harbor Yacht Club. The pull-off
there can hold three or four cars.*4 Enter
the woods at the yellow-shielded telephone pole support cable and walk south a
short distance while under the overhead wires. The obvious trail will appear.
It gently rises and descends the crest of the precipitous Bluffs. Hike south about 0.6 mile
until the trail disappears when you are nearly at street level and opposite the
south end of a property's stockade fence on the other side of Route 3.
While on
the trail you'll notice two culverts, one open with no top and another that is
capstoned and traversable. Also note the dilapidated wooden fence that protected
hikers from falling on to Route 3 below. The beautiful "views of the Bay and the
Gouldsboro beyond" barely exist any longer.
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| Wooden fence |
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| Culvert with capstone |
As with hiking all abandoned trails
in the Park, do so carefully.
Note: In addition to the various
names mentioned above for Route 3 at The Bluffs, there was another imaginative one, at least
between 1887 and 1928 -- the Corniche Road (or Drive). Here is an 1888 description
of the road: "The new road is in itself of commanding beauty and interest,
with an exquisite view of the bay, which has earned for it the title of the
Corniche road, this being the name of a road traversing the narrow strip of
coastland bordering the Gulf of Genoa from Nice to Spezzia and commanding a
view of the most striking beauty and grandeur."*5
*Footnotes:
1 Bar Harbor
Times, September 15, 1926, p.4.
2 Walks on
Mount Desert Island Maine, by Harold Peabody and Charles H. Grandgent,
1928, p.79.
3 Bar Harbor
Times, July 3, 1941, p.4.
4 North entrance/pull-off GPS coordinates: N44°
24.530' W068° 14.478'
5 Bar Harbor
Record, March 22, 1888, p.4.
