Dean M. Chriss
Photography
Monument Cove, Acadia National Park, Maine

Monument Cove, Acadia National Park, Maine

(Click image to enlarge)

Acadia National Park preserves a total of 30,300 acres on Mount Desert Island, Isle au Haut and the Schoodic Peninsula in Maine. It was the first national park to be established east of the Mississippi River, and it is the only national park whose land was donated entirely by private citizens. Land donated by families such as the Rockefellers, Morgans, Fords, Astors, Vanderbilts, and Pulitzers was declared Sieur de Monts National Monument on July 8, 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson. On February 26, 1919, the name was changed to Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, an influential French supporter of the American Revolution. Finally, the park's name was changed to Acadia on January 19, 1929.

The incredibly rugged granite coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a major feature of Acadia National Park. It is one of a very few sections of the Atlantic coast in the United States that has not been significantly altered by human development. Winds from the Atlantic Ocean can sometimes make Acadia a cold and foggy place, as was the case on the morning this image was captured.