FDR Bridge from Lubec, Maine, to Campobello Island, New Brunswick

Originally settled by Native peoples, the island passed through French hands and into British.  In 1767, Captain William Owen, a Welshman who lost an arm while fighting for the Royal Navy in India, traveled to Halifax with his friend and fellow officer William Campbell.  Lord Campbell had just been appointed governor of the British colony of Nova Scotia, and was persuaded by Owen to award him one of three islands in the Bay of Fundy as a royal land grant. As an homage to his benefactor, Captain Owen threw in a couple of o’s and named the island Campobello, aware from his classical education that in Italian, campo bello means beautiful field.

By the 1850s, the island began attracting visitors because of its natural beauty, mild summer climate, and proximity to large American cities of the Northeast.  As its popularity grew, a group of Boston and New York businessmen bought most of the island from the Owen descendants with the intention of developing it as a resort for wealthy Americans and Canadians. They built three large hotels on the southern end of the island and subdivided the area around them into seaside building lots.

Their timing was impeccable.  It was the height of the Gilded Age, when the very rich enjoyed an abundance of leisure time and vacations lasted all summer.  James Roosevelt, his wife Sara and one-year-old son Franklin first visited Campobello in 1883.  They were so enamored with the island, they bought a land lot, had a house constructed, and became summer residents by 1885.  Many years later, Mrs. Roosevelt bought the cottage next door as a wedding gift for Franklin and his fiance Eleanor.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Cottage on Campobello

The future president spent every summer on the island throughout his childhood. After marriage, he and Eleanor continued the Campobello tradition by summering there with their own children. It was on the island where Franklin learned and later taught his own children sailing, hiking, canoeing, and golf.  Campobello was also where he was stricken with polio at age 39.  Even after it became difficult for him to travel to the island due to his health and political responsibilities, Eleanor continued taking the children and later grandchildren there,

After Eleanor Roosevelt's death, the Dutch Colonial cottage was donated to the American and Canadian governments for the purpose of establishing an international park to honor both Roosevelt and the long-standing friendship between the two nations.  Additional land and four other remaining cottages were purchased, increasing the park's size to 2,800 acres.

With its mix of American and Canadian staff, we found the park extremely well-managed and maintained.  All the interpreters in the cottages were quite knowledgeable and engaging.  They eagerly shared information about other spots to visit on the island, leading us to eat lunch at the park's own Fireside restaurant and visit East Quoddy Head on the northern tip of the island.  By the time we arrived, the tide had just started coming in, restricting access to the lighthouse island.

Incoming tide blocks walking route to lighthouse.

Before leaving the island and going back through border crossing, we found a half dozen letterboxes planted in and near the park.  Back across the FDR Bridge into Lubec, Maine, we realized that Campobello is something of a New Brunswick—and Canadian—exclave.  To reach the island from the mainland of New Brunswick by vehicle, one must either drive through Maine or take a series of two ferries, one of which operates only in summer.
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West Quoddy Light Station

Before leaving this extremity of Downeast Maine, there was one more letterbox we wanted to find—at Quoddy Head State Park near the peppermint-striped West Quoddy Head lighthouse.  The first lighthouse on this spot—ironically the easternmost point in the U.S.—was built in 1808 under the orders of President Thomas Jefferson.

View from the coastal trail

Our search took us on the coastal trail, a moderate challenge through a boreal forest with some spectacular views—cliffs that drop down 60’ to a stony beach with waves crashing over massive rocks.  The letterbox was about a half-mile up the trail, but the views were so magnificent, we continued another mile or so to the end of the trail before doubling back.

No way to make the hosta grow out blue?

On the way back west on US-1 to Ellsworth, we couldn't resist a stop at the Wild Blueberry Land, a blueberry-themed shop and bakery.  Though we were pausing for just a photo op, somehow a couple of blueberry muffins hitched a ride with us when we departed.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day exploring Acadia National Park, just 15 miles away in Bar Harbor.