Maine event: Take a ghost tour in Bar Harbor
If you take an evening stroll with Bar Harbor Ghost Tours, you’ll hear about ghosts, monsters, and giants haunting the historic seaport village, but you’ll also be treated to Wabanaki spirit tales passed down in the region for thousands of years.
“Some of our stories date back 12,000 years, and you won’t find them in print anywhere,’’ said Jennifer Pictou, who started the native-minded tour company three years ago. Pictou is a member of the Micmac Tribe, part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, known to European settlers as Acadia.
Guides dress in 1870s bustle gowns and top hats to represent a group of women who were called “undertaker lady assistants,’’ Pictou said. “During the Victorian era, they were hired into homes after a death to deal with the more delicate matters of grieving, particularly for women and children. So they weren’t really undertakers, but a different kind of assistant.’’
Pictou’s “Historic Homes Walking Tour’’ option also places an emphasis on shared history by relaying Euro-American and Wabanaki perspectives. When Bar Harbor developed into a summer haven and year-round residence, Wabanaki Indian encampments were already established there and Mount Desert Island served as a summer gathering place for many Native Americans.
“The tour looks at the social push and pull, particularly in the area of Bar Harbor,’’ said Pictou, whose other job is tribal historic preservation officer for the Aroostook Band of Micmacs.
The architectural tour also visits historic buildings that were erected during the heyday of the “cottage era’’ as well as those built in the aftermath of the Great Fires of 1947.
The only outing not including Native American history is the “Prohibition Tour & Speakeasy,’’ an hourlong walking tour of former rum-running and police-dodging hot spots, followed by an indoor tour of the 1932 Criterion Theater, with drinking options.
“The Criterion, which we wanted to highlight, was the old speakeasy,’’ said Pictou, who donates part of that tour’s proceeds for the upkeep of the historic theater.
Ghost and architectural tours cost $15 for adults, $10 for children and are free for ages 5 and under. Prohibition tours, for adults only, are $25. Information and tickets are available at www.barharborghosttours.com.
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