Mount Desert is a town in Hancock County settled in 1761 and incorporated on February 17, 1789 from Mount Desert Plantation. It set off land to form several towns: Eden, now Bar Harbor, (1796); Cranberry Isles (1830); and Manset (1848).
The town is located on Mount Desert Island, between Bar Harbor and Tremont.
Pemetic, Penobscot and Sargent mountains are poised on its southeastern portion. The communities of Northeast Harbor (the largest), Seal Harbor and Somesville constitute the major villages in the town.
Somes Sound, most of which is within the Town of Mount Desert, is not a true fjord, as once thought, but is very much like one, having been gouged out by glaciers. The sound is a five-mile long embayment bordered by Norumbega Mt. (852 ft.) to the east, and Acadia (681 ft.) and St. Sauveur Mts.(249 ft.) to the west. At its deepest point, the sound is slighter deeper than 130 feet, and in several places it is about 100 feet deep.
The Newbold Nature Preserve on Squid Island is a small forested area off the western shore of Mount Desert, important to a variety of bird species and managed by the Nature Conservancy.
From Maine: An Encyclopedia (www.themaineencyclopedia.com)
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