THE FAMOUS CARRIAGE ROADS OF ACADIA, MAINE.
MR. ROCKEFELLER’S ROADS
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questrian Quarterly readers may recall our visit to Eileen Rockefeller’s home in northern Vermont in the Summer 2014 issue, where she took us driving with her Morgan pair. Eileen and her father, David Rockefeller, Sr., are lovers of the sport of driving. This is a love that has been passed down through the generations from John D. Rockefeller Sr., Eileen’s greatgrandfather and the founder of Standard Oil. Many equestrians are familiar with the beautiful 57-mile carriage-road network that John Jr., financed and engineered throughout Maine’s Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. During our visit with Eileen in EQ’s summer issue, she invited us to Maine for a
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carriage drive on “Mr. Rockefeller’s Roads,” as they are known locally. We instantly accepted. The early Rockefellers had a love of conservation and donated land for many U.S. National Parks, including Grand Teton, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Shenandoah, and Acadia. The family’s appreciation of the area began when John Jr. bought a summer home in Seal Harbor in 1910. He dreamed of building wide carriage roads through the most scenic areas of the island, with perfect footing, granite bridges, and no motor vehicles, much as his father had created on his private estates in Ohio and New York. After visiting Eileen’s understated and cozy home (next page) and barn on the Seal