ABANDONED TRAILS OF ACADIA NATIONAL PARK: RED ROCK SPRING LOCATED

So we been setting on this story for a couple months now, doing further research and making more visits to the area, but we can now say the site of Red Rock Spring has now been documented with photos. Some time back we reported as to locating a huge stone trough, an old newspaper article states such a huge trough, entirely carved from one piece of granite, set along one wall of the Red Rock bottling plant. A pipe runs from that trough underground heading in the direction of the Red Rock Spring. The huge granite slabs that once surrounded the top of the spring have been pushed out of position, but the spring itself, which had been deepened and enlarged, and whose sides had been lined with brick and tiles, are all still there, the brick lining of the spring can be made out under the water. We measured the center of the spring at about three feet deep, up to four feet in a few areas, however one corner of the spring we found and area over five feet deep. Between the trough and where another building stood there is a pipe coming up out of the ground with a facuet at the end of it - that may of been the inside of the bottling plant.

RED ROCK SPRING - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

RED ROCK SPRING - BRICKS LINE ITS WALLS
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

You can find a number of bricks scattered around the site, the insides of the spring are all brick lined.
The large granite blocks surrounding the spring are loose so caution should be used around them. The very center of the spring is slightly higher on the bottom, as if the spring itself had been caped off, clearly today there are no natural gas bubbles bubbling up from the spring, which was one of the key features of the spring. Mr Prescott who owned this spring along with Sieur de Monts Spring at one time, had a way of taking a normal spring and deepening it as well as enlarging it, which he was said to have done to Red Rock Spring. In a letter to the Bar Harbor Times, a Rev. makes the claim that Mr. Prescot did the same thing to Sieur de Monts, than sold off the property who value jumped because of the unusual deep and large spring there, I have a blog with that letter to the editor up and you can decide for yourself if he is believeable or not.
Below is the old newspaper article I came across a few months ago;

Bar Harbor Record
July 2, 1902

Prescot's Farm Promises To Be A Center Of Attraction

Another commercial enterprise has started at Bar Harbor. Commercial enterprise, while perfectly correct, is rather a misnomer for the Red Rock Spring Company for that term usually precludes the picturesque, unique and artistic, all of which the surroundings of the Red Rock Spring Company are.
Have you ever been out to Prescott's Farm? If not you have missed seeing one of the prettiest places on Mount Desert Island. It is a smaller edition of Robin Hood Park where the horse shows is held and the picturesque beauty of that is and the picturesque beauty of that is famous now the world over. Prescott's Farm has the same grassy fields surrounded by the same beautiful hills, and it has what Robin Hood Park has not, a crystal spring of pure water charged with a natural gas which causes big glassy bubbles to gather constantly on its sandy bottom and rise slowly in clear, colorless globules to the surface.
The situation of this spring is ideal. Tall silvery birches bend their carcessing branches above it and the hills all day, throw their protecting shadows over it. Mr. Prescott has always known of the existence of this spring and jealously guarded it. It was only the recent financial reverses that have overtaken him and his sister that have induced them to convert it to commercial uses.
When Mr. Prescott once puts his shoulder to the wheel he never turns back, and having made up his mind to make his spring yield him an income he stopped at nothing that would tend to make the business of the Red Rock Spring Company complete in every way. All his machinery and mechanical devices are the latest.
On Mr. Prescott's farm there is a red granite quarry, from a solid block of this has been fashioned an immense trough which has been placed in the building house. It is this red rock trough which gives the spring its name. The red granite is used also as the curbing of the srping itself, but this is as yet in state of incompleteness. In fact the whole business is an embryonic state and its success problemmaticical, althrough there seems to be no imperfections in the equations and a correct solution may be confidently expected.
At the bottling house the water is got ready for the market which already handles the goods. It is either put up pure and plain from the spring or charged by the carbonator and made into a sparkling drink. By mixing with a pure syrup and charging the water is converted into the twinkling of an eye into all sorts of soft drinks, delicious to the palate and perfectly free from all impurities. If we must drink let us drink from the Red Rock Spring.
If you visit the spring Mr. Prescott will tell you of the pains he has taken to preserve the sanitary condition with which nature had surrounded the place. The spring has been dug out the depth of nine feet and tiled up with pale blue tiling five feet square, a translucent body of water through which the bubbles before alluded to are continually rising. Outside this tiling is a layer of cement and than a wall of red granite. The ground beyond this has been excaved to the depth of the spring twelve feet in all directions and filled in with screened gravel, over this gravel flagging of the granite will be placed and the curb of the spring will also be of red rock.
An attractive well house with big windows is being built, and perhaps "Maud" will be there later to stoop where the cool spring bubbles up to fill for the "Judge" her small tin cup.

