Mount Desert Island - Origin of The Name

Origin of The Name

Some natives stress the second syllable (de-ZERT), in the French fashion, although many others pronounce it in a fashion similar to the English name of a landscape devoid of vegetation (DEH-zert). French explorer Samuel de Champlain's observation that the summits of the island's mountains were free of vegetation as seen from the sea led him to call the island "île des Monts Déserts", or island of the Bare Mountains.

According to Acadia National Park movies shown to public in park center, the name means "Isle of the lonely mountains" because when you are out to sea, and approaching land, the mountain tops appear alone before any other land.

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