The Memorials of Acadia National Park

Fallen Ranger Memorial Established in Acadia National Park

In September 2019 Acadia National Park established a memorial for a ranger killed in the line of duty. It is located on the Schoodic Peninsula at the Schoodic Woods ranger station. *1

                                                                              Jim Linnane photo

Ranger Karl A. Jacobson memorial

The plaque reads:

On November 11, 1938,

U.S. Park Ranger

Karl A. Jacobson

was fatally shot while patrolling

the Schoodic District

of Acadia National Park.

His service and sacrifice to the

National Park Service and to

the people of this country

will never be forgotten.

Karl Jacobson, born in Blue Earth County, MN on February 25, 1916, had arrived in Acadia NP two years before the shooting to take on the ranger position. On June 30,1938 he married Joyce Vera Albertson, also of MN, in Bar Harbor’s Congregational Church.

On November 11, 1938, while on boundary patrol in Acadia NP on Schoodic Peninsula, Ranger Jacobson was shot by George Dyer of nearby Gouldsboro, ME. Dyer claimed he had mistaken the ranger for a deer. Two days later Jacobson died. His body was taken to Minnesota and buried in Eagle Lake Cemetery near Mankato.

                                                           NPS photo

Ranger Karl A. Jacobson

On October 2, 1939 George Dyer’s U.S. District Court June sentence of eight months in jail was revoked by Judge John A. Peters on the grounds of Dyer’s age and ill health. He was ordered to serve one day.

A few weeks after his killing Ranger Jacobson’s wife, who was with him when he was shot, publicly thanked everyone for their compassion and comfort. On January 10, 1940 at a ceremony commemorating Ranger Jacobson in the Congregational Church, Acadia NP Assistant Superintendent Benjamin Hadley unveiled a wooden cabinet from Mrs. Jacobson in his memory. It contained birds’ nests and other nature samples for Bar Harbor’s Boy Scout Troop 89. Ranger Jacobson had been the assistant scout master.

Notes:

a. Judge John A. Peters played a key role in the founding of Acadia NP.

b. Acadia NP was established on Mount Desert Island, across Frenchman Bay from the Schoodic Peninsula. It came into possession of the Schoodic property in 1927, when its owners, the Moore family, donated 2,000 acres. A bronze memorial to John G. Moore is in the oceanfront parking lot at the peninsula’s tip. *2

*Footnotes:

1 Jacobson memorial GPS coordinates: (N44 22.802 W068 03.986)

2 Moore memorial GPS coordinates: (N44 19.978 W068 03.660)

Acknowledgement:  I am very grateful to Jim Linnane for the photo of the memorial and its GPS coordinates.