to acquire title and present it to the nation
which would not buy it. They organized a holding association, to which
they gave their own properties; for years afterward Mr. Dorr devoted
most of his time to persuading others to contribute their holdings, and
to raising subscriptions for the purchase of plots which were tied up in
estates. In 1916 the association presented five thousand acres to the
Government, and President Wilson created it by proclamation the Sieur de
Monts National Monument. The gift has been greatly increased since. In
1918 Congress made appropriations for its upkeep and development. In
February, 1919, Congress changed its name and status; it then became the
Lafayette National Park.

The impulse to name the new national park after the French general who
came to our aid in time of need arose, of course, out of the war-time
warmth of feeling for our ally, France. The region had been identified
with early French exploration; the original monument had been named in
commemoration of this historical association. The first European
settlement in America north of the latitude of the Gulf of Mexico was
here. Henry of Navarre had sent two famous adventurers to the new world,
de Monts and Champlain. The first colony established by de Monts was at
the mouth of the St. Croix River, which forms the eastern boundary of
Maine, and the first land within the present United States which was
reached by Champlain was Mount Desert Island. This was in 1604. It was
Champlain who gave the island its present name, after the mountains
which rise so prominently from its rock-bound shore. To him, however,
the name had a different significance than it first suggests to us.
L'Isle des Monts Deserts meant to him the Island of the Lonely
Mountains, and lonely indeed they must have seemed above the flat shore
line. Thus named, the place became a landmark for future voyagers; among
others Winthrop records seeing the mountains on his way to the
Massachusetts colony in 1630. He anchored opposite and fished for two
hours, catching "sixty-seven great cod," one of which was "a yard
around."

"By a curious train of circumstances," writes George B. Dorr, "the
titles by which these mountains to the eastward of Somes Sound are held
go back to the early ownership of Mount Desert Island by the Crown of
France. For it was granted by Louis XIV, grandson of Henry IV, to
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, an officer of noble family from
southwestern Fr