Over a mile long, about a half mile wide and nearly
enclosed by mountains, Jordan Pond is 150' deep, abundant with lake trout and
salmon and reputed to be the clearest lake in Maine. It makes for a beautiful,
but moderately strenuous, 3.2-mile loop walk from the Jordan Pond House. Along
the way are three memorials, all easily reached on the east side of the lake.
The first memorial is near the water's
edge at the lake's south end, just 900 feet down the path from the Jordan Pond
House. It is a stone bench. The inscription there reads:
IN GRATEFUL LOVING
MEMORY OF
SARAH ELIZA
SIGOURNEY CUSHING
WIFE OF EDWARD
TUCKERMAN
1832-1915
SHE DEARLY LOVED
THIS SPOT
Born in Boston, she married
Edward Tuckerman (1817-1886), a professor of botany at Amherst College and an
expert on lichens. Tuckerman’s Ravine in NH's White Mountains is named for him.
Both were friends of poet Emily Dickinson. Sarah and Edward are buried in
Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst, MA. Her slate tablet there states she was “A helpful
and uplifting influence in the family, community, college and church” and that
she was “Rich in good works.”
 |
| Sarah Cushing |
The second memorial, tucked in the woods on a
boulder off the right side of the path two-thirds of a mile further north, is
to Ruth Marie and Tristram Coffin Colket, Jr. The inscription reads:
ACADIA TRAILS
FOREVER
RESTORATION OF
ACADIA’S
HISTORIC HIKING
TRAILS
AND THEIR PERPETUAL
CARE
WERE MADE POSSIBLE
THROUGH
THE GIFTS OF MANY,
AND ESPECIALLY
THROUGH
THE VISION
AND GENEROSITY OF
TWO
ARDENT HIKERS:
RUTH AND TRIS
COLKET
DECEMBER 1998
Philanthropists, they donated $5
million to Acadia Trails Forever, a joint project of Acadia National Park and Bar
Harbor-based Friends of Acadia to restore and maintain the park’s historic
trail system. Tristram is a grandson of Dr. John T. Dorrance, the
chemist who in 1897 invented the process for condensing soup (later becoming the
Campbell Soup Company). Ruth is a board member of the Maine Sea Coast Mission,
a non-denominational Christian charity on West Street in Bar Harbor. In 1973
the Colkets donated their 1902-built, 35-room brick mansion, La Rochelle, to the mission for use as
its headquarters.*1
The third memorial is to Joseph
Allen and is located a half mile beyond the Colket memorial on a lakeside
boulder at the northeast end of Jordan Pond near the South Bubble Trail. The
inscription states:
LOVER OF ROCKS AND
HIGH PLACES
BUILDER OF TRAILS
CONSERVER OF
NATURAL
BEAUTY
JOSEPH ALLEN
CHAIRMAN
SEAL HARBOR PATH
COMMITTEE
1914-1945
He was born in New Bedford, MA in
1870. After graduating from Harvard, he married Annie Ware Winsor. They lived
in New York City and then settled in White Plains, NY, where he ran for mayor.
He was an associate professor of mathematics at NYC's City College for 43 years
until his retirement in 1940. They summered at Grayrock, a Seal Harbor cottage.*2
 |
| Joseph Allen |
*Footnotes:
1 A second Colket memorial, a
Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass window, is inside St. Saviour’s Church in
Bar Harbor. It is in memory of Ethel Dorrance Colket, John’s daughter and
Tristram’s mother.
