Bar Harbor is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States.

Bar Harbor is also home to the largest parts of Acadia National Park, including Cadillac Mountain, the highest point within 25 miles (40 km) of the coastline of the Eastern United States.

The Wabanaki seasonally fish, hunt and gather berries, clams, and other shellfish in the area.

[5] In 1761, Abraham Somes established the first European village on Mount Desert Island, naming it Somesville.

With the best soil on Mount Desert Island, it also developed agriculture, with a main focus on dairy.

In the 1840s, its rugged maritime scenery attracted the Hudson River School and Luminism artists Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, William Hart and Fitz Henry Lane.

[6] By 1880, there were 30 hotels, including the Mira Monte Inn, a historic landmark that survived a massive fire in 1947.

Tourists were arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport, Rhode Island.

Yachting, garden parties at the Pot & Kettle Club, and carriage rides up Cadillac Mountain were popular diversions.

[10] In 1996, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed all 30 acres of Bald Porcupine Island for unexploded ordnance.

Roxanne Quimby, co-founder and CEO of Burt's Bees, has a home near Bar Harbor.

[16] Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island are located near the coastline and surrounded by the North American continent to the northeast and southwest.

Conners Emerson School, founded in 1962, is located in Bar Harbor, serving students of grades K through 8.

The school also serves students from towns such as Trenton, Hancock, Lamoine and Mariaville on the mainland.

Bar Harbor's main access road, from the north or south, is State Route 3, which is the coastal Eden Street taken from the Trenton Bridge.

The town is served by the Hancock County–Bar Harbor Airport, which provides year-round nonstop flights to Boston, Massachusetts.

[25] The population of Bar Harbor, and Mount Desert Island generally, increases dramatically from May through October with "seasonal" residents and tourists.

Maritime tours are available, on a wide variety of boats, introducing visitors to puffins, whales, seals, seabirds, lighthouses, even lobsters, illustrating the working waterfront side of Bar Harbor.

The town has many historic houses, including large "cottages" along the shore, often converted to other uses today.

To protect its housing supply for residents, citizens voted in 2021 to cap the number of vacation rentals in Bar Harbor.

[26] In 2012, the American Planning Association named the Village Green one of their top ten Great Places in America for Public Spaces.

[29] Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium, with its lobster-flavored ice cream and lobster statue, is a popular stop.

[30] Bar Harbor is featured in the 2007 book The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan as the setting of Westover Hall, a boarding school.