DISCOVER CAMPOBELLO ISLAND

A “SYMBOL OF FRIENDSHIP” • BY AISLINN SARNACKI

brothers from New York, who lobbied for the land to become the first jointly owned U.S.-Canadian park.

“I hope that Campobello Park will live eternally as a symbol of our friendship that cannot be shaken or diverted,” President Lyndon Johnson said while signing the park agreement in 1964. “President Roosevelt would want it this way.”

In The Eastern Maine

town of Lubec, you can show your passport at the border station and cross a long, arcing bridge onto Campobello Island, New Brunswick. There you’ll find historic lighthouses, boat tours, the old summer home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a park that’s jointly managed by the United States and Canada. Stay for the day, or make a longer trip of it. There’s plenty on the island to keep you busy. The small community has welcomed visitors for generations.

“We have miles of beaches and just beautiful sites,” said Jade Robbins, marketing and communications associate for Roosevelt Campobello International Park. “What I love most about Campobello is that you can go out in our natural area and you feel that you’re in a whole different world. It’s just so beautiful and calming.”

Covering 2,800 acres of the island, Roosevelt Campobello International Park is home to approximately 7 miles of roads – which are open to automobiles but great for walking and biking as well – and 6 miles of hiking trails. This network of trails and roads lead to dramatic ocean cliffs, cobblestone beaches, whimsical forests and enchanting bogs. And scattered throughout are 14 scenic picnic sites. Picnicking was a favorite pastime of the Roosevelet family. Back in the late 1800s, FDR’s parents were among the many wealthy families who summered on Campobello at grand hotels. They loved the island so much that they purchased land and built a cottage, then gifted the neighboring house to their son – the 32nd president of the U.S. FDR summered on the island with his family for many years. After his death, they sold the property to the Hammer

From late May to mid-October, the park offers guided tours of the Roosevelts’ restored 34-room summer home and holds an event called Eleanor’s Tea, where you sip tea while learning the story of Eleanor Roosevelt. The tour typically lasts between 20 and 30 minutes.

“Almost everything in there are original artifacts, and it’s just like stepping back in time to how they had it in the 1920s,” said Robbins.

One item in the house that people get excited about is FDR’s campaign hat, which sits on the table in the very first room you enter.

“He wore it and left it behind on his last visit [to the summer home] in 1939,” Robbins said. Surrounding the Roosevelts’ summer cottage are flower gardens filled with a variety of annuals and perennials, with dahlias taking the spotlight. These gardens, carefully planned and maintained, can be found outside the park’s other six historic cottages as well.

Another park highlight: Mulholland Point Lighthouse, the only lighthouse shared by Canada and the U.S. The quaint, octagonal, wooden structure was built in 1885. Right beside it is the Marine Life Interpretation Centre, a small building containing an exhibit on the area’s marine life. Run in partnership with the Canadian Whale Institute, the center is manned by an interpreter in the summertime.

Outside the park, the island features a few restaurants and boat tours, plus a second historic lighthouse. Head Harbour Light Station is located on a rocky outcropping on the northern tip of the island that can only be accessed at low tide. Built in 1829, it was New Brunswick’s second lighthouse and is now one of the oldest lighthouses still standing in Canada. The wooden, tapering, octagonal structure rises 51 feet tall and is white with a red cross painted on one side.

“While the island is a great day trip, getting here is half the fun, and once you’re here, you might as well stay a while,” said Robbins. “We do have a lot to offer, the island as a whole.”

Admission to the park and the Roosevelts’ summer house is free. For more information about the park, visit rooseveltcampobello.org. And for information about the island, including lodging options, visit campobello.com.