ISLAND INSTITUTE • August 1, 2025
On a warm July afternoon, Steve Smith sat outside a fish house in Otter Creek on Mount Desert Island, telling me stories. In the summer of 2024, Acadia National Park welcomed an average of about 20,000 tourists each day, many of whom drove along Route 3, a major artery that connects Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor, and Somes Sound. Otter Creek might be overlooked. Confined within the national park borders, to the undiscerning eye, the village is nothing more than a crossroad. A lifetime before Smith was born, we would have beheld a waterfront village bustling with commerce. Smith has spent his life fighting to conserve the waterfront identity of Otter Creek. at times illegally.