Tribal Tourism

Rusticators, ca. 1880

capturing a glitzy Bar harbor audience added a feather to the Wabanakis’ entrepreneurial hat. int ersection Tribal tourism

Bar Harbor Indian Encampment, 1881

by bunny mcbride & harald e. l. Prins

the rusticators Bring half-worn winter garments, with boots ditto, to be prepared for tramping and excursions.

–Eliza Brown Chase, Over the Border: Acadia, the Home of “Evangeline,” 1884 the natives

In the late 1800s, Mount Desert Island’s summer visitors–known as “rusticators”–ventured to the island for scenery and climate, drawn by its dramatic geography and the “peculiar and delicious” quality of the air. Here, one could purify body and mind with the balm of cool ocean breezes, the inspiration of scenic vistas, and the exhilaration of vigorous mountain hikes.

The call of the wild was one thing, but what about the tug of social preening and pure entertainment? Bit by bit, these appeared: in the increasing number of “agreeable luxuries” offered by hotels; in fashionable changes of clothing, masquerade balls, musicales, lectures, yachting parties, horse shows, and tennis tournaments; and in an array of clubs–including swimming, canoe, and golf.

By the early 1880s, many rusticators pooh-poohed hotels in favor of private “cottages.” For the richest among them–such as the Astors, Pulitzers, Rockefellers, Searses, and Vanderbilts–the summer home resembled a cottage about as much as a moose resembles a mouse.

By 1890, Mount Desert Island boasted more than 20,000 “summer people.” Its gilded age had arrived, and Bar Harbor vied with Newport for the “most fashionable resort” crown. In truth, a wide range of people comprised the island’s seasonal population: successful academics, physicians and other relatively regular folks for whom nature’s offerings remained paramount; Wabanaki Indians who came to sell their traditional wares; folklorists who collected Indian artifacts and stories; and stunningly wealthy capitalists–some of whom focused on conspicuous social showcasing, while others devoted themselves to conservation and social causes.

No matter one’s lot in life, summer visitors made a point of visiting the “Indian Encampment” in Bar Harbor.

Wabanaki Indians (especially Passamaquoddies and Penobscots) came to Mount Desert Island seeking relief from the confines of reservation life, along with the Frank “Big Thunder” Loring holds court in front of the image of a Bar Harbor staircase. economic opportunities presented by an emerging resort. For them, the island was a familiar place long frequented by their ancestors for fishing, hunting, and gathering. No longer able to survive solely on the old lifeways, Wabanakis marketed their traditional arts, crafts, and canoeing skills to rusticators who visited their tented encampments. At its peak in 1885, the Indian encampment in Bar Harbor was home to approximately 250 Wabanakis. None marketed with more flair than Penobscot Frank “Big Thunder” Loring (1827-1906), towering in height and personality. Beyond running a canoe concession, he popularized his culture as a performer, producer, and promoter of “Indian entertainments.” Here we see him in his crowd-pleasing feather skirt and ostrichplume headdress. Offstage, Loring was a hunter, guide, medicine man, and tribal leader. Clever in the marketplace, he boosted his sales of Wabanaki relics and crafts by telling captivating stories about the objects and himself. If anyone could simultaneously paddle a canoe and spin a yarn, it was Big Thunder. As noted in the 1896 Centennial Souvenir Edition of the Bar Harbor Record: “Every visitor to Bar Harbor knows ‘Big Thunder,’ the ancient Indian, who for years has canoed the children of summer visitors, and the parents oft-times themselves when they were children, about the points of interest in the bay.” n

Look for an exhibit of McBride & Prins’s Indians in Eden: Wabanakis and Rusticators on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, 1840s-1920s next spring at Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor.

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