women-of-acadia Archives - Acadia National Park on My Mind

If you’re a woman who loves being active in the great outdoors, you probably have your mother to thank, according to a new national study of women and the outdoors, with a timely message for Mother’s Day.

On the heels of a new national study of women and the outdoors that it commissioned, REI has launched a public initiative called “Force of Nature,” to push for gender equity in the outdoors. (Image courtesy of REI)

Women who were “highly encouraged” by their mothers to play outside as young girls are more likely to remain active today, compared with those who were less encouraged, 86% vs. 78%. And they are more likely to consider being outdoors a “very high priority,” 26% vs. 11%, according to the nationally representative study of more than 2,000 women ages 18-35, commissioned by outdoor retailer rei. It’s easy enough to encourage your children to spend time outside, it can be as simple as looking after your backyard and making it inviting for them. Try planting lots of flowers and trees, and fill the space with fun play equipment. You might need to visit https://www.lawncare.net/service-areas/ohio/ and book in a few lawncare treatments with them afterwards as kids have a tendency to be a little destructive.

Yet at the same time, the study found 6 in 10 women say men’s interest in an outdoor adventure is taken more seriously than women’s, and 63% couldn’t name an outdoor female role model, even as 85% of them say the outdoors is good for overall health, happiness and well-being, and 70% find being outdoors is liberating.

In honor of mothers and other women – whether grandmothers, daughters, spouses, aunts, sisters, cousins or friends – who’ve helped inspire a love for the great outdoors, here are some Mother’s Day gifts of Acadia and the outdoors, to thank them, and invite them to play outside with you.

Mother’s Day gifts of Acadia and other park passes

Lifetime Senior Pass Acadia National Park

US citizens or permanent residents age 62 or over can get a lifetime Senior Pass for $10. (NPS photo)

Senior Pass – If any women in your lives are 62 or older before Oct. 1, go with them to the nearest participating federal lands site that sells the lifetime Senior Pass for $10, before it’s slated to go up to $80. You can also buy the pass online for a processing fee, by uploading a copy of necessary proof of age and ID, but there’s a delay in delivery with the rush of people trying to buy before the price increase. The pass is good not only for Acadia and other National Parks, but also for all federal recreation lands, like national monuments, historic sites, wildlife refuges and national forests. The bearer of the Senior Pass can bring in a carload of passengers for free, or up to 3 other adults (children under 16 are free) at sites that charge per-person admission.
Online weekly and annual Acadia pass – If the women in your lives are younger than 62, you can buy an annual or weekly pass to Acadia (or other National Parks) online as a gift instead.
Every Kid in a Park Pass – If there’s a woman in your life who’s a mother of a fourth grader, you can help that fourth grader get a free Every Kid in a Park Pass online as a gift to Mom. Then the whole family can get in free to Acadia and all other federal recreational lands and waters this summer. Started under President Obama, this initiative aims to get kids (and their Moms) outdoors.

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UPDATED 3/31/2017: Beatrix Farrand and other notable women of Acadia, past and present, added to blog post.

If you know a little of the history of Acadia National Park, you know who the “father of Acadia” is. But less well-known are the women who were also critical in the early days, by donating land and money or otherwise helping to shape the park.

Eliza Homans gave the first large parcel of land that would become Acadia National Park, including the Beehive and the Bowl. (NPS photo)

In celebration of Women’s History Month, observed in March, here are some of the stories of the women of Acadia, who perhaps could be called the “mothers of Acadia.”

Eliza Homans – Whether you ask Catherine Schmitt, author of the 2016 book, “Historic Acadia National Park,” or Marie C. Yarborough, Acadia’s curator and cultural resources and interpretation liaison, one of the main women of Acadia to remember and appreciate: Eliza Homans.

“Previous histories of the park made only brief mention of the first land donation, the Bowl and Beehive tract, by a ‘Mrs. Charles Homans’,” said Schmitt in an e-mail. “Her story is important in part because she was the first of many, many property owners, women and men, who donated or sold land to the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, the predecessor of the park. Their names are memorialized in trails and monuments, but they are often absent from the perspective of popular park histories.”

And as Acadia’s Yarborough e-mailed us last month, in describing her mission to expand the cultural stories and histories of the park beyond George B. Dorr, the “father of Acadia”; the Rockefellers; the French explorers; the Civilian Conservation Corps; and the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations:

Catherine Schmitt’s “Historic Acadia National Park” includes stories of women who helped shape the park, such as Eliza Homans. (Image courtesy of Lyons Press and Catherine Schmitt; NOTE: See sidebar about Amazon.com links)

“I push to recognize that there are OTHER stories to tell at the same time, and we need to open up our narrative to tell them. Like, women in Acadia? Eliza Homans…first large gift of land to Acadia was from a woman! We never hear about the women who were working to make this place Acadia,” e-mailed Yarborough, in response to our questions for an earlier blog post, about black history in Acadia. “Oh, there are lots of stories to tell. I just need the time and space to find them.”

In May 1908, Eliza Homans gave title to the 140 acres surrounding the Beehive and the Bowl to the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, commenting that if she didn’t donate the land for preservation, “my grandchildren may find a ‘Merry-Go-Round’ established there!”, according to Schmitt’s history and Ronald H. Epp’s 2016 biography of Dorr.

Next time you scale the Beehive, or look up at it from Sand Beach, and the next time you hike up to the mountain pond known as the Bowl, give thanks to Eliza Homans. And think of her, too, when you climb Homans Path up Dorr Mountain.

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