ACADIA The Coastal Setting, Rocks, and Woods of the Sieur de Monts National Monument Sieur de Monts Publications IV

INTRODUCTION.
By GEORGE B. DORR.

The following description of the Maine coast and appeal for the preservation of its beauty and freedom to the public in appropriate tracts was written—in somewhat ampler form—nearly 30 years ago by Charles Eliot, the landscape architect, who drew from his summers at the island, the home influences that surrounded him, and the bent of his own mind a love of nature and a will for public service that enabled him to leave behind him, when his day closed suddenly in the fullness of his early manhood, an enduring monument in important public work initiated and in ideas that other men could make their own and build into their work in turn. What he then said can not be better said today; the importance of action which he foresaw so clearly and felt so strongly has only become more evident and more urgent with each passing year.