RETALIATION!
Green Mountain Becomes A Volcano
July 25, 1889
Mount Desert's Hoary Headed Sentinel Vomits Forth Fire And Debris At Dead Of Night
Night, damp and dark; dark as ereius!
Especially dark is it along the winding road leading to Eagle Lake; and yet, under the black shadows of the trees two teams, containing six men, are driving at a headlong pace.
No stop until Eagle Lake, looking cold and grey in the ghostly atmosphere, is reached. At the heading a boat lies rocking in the shadows. To get on board is the work of a moment, and off they go down the lake.
Had anyone been following the track of those mysterious adventurers, he would have wondered at the very particular care and attention bestowed on an ordinary looking valise carried by one of the party.
Down the lake, skimming along under the lee of the shore; for to lose sight of the shore was to get lost. Not a sound is heard save the dip of the oars, the wash of the water as the boat's prow cleaves the ripples, and the weird cry of a solitary loon echoing over the dark bossom of the lake like the wail of some lost soul.
Soon there is seen looming up ahead, the dark timbers of a wharf. the boat is headed for one side of it, and the party lands. At their feet is a railroad track; and could their eyes pierce the darkness they might follow it winding out and up like a snake along the gloom.
Suddenly a snorting, sobbing sound is heard and a light appears at short distance ahead. It is the engine of the Green Mountain R.R.. Mounting into the cab of the engine, they are carried up, up, up into the regions of night. What a fearsome ride? Nothing ahead but an apparently endless wall of rock; below, hundreds of feet below, the deep waters of the lake and certain death should their conveyance make the plunge.
At last the top is reached and the six mysterious strangers step out on the rocky plateau, breathing more freely than they have done for the last hour. Dark lanterns are lighted, picks and shovels produced from out of the way corners, and the party, armed to the teeth, starts off down the carriage road.
What means all this mystery! Who are these people, and what is their object? There is no graveyard here. so they can not be resurrectionists. Can they be after buried treasure? More likely, judging from that carefully guarded valise, they are going to bury some.
Ah, it really seems as though they were about to bury something! Will they murder someone and lay his body on top of the treasure as the pirates used to? Can these be descendants of Captain Kidd? They halt and dig for hours, and as the light from the lanterns shines on their faces, down which the perspiration streams, they look more like fiends of darkness than human beings.
Now the work is about completed. The valise is produced and handed down into the hole. For a minute all is breathless silence. than the crowd scatters and each individual hurries off into the darkness.
But what is that, bright and sparkling as the eye of some wild animal? See! It moves along slowly as though the animal were stealihily advancing on its prey, gradually shortening the distance till it is near enough to spring. See how -
A dazzling flash! A crash like the discharge of a pack of artillery! A shower of rocks, gravel and mud! Green Mountain seems to shake to its very foundation, and the thunder echoes and reechoes from the surrounding cliffs and rolls in deep volumes down the valleys! Tons of rocks are rent from their place and sent crashing down the steep sides of the mountain.
And - they said in Bar Harbor, yesterday morning, that the storm of the previous night had washed out the carriage road so as to render it unsafe for travel.
Such is an account of the great washout (?) which will interfere with Bar Harbor's prosperity to a greater extent than might be supposed by the perpetrators of it. The supposition of the reporter that the party might be descendants of Captain Kidd, is a base slander on that gentleman and his posterity for which we hasten to apologize. The Captain would not have been guilty of such a mean, despicable act. It is to be hoped that the people who are now at Bar Harbor will thoroughly appreciate the steps taken by some individuals to interfere with their pleasure and govern themselves accordingly.
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| Green Mountain Railway Cog Train, Bar Harbor, Maine |
NOTE; What I found most interesting about this newspaper story is the fact that the reporter did not have to guess at the number of people involved, he seems to have known the exact number involved, six men. This little war between the people who operated the Buckboard road up Green Mountain and the Green Mountain Railway company kept escalating to the point where much of the buckboard road was blown up, not sure if this account is of that or if this was prior to that. At one point wire gates were put up to block buckboards from going up the carriage road.
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