Here's to the Red Rock Spring
drink her down, drink her down,
It's the purest spring in town
drink her down, drink her down.

RED ROCK SPRING WATER PIPE
CARRIED WATER FROM SPRING TO HUGE GRANITE TROUGH

Path down through field begins by side of One Way Section of Park Loop Road at;

N 44 22.315

W 068 12.761

This is almost directly across from the end of the Bardon Farm Road or what some call the far end of Kebo Road.

Huge Stone Trough

N 44 22.324

W 068 12.837

Red Rock Spring

N 44 22.331

W 068 12.842

The end of the Bardon Farm Road where it joins the Park Loop Road

N 44 22.316

W 068 12.755

RED ROCK SPRING TROUGH SAT ALONG WALL OF BOTTLING PLANT
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

GRANITE BLOCKS - REMAINS OF A BUILDING
RED ROCK SPRING - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

RED ROCK SPRING MAP
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

How to Locate;

Option One.
Travel along the One Way section of the Park Loop Road, be looking for your first road on the left, that will be the far end of Kebo Street. Turn onto it and just around the corner is a small dirt parking area. Walk back to where you turned onto Kebo Street, the field is right there. As you start down through the field, you want to begin to bear to your right.

Option 2.
Use the only traffic light Bar Harbor has as a starting point. From Eden Street, route 3, go straight through the lights onto Kebo Street.
From Mount Desert Street at the lights, turn left onto Kebo Street.
From Eagle lake Road, route 233, turn right at the lights onto kebo Street.

Now follow Kebo Street until you come to a four way intersection. Go straight and follow the road until you come to a small dirt parking area on the left, a ways past the cemetery. Walk several yards further along the road to where it joins the Park Loop Road, the field is right there. As you walk down through the field, angle towards the right as shown on the map.

UPDATE

We returned back to the area of Red Rock Spring today in search for parts of a stove others had located in the area of the Spring, no luck. We than spent much of the afternoon in search for the elusive stairway up Kebo Mountain, I am beginning to think it might not exist. Heading back to the Strath Eden Path, we decided to walk along it to an old road which runs down through the woods,great decision as we came upon a large number of parts to an old stove, not only that, there was a large old can or two, parts of really large old glass measuring cups, and hundreds of broken bottles. It is worth noting that there are a number of old roads that criss cross the woods in this area. Upon careful inspection, the bottles, for the most past read, Bar Harbor Soda, Red Rock Spring Bottling Co.. Interestingly there was a number of different colored bottles, all broken. Some of the bottles were once really large and had the mark of being blown glass. There was also a number of bricks scattered here and there. It is worth noting that I do not believe this location was associated with the Red rock Spring production area, which was a great distance away.
We believe this to be a second location of stove parts for two main reasons, the photo of the stove parts we had been sent do not match the stove parts we located, I could not find the stove part we had been sent a photo of despite a good search of the area. There was also no mention of hundreds of broken bottles next to the stove parts, so I am assuming there is a second location in the nearby woods with more stove parts.
Interestingly a number of the broken bottles also were marked for Calais Maine with a different company name on them. I will be putting up photos this evening after we grab a bite to eat.

These broken bottles are everywhere but covered with dead leaves, so each step you take you can hear broken glass under your feet, it is just an estimate but i would place the number of broken bottles between 100 to 200, no matter where you step or poke a stick there are more broken bottles. Nearby we found a number of bricks as well as pieces of pottery and china ware.

