From Ice Harvests to Conservation Wins: The Quiet Magic of Chris’s Pond
Skates, Frogs, and a Warming Hut: How Chris’s Pond Growth and New Expansion Have Become a Symbol of Community
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Thrive Juice Bar & Kitchen.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—On Tuesday afternoon, community members celebrated a pond that has hosted ice skating, hockey, and local wildlife.
Last month, Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) in partnership with the Town of Southwest Harbor, announced the expansion of Chris’s Pond, a local park, with the official donation of nearly three additional acres of land.
“This milestone reflects years of collaboration, community input, and a shared vision to enhance public spaces and preserve natural beauty for generations to come,” the press release stated.
But it’s more than that.
Misha Mytar, associate director of land protection at MCHT, said, the pond’s current iteration came “through a really amazing process that was led by children in the community to bring us in to start the conservation story of this place.”
Chris’s Pond is a gathering place and a respite. Irises grow along the edges, ducks float on the water, deer peek through the trees. Frogs croak from the liminal spaces between water and land.
The pond itself is one of those liminal spaces: an ecological moment tucked behind the busy main street of Southwest Harbor.
“I love the projects that are about people, and about community,” Mytar said. ”I grew up in Surry, so not on MDI, but I used to get to come to Southwest Harbor sometimes and I was so jealous of kids that got to grow up here because they had sidewalks and places to go here and a real sense of community.”
It is a community she admires.
“This project is a testament to some of the characteristics of this community,” Mytar said.
Those include walkability, gathering, recreation.
“And doing this all right downtown in the area close to the school? It’s just exciting,” she said.
The town and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust have worked together to protect the area.
On April 8, the select board unanimously finalized the land donation that expanded the park.
“Maine Coast Heritage Trust is focused on ensuring ecological wellbeing and fostering thriving communities. We aim to be a resource for towns, and to ensure lands benefit our communities and quality of life on Mount Desert Island in tangible ways,” Mytar said at the time. “Chris’s Pond and places like it—centrally located, with open space for people to gather outdoors—hold tremendous value for communities. We are excited to play a role in this project and want to thank the many people who made it happen.”
Like any community and almost any project, the trip hasn’t always been joyous. The pond had been vandalized this past winter, prompting new signage and select board discussions, but on Tuesday the people involved in protecting the site celebrated the pond’s existence and its expansion and all the work that has kept it protected.
Southwest Harbor Town Manager Karen Reddersen said that the town was very thrilled and happy to be part of the project.
“Sitting here watching the ducks, listening to the frogs, having this respite here” is something she’s personally taken advantage of, she said.
THE GOALS
“The additional land and the expanded conservation easement will ensure that generations of townspeople will be able to enjoy Chris’s Pond,” said Ann Ratcliff, co-chair of the Southwest Harbor Conservation Commission in April. “The Conservation Commission and Friends of Chris’s Pond will begin working with town officials and the public to plan improved access, as well as small enhancements like a picnic table and informational kiosk.”
There will be a capital campaign to support the improvements, which may include a fire pit, screened parking, a new drive, more accessibility, and a bit more of an elevated picnic area.
According to an April press release, “This land donation was made possible through the generosity of two landowners, contributions from approximately 25 donors, and ongoing support from MCHT and the Town’s Conservation Commission and Friends of Chris’s Pond. MCHT continues its stewardship by holding a conservation easement on the majority of both the original and newly donated parcels. One remaining third-acre lot will be offered to Island Housing Trust to support the development of year-round workforce housing.”
Some select board members also attended.
“It’s a great little celebration that we’re having. It’s a great time for the town to take on this land and just enjoy this beautiful place,” Ratcliff said.
Two families, the Letcher and Dearden families were integral to the expansion. The Letcher property was approximately ¾ acres at 392 Main Street. This property will likely allow for parking and a new entrance.
According to a fact sheet from MCHT, “a portion of the land could be set-aside for year-round workforce housing project, to be developed by Island Housing Trust.”
That same sheet describes the Dearden property as approximately 5 acres that sloped “steeply away from the pond’s west shore. The Dearden property also includes a narrow strip of land that wraps around the pond’s north shore and is currently used for pond parking and the warming hut/storage shed. The existing entrance at Chris’s Lane could be limited for maintenance/emergency vehicles, as well as pedestrian/bike traffic. Other improvements being explored include improved pond lighting, rebuilding the storage shed, and improving accessibility throughout the site.”
LARUE SPIKER AWARD
Ratcliff presented Mytar with the LaRue Spiker Award. Spiker was an editor of the Bar Harbor Times and wrote for the Lewiston Sun-Times (what is now the Lewiston Sun Journal), and Gannett, as well as the Ellsworth American, winning multiple Maine Press Awards. She also received the LaRue Spiker Conservation Award from the town’s conservation association herself.
A member of the League of Voters, Maine Audubon Society, she was the first woman member of the Coastal Resources Center Inc. She died in 1995. Spiker and her partner, Louise Gilbert, helped guard and protect Andrew and Charlotte Wade. The Wades lived in a white section of Louisville, Kentucky and were Black. People firebombed their home in 1954. Spiker and Gilbert were arrested along with five other activists for “conspiring to flout segregation laws.” At the time, the press defined Spiker as “an unemployed factory worker and former social worker.
Mytar lives with her family in Bar Harbor and is a member of the town’s school committee and a past member of its comprehensive planning committee.
HISTORY OF THE POND
“The Conservation Commission of Southwest Harbor is pleased to be a part of the land transfer from MCHT to the Town of Southwest Harbor to expand the Conservation Easement around Chris’s Pond and add additional acreage for improvements,” Ratcliff said in April. “The pond has a rich history—it began as a man-made ice pond in the mid-1800s and, until the 1920s it actively produced ice for homes and businesses on this side of the island. Since then, it has served as a valued natural and recreational resource.”
The pond was initially created in 1860 when it was dug out for an ice delivery system and business. An ice business existed at the site for approximately 90 years. It was owned by Christopher Wendell Lawler from 1921 to 1947. The pond was drained in 1939 to put out a large fire in town. In 1947, transients started a fire in the ice barn, burning down the barn and everything within it. This was the end of the business.
“It started well before us,” Ratcliff said, Tuesday.
The pond was sold to another man who owned it for just about a decade. That owner sold it to the town, asking that it be called Uncle Bill’s Pond with a provision that it be used for skating with night lighting installed. In March 4, 1957 it was acquired at town meeting. For 30 years, people skated and took care of the surface. It hosted hockey programs throughout the 1970s.
In 1987, people blocked a proposal for a parking lot at the site. The town voted down a plan the next year that would have drained the pond for that lot.
In 1995, a group at Pemetic Elementary School called the “Problem Solvers” worked with Maine Coast Heritage Trust to put a conservation easement on the pond. That same year, the eighth grade class built the warming hut. The entire school came out to watch the hut moved from the school to the pond.
That is what community does. They create. They grow, and sometimes—like on Tuesday—they give themselves a moment and appreciate all that they’ve done.
Photos: Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Southwest Harbor’s Conservation Commission
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