Southwest Harbor Maine

[unknown]
Location: Southwest Harbor, Hancock, Maine, United States
Surnames/tags: One_Place_Studies Maine Hancock_County_Maine

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Southwest Harbor is located just west of the southern entrance to Somes Sound on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, settled in 1761 and incorporated 1905. Southwest Harbor was the name of the harbor and was a populated place long before it became a town.

• Parent Page: Hancock County
• Southwest Harbor, Maine Category page

Date	Designation	Note
-1534	name unknown	Wabanaki peoples - the Penobscot and perhaps Passamaquoddy.
1534-1760	Nouvelle France	Under French control, no known European settlers
1760	unorganized territory Lincoln, Massachusetts Bay	France surrenders September 8, 1760, Britain officially takes control of the area
1762		Township #3 East of Union River was formed February 27, 1762
1776		America declarers independence from Britain July 4, 1776
1776	Mount Desert Plantation, Lincoln, Massachusetts	Mount Desert Plantation was formed March 2, 1776 from a portion of Township #3 EUR
1789	Mount Desert, Lincoln, Massachusetts	Mount Desert incorporated February 17, 1789 from from Mount Desert Plantation.
1789	Mount Desert, Hancock, Massachusetts	Hancock County is formed June 25, 1789
1820	Mount Desert, Hancock, Maine	Maine becomes the 23 state March 15, 1820
1848	Mansel, Hancock, Maine (only for 3 months!)	Mansel Incorporated June 3, 1848 from a portion of Mount Desert
1848	Tremont, Hancock, Maine	Mansel was renamed Tremont August 8 1848
1905	Southwest Harbor, Hancock, Maine	Southwest Harbor was incorporated February 21, 1905 from a portion of Tremont

Contents 1 Villages, Locations and Settlements 2 Historical Names 3 Pioneer Settlers 4 Islands 5 Maps 6 Stories 7 Additional Resources 8 Photos 9 Sources

Villages, Locations and Settlements

Villages, Locations and Settlements	Settler/Namesake/Note
Bennet Cove
Clark Point
Conner Point
Fernald Cove	Tobias Fernald 1768-1839
Kings Point
Manset	Sir Robert Mansell 1573-1656)
Norwood Cove
Seawall	Seawall P.O., village named for the Sea Wall
Seawall Point
Southwest Harbor
Wonderland

Historical Names

• South West Harbor (the body of water) was valuable for it's shelter and was an populated place as early as the 1770's. The village of Southwest Harbor (probably) predates Tremont.
• Manset, part of Southwest Harbor, Maine, is on the southwestern side of Mount Desert Island near the southern entrance to Somes Sound, the only Fjord on the east coast of the United States." ^[1]
• SEA WALL ...a naturally occurring granite and loose boulder and rock seawall located on the southwestern side of Mount Desert Island about four miles south of the main city section of Southwest Harbor."^[2]

Pioneer Settlers

Many of them are listed as pioneer settlers of Mount Desert.

Pioneer Settler	Arrival Year
to be added

Islands

Maine Islands

Islands	Settler/Namesake/Note
Greening aka Langley's Island, previously Somes Island	Phillip Langley

Maps

• Southwest Harbor on Google Maps

Maps (Click and image for details_

1917 Topographical Map	Tremont with Southwest Harbor, shows names of Households	1881 Mount Desert with Eden, Southwest Harbor and Tremont with Household Names

Stories

Additional Resources

• Mount Desert : a history by Street, George Edward
• The Southwest Harbor Public Library Digital Archive "...contains historic photographs, documents, maps, and research material given to and shared with the library since about 1900."
• Traditions and records of Southwest Harbor and Somesville, Mount Desert island, Maineby Thornton, Nellie
• Southwest Harbor on WikiPedia
• Maine Genealogy Net Southwest Harbor

Photos

Photo Gallery (click and image for details)

Pinky Schooner off the Manset shore	View of Southwest Harbor Clark's Point from Manset	The Sea Wall
Steamboat with Greening Island in back ground	Somes Sound Postcard, Elaine Hayden collection

Sources

• Profile Photos source_The Digital Archive_Southwest Harbor Public Library[NOTE: the collection is not limited to just Southwest Harbor items ] https://swhpl.digitalarchive.us/welcome

1. ↑ Acadia Magic
2. ↑ Acadia Magic

• Varney, George J. 1886. Gazetteer of the state of Maine: with numerous illustrations.