Editing Isle au Haut, Maine (section)

==History==

[[Image:Road Scene, Isle au Haut, ME.jpg|thumb|left|330 px|Road scene {{circa|1907}}]]
[[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] left behind [[shell mound]]s on the island following their [[oyster]] feasts. It was territory of the [[Penobscot people|Penobscot]] [[Abenaki]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] when, in 1604, [[French people|French]] explorer [[Samuel de Champlain]] named it Isle au Haut, meaning High Island. [[English people|English]] [[John Smith of Jamestown|Capt. John Smith]], charting the coast in 1614, noted that it was the highest island in [[Penobscot Bay]]. It was included in Deer Isle Plantation, incorporated by [[Massachusetts General Court|Massachusetts]] on February 2, 1789, as the town of [[Deer Isle, Maine|Deer Isle]].<ref name=Coolidge>{{Cite book  | last = Coolidge  | first = Austin J.|author2=John B. Mansfield  | title = A History and Description of New England| publisher = A.J. Coolidge  | year = 1859| location = Boston, Massachusetts| pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ/page/n137 103]–104| url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_OcoMAAAAYAAJ| quote = coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859.  }}</ref>

In 1792, Henry Barter was granted land on the island, which by 1800 had a population of about 50 [[English people|English]] and [[Scottish people|Scottish]] settlers. They subsisted by raising [[sheep]], [[farming]] and [[fishing]]. In 1808, the island was the scene of a [[murder]] when [[smuggling|smugglers]] shot and killed a federal [[customs officer]].<ref>Joshua M. Smith, "Murder on Isle au Haut: Violence and Jefferson’s Embargo in Coastal Maine, 1808-1809," ''Maine History'' 39:1 (Spring 2000), 17-40.</ref> In the mid-19th century, the chief occupations were fishing and [[boatbuilder|boatbuilding]].<ref name="Coolidge"/> On February 28, 1874, Isle au Haut was set off from Deer Isle and incorporated as a town.<ref name="MAGDE">{{cite book |last= Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums |editor=Doris A. Isaacson |title=Maine: A Guide 'Down East' |year=1970 |publisher=Courier-Gazette, Inc. |location=Rockland, Me | pages = 347 }}</ref>

By the late 19th century, when the island's population reached about 275, a village had developed beside the Isle au Haut Thoroughfare separating Kimball Island. The 1880s brought an influx of "rusticators," seasonal inhabitants, often from [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] and other big cities, who built vacation cottages at a private club at Point Lookout.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 =McLane | first1 = Charles B. | last2 = McLane | first2 = Carol Evarts | title = Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast  | publisher =Tilbury House & Island Institute   | year =1997  | pages =247–8   | isbn =0-88448-184-0 }}(Citing uneasy relation between the year-round locals and the summer rusticators at exclusive Point Lookout, and between locals and Acadia National Park officials.)</ref> In 1910, Isle au Haut had 178 year-round residents and 15 summer families. Some fishermen left when motors replaced sails to power boats, allowing them to operate more conveniently from the mainland. By 1935, the population had dropped to 75.<ref>[http://www.mainegenealogy.net/individual_place_record.asp?place=isle_au_haut Maine Genealogy: Isle au Haut, Knox County, Maine]</ref>

Today, [[lobster fishing]] remains the main industry, while the portions of [[Acadia National Park]] which cover about 60% of the island attract a few tourists. [[Vacation house]]s, although far fewer than those of the nearby [[summer colony|summer colonies]] of [[North Haven, Maine|North Haven]], [[Vinalhaven, Maine|Vinalhaven]] and [[Mount Desert Island]], more than double Isle au Haut's population during the summer. [[Linda Greenlaw]] wrote a book about it titled ''The Lobster Chronicles'' (2003).

Electricity came to the island in 1970, with telephone service in 1988.