With the exception of Mount Desert Island's Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, the lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia region are among the most remote and lesser-known lighthouses of Maine. As the vessel traffic changed in these areas in the early 1900s, some of these lighthouses were sold into private ownership while others became less important as aids to navigation. Since the structures were located on remote islands or in a highly restricted military installation, the photographs and historical firsthand memories of most of these lighthouses have remained elusive and seemingly lost in the dusty pages of time. Through vintage photographs, Lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region uncovers the history of these structures that kept watch over Maine's rocky coast.
Title: Maine Author Releases Seventh Lighthouse Book
Author: Timothy Harrison
Publisher: Maine Business
Date: 4/9/09
Lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region, the seventh lighthouse book authored by noted lighthouse historian Tim Harrison of Whiting has just been released.
The new book is part of the Images of America series of books from Arcadia Publishing, a publishing house that specializes in saving historic images of cities, towns and communities across the country.
Harrison, who is editor of the Maine based Lighthouse Digest, a lighthouse history and news magazine, and is cofounder of the American Lighthouse Foundation, which he served as president of from 1994 to 2007, said he is pleased that through the pages of this book, more photos of a lost way of Maine s maritime heritage can now be enjoyed by all as well as saved for future generations.
You can t just go to a file cabinet and pull out these images, says Harrison. They were collected over a period of time and many came from the descendants of the families of lighthouse keepers who were kind enough to share them with me.
According to Harrison, with the exception of Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse on Mt. Desert Island, most of the lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia region are among Maine s lesser known lighthouses. Many of the 200 historic images in the book, including vintage images of lighthouses keepers and their families, have never been published before.
Harrison says, This is a way of life that will never again be repeated. The book is like a time machine that helps us better understand how the impressive maritime heritage of Maine helped our country develop into the great nation that we are today.
Some of the other books that are authored or coauthored by Harrison include: Lost Lighthouses, The Golden Age of American Lighthouses, Portland Head Light, and Lighthouses of the Sunrise County-Stories and Images of the People Who Kept the Lighthouses in Washington County, Maine.
Harrison is proud of the fact that Lighthouse of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region is not pretty picture but is instead, A book that is a real journey through time that rediscovers forgotten history through historic images and informative text.
Lighthouses of Bar Harbor and the Acadia Region is available in most books stores and at Carroll Drug Store in Southwest Harbor, The Sand Castle in Bar Harbor and from Lighthouse Digest at www.LighthouseDigest.net or by calling 207-259-2121."
