"GREEN MOUNTAIN - One of the chief points of interest on Mount Desert is Green Mountain, the highest point on the Island. Some ambitious persons make the ascent on foot, and that can best be done by way of the ruins of the old mill near the foot of Mount Kebo, and then by way of the ravine that separates Green from Dry Mountain. But by far the largest number prefer to go by the regular conveyance furnished by the Green Mountain Railway, which is by carriage to Eagle Lake, thence by steamer up the lake to the base, then by railway to the summit. This gives variety to the trip, and renders it a most enjoyable one. A clear, bright morning should be selected for this excursion, when objects can be seen at a great distance. The railway itself is a marvel of engineering skill, the entire length of the road being six thousand three hundred feet, and the grade averaging one foot to every four feet passed over. There is a good hotel at the summit which will accommodate about thirty guests.
The view from Green Mountain, on a clear morning, is one never to be forgotten. The coast line with it many sinuosities, the numerous smaller islands scattered here and there, Mount Desert spread out like a map, and the island landscape with its diversity of views, all go to make up a succession of the grandest pictures imaginable…" - "Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island" by William Berry Lapham, p. 16 - 1887.
"GREEN MOUNTAIN RAILWAY. No person should visit Bar Harbor without ascending Green Mountain by way of Eagle Lake and the Green Mountain Railway. The trip to Eagle Lake, three miles, is made in four-horse barges, which call for passengers at the principal hotels every week day morning during the season. The trip across Eagle Lake to the foot of the mountain is by steamer. The journey up the mountain and the magnificent outlook from the summit…" - Part of an advertisement appearing in Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island By William Berry Lapham – 1887.
"I went up and back once about the year 1890 and there was 19 other young people from South West Harbor." - Robie M. Norwood.
See “The Story of Bar Harbor – An Informal History Recording One Hundred and Fifty Years In the Life of a Community,” by Richard Walden Hale, Jr., p. 155-160, Ives Washburn, Inc., 1949 for an excellent version of the story of the Green Mountain Railway.
