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 HANCOCK COUNTY TRUSTEES OF PUBLIC RESERVATIONS In 1901 Charles W. Elliot, president emeritus of Harvard University and a summer resident of Northeast Harbor, formed one of Maine's first preservation and land conservation organizations, the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations (HCTPR). Incorporated in 1903, HCTPR's mission is to preserve and protect for public use lands that have scenic beauty, historical association, scientific interest, or sanitary advantage. By 1913, the Trustees had acquired a significant amount of land on Mount Desert Island. Distraught that land was removed from tax rolls and that they could not harvest timber, local residents introduced a bill into the Maine legislature that would annul the charter of the Trustees. The bill, even though defeated, motivated the Trustees to pursue the donation of their land holdings to the federal government for permanent preservation. 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed Sieur de Monts National Monument into existence. Three years later, in 1919, the Trustees successfully lobbied Congress to reestablish Sieur de Monts National Monument as Lafayette National Park, the first national park east of the Mississippi River and the only national park created solely from land donations. The Trustees continued to acquire land in the 1920's including Schoodic Peninsula and Woodlawn, the estate of George Nixon Black, Jr. In 1929, the Trustees transferred their Schoodic holdings to the newly designated Acadia National Park but held on to Woodlawn. By the time the Trustees voted to discontinue acquiring lands for Acadia National Park, some 35,000 acres of land had been donated, the largest single land donation to the federal government. Today Woodlawn Museum is the largest and most important unit under the care of the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations. |
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