6 Best Sights in Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island, Maine

This important museum dedicated to Maine's Indigenous tribes—collectively known as the Wabanaki—is the state's only Smithsonian-affiliated facility and one of the few places in Maine to experience Native culture as interpreted by Native peoples themselves. Spanning 12,000 years, the "core" exhibit, People of the First Light, features items such as birch bark canoes, basketry, and bone tools as well as photos and interactive displays. Changing exhibits often showcase contemporary Native American art. A birchbark canoe made at the Abbe anchors the free Orientation Gallery beside the gift shop at the entrance. Check the website for events, from basket weaving and boatbuilding demonstrations to author talks and family-friendly pop-up rainy days activities.

Opened in 1928, the Abbe's Acadia National Park location at Sieur de Monts is its original home. Longtime exhibits in the small eight-sided building include artifacts from early digs on Mount Desert Island and dioramas of Native American life here before European settlement.

Stepping into the large foyer of this 1903 brick chateau, your view flows through glass doors on the opposite side, then across the piazza and flat lawn to a serene coastal expanse. A business partner of J.P. Morgan, George Bowdoin, and his wife, Julia, built this 13,000-square-foot, 41-room mansion near downtown Bar Harbor as their seasonal residence. Unlike many of the area's summer “cottages” of the nation’s elite, it was spared from the Great Fire of 1947. In 2020, La Rochelle became Bar Harbor Historical Society's museum and the town’s only Gilded Age mansion open to the public. While the Bowdoins’ story weaves through displays, each room has themed exhibits on local history: in the foyer, baskets the Wabanaki made to sell to tourists; the dining room, grand hotels of yesteryear; the master bedroom, old maps (one shows where the fire raged); a guest room, the town's famous visitors; and so on. Under the elegant wishbone staircase, a “flower room” with a curved wall spotlights the famous landscape artist who created the long-gone sunken garden. In the servants' quarters on the third floor, their story is shared—don’t miss the hallway callbox.

About 65 immaculately maintained vehicles from the “Brass Era”—the beginning of auto production until about 1915—are displayed in this large warehouse-type space. There are gasoline, steam, and electric vehicles; each has a sign detailing its history. The big red 1914 Stanley Mountain Wagon was used to ferry passengers between the train station and lodging—the term "station wagon" derives from such vehicles. Enticing not only car buffs, the changing exhibit (new every two years) also highlights the impact of early automobiles on society and culture ("Engines of Change" explored how autos helped drive the suffragette movement). There are also 30-plus vintage motorcycles. Kids of all ages love hopping a ride on vehicles taken outside for "exercise" and a close-up look (catch-as-catch-can but call ahead to up the odds). On Tuesday, you can watch car mechanics at work. For Cars & Coffee on select Saturdays, folks head over in historic and unique vehicles; admission is free during the event, however you arrive, and always free for kids (under age 18). Check the website for information about other special events.

Housed in the town's former fire station, this museum promotes and celebrates the Mount Desert Island region's maritime heritage. Inside, a map of the Great Harbor at the mouth of Somes Sound anchors a display that helps visitors orient themselves to the area as well as the museum. Interesting changing exhibits about local history have a nautical theme and include photographs and objects like ship models from the museum’s collection as well as other area institutions.

Two small white buildings with changing exhibits about island history are clustered with heirloom gardens along Main Street at this Mount Desert Historical Society museum. The larger one isn’t historic but has typical New England architectural touches. Hugging the road just beyond the footbridge over the mill stream, the tiny 1780s Selectmen’s Building was the Town of Mount Desert's office for many years. Herb and floral plants from the 19th and early 20th centuries bloom in the gardens. 

In the mid-1820s, Colonel John Black built an elegant Federal-style mansion with a distinct full-length front porch and balustrades on a 180-acre estate of fields and woods. Inside the Black House as it's known is an especially fine elliptical flying staircase and period artifacts from the three generations of the family who lived here. Outside, Woodlawn has a garden, 2 miles of walking trails that Colonel Black used as a bridle path, and a croquet court that's still in play (check the website for fees and availability). The trails and garden are open to the public year-round. Check the website for special events such as concerts and children’s programming.