Best way to find this location is by walking along the Stratheden, or Strath Eden, spelled both ways, until you come to the start of the old Kebo Mountain Granite Mining road at N 44 22' 7" W 068 12' 53". Directly across from the start of that old road, on the other side of the main trail, look for an old road, looks like a wide gully and follow it down through the woods. The gully will end, keep walking straight ahead and you will quickly come to a well defined dirt road, the stove parts and broken Red Rock Spring bottles are just ahead. A near by brook trickles down past the area as well. There is enough left to many of the bottles that you can clearly read Bar Harbor Sode and Red Rock Spring Bottling Co. on many of the bottles.

My advice is that for most people, this is not a good area to explore as one slip or stumble and you could get a serious cut from all the broken glass. I posted this for historic purposes.

RED ROCK SPRING CO BOTTLE - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

RED ROCK SPRING CO> BOTTLE

RED ROCK SPRING MAP
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

In my research of the Red Rock Bottling Company, later renamed Mt. Kebo Spring Water Company, I came across a good number of, shall we say, misleading ads, some sounding like snake oil ads of old that promise to cure illnesses. The ad below is an amazing example of making claims that just were not true, suggesting that their spring water might be filtered through miles of sand. It was Mr. Preston himself that lined the bottom of the spring with sand, I truly doubt he dumped miles of sand into bottom of his spring.

In the ad below from 1910 it strongly suggests the location of the spring can be compared to that of the Garden of Eden. I discovered the company ran many of these type of ads which made it seem less like an ad and more like a statement made by the newspaper. In fact, it is in thses type of ads where the company really pushes their water into an entirely new area, as we will see.

In this next ad from 1911, the company makes the claim that their spring water can cure rheumatism, and not only that, it can rid your system of Uric Acid, when in fact it is impossible for any spring water to do either of those things. So does ads like this, and there were many I found, place this company on the same level as say, a snake oil salesman? I believe it does because the company is making claims the product can not possibly accomplish.

The clipping below explains the company changing its name.

GPS for bottles and stove parts;

N44 22.124
W 068 12.855

WAS THE SPRING AN ACT OF NATURE?

On my blog Early History Of Mount Desert Island Maine I have a post titled SIEUR DE MONTS SPRING - A WONDER OF NATURE OR MAN MADE, which features a letter written to the local paper concerning the real story behing this famous spring and just how it came to be. And while we may call into question the facts outlined in the letter, the integrity of the letter writer can not be called into question, for the letter was written by none other then Rev. Charles S. Mitchell, DD. In his letter he states that when he was young, him and a relative were on their way to do some fishing in that general area and came upon John Prescott, the man who owned a large amount of land in that area known as Prescott's Farm. In his letter to the local paper the Rev. Mitchell states that they asked Mr. Prescot was doing and Mr. Prescot explained how he had come up with this idea to make more money, but before we go there, let's look back a ways and examine Mr. Prescot's past business venture, that of Red Rock Spring and its bottling plant. It all began with a simple small spring, unlike the many thousands of springs found across the state of Maine, but Mr. Prescot and his sister, whom lived with him, were hard up for money, and thus a plan was hatched. Mr. Prescot set about taking that small spring and widened and deepened it and lined its walls with colorful tiles, then set about putting up a bottling plant on the site next to the Red Rock Spring and used questionable ads to promote the water from this spring, claiming that by drinking his water it could cure you of some of your ills and stating the water was made so pure because it first ran through miles of sand which acted as a natural filter.

For a while the business took off but soon sales began to decline, most likely a result of other businesses promoting the health benefits of their spring water, so to keep the cash flow coming in, Mr. Prescot needed to come up with a way to out do his competition, which brings us back to that letter.

Mr. Prescot told the Rev. Mitchell and his relative that he had a new plan to make money, he was going to take two springs that were close together and cap one, forcing its waters back into the first spring, and he was going to enlarge and widen that first spring to make it appear it was an act of nature and a wonder to behold, because unlike the springs of his competitors, this new spring he was constructing would be the mother of all springs, and unlike Red Rock Spring which he tiled the walls of, he would keep this new spring rough so no one would suspect he was the one who created it, not mother nature. Mr. Prescot was quick to put up a second bottling plant and at once began promoting the health benifits of this newly discovered spring which was a wonder of nature, and for a number of years he did well with the new business.

So from what is known of Mr. Prescots actions in regard to Red Rock Spring is known, in that light it is not a stretch to see just how believable the Rev. Charles S. Mitchell's story is. When the lands that made up Prescot's Farm became part of what was to become a national monument, none of the players involved, including Mr. Dorr, had any idea that the spring was not what Mr. Prescot claimed it was, a wonder of nature, for only three people, and perhaps four if you include Mr. Prescot's sister, who surely must of known of her brothers plans, knew that this wonder of nature was in fact an act brought about by the hands of Mr. Prescot.

Below is the letter that the Rev. Charles S. Mitchell sent to the local paper;

BAR HARBOR TIMES

JULY 21, 1960

To the Editor;

Visitors at Sieur de Monts Spring may at times wonder about the early history. One standing on the large flat rock in the brook and watching the water bubble and gorgie from beneath it may think he is beholding a natural event, when in fact, he is looking at the result of human planning and effort.

In the summer of 1907 John Prescott, owner of the property developed the spring at the upper end of the Harding Farm, so called, which was originally known as Red Rock Spring, and later, Mt. Kebo Spring, undertook to do the same thing with what is now the Sieur de Monts Spring.

I learned this quite by accident. One day in the summer above mentioned I was walking with a friend of my parents through the woods in that section. As a boy I had fished in the brook that flowed out of the meadow - now known as the tarn - and I knew that area very well.

Near the brook at that time was a small boiling spring with a much larger one several yards away.

As we came into the path off the Seal Harbor Road we heard from the valley below us the sound of horses and a stone drag. Coming into the clearing at the foot of the hill we found Mr Prescott with a team of horses dragging a large flat rock towards the smaller spring, and learned that he was planning another bottling plant similar to the one at Red Rock (Mt. Kebo). He told us he was setting that flat rock over the smaller spring in the attempt to force the water back into the larger one which he planned to deepen and enlarge.

The bottling plant, as such, did not prove to be the success had hoped, and in course of time the property passed to other hands and now has been developed into the beauty spot we have today. But that rock is the same one we saw put in place over 50 years ago.

What we see today is not a freak of nature but a deliberate attempt to improve on what nature has provided.

I can vouch for this as I am the only living person who was present when that stone was set in its present position.

Sincerely,

Rev. Charles S. Mitchell, DD

WHO WAS THE REV CHARLES S. MITCHELL

A piece I found in an article in the Bar Harbor Times dated August 2, 1922 states in part;

"Mr. Charles S. Mitchell served Long Island till cold weather, than he moved his family to Bar Harbor and spent the winter assisting in special services at Cranberry Isles, Matinitus, and other places. It seemed best to locate Mr. Mitchell at Corea where he can be of help in the town of Gouldboro, as there is not a minister in the town."

In the December 6, 1922 Bar Harbor Times, upon the passing of Rev. A.P. MacDonald, who had been the head of the Sea Coast Mission. A piece in that same paper was written by the Rev. Charles S. Mitchell, whose title states the following;

"Rev. A.P. MacDonald; A word of appreciation by Rev. Charles S. Mitchell, who was for some time associated with Mr. MacDonald as Assistant Missionary."

In a copy of the Bar Harbor Times dated July 26, 1922 an article begins with the following;

"BAR HARBOR MAN IS ORDAINED AT COREA

Charles S. Mitchell after service in Sea Coast Mission is now Baptist Minister.

A council of churches of Hancock County, was called by the church at Corea Wednesday, July 19th, to set apart by ordination to the Baptist ministry, Charles S. Mitchell who has been serving this church for the past two months, after nearly two years in the Sea Coast Mission work."

An article from the Bar Harbor Times in 1915 states that "Charles S. Mitchell expects to enter Gordon Theological School in Boston the middle of next month."

So was SIEUR DE MONTS SPRING an act of mother nature as we were all led to believe, or a man made creation that was part of a money scheme, that is for others to decide. The bigger question is this; is the story that Rev. Charles S. Mitchell tells a believable one, and based on what is known about Red Rock Spring, I think it is very believable, and when one considers a National Monument and later a National Park were formed around this spring, if the story is true one can only imagine somewhere out there in the known universe Mr. Prescot is looking down on us with a huge smile.