SHOVEL OPERATOR FOUND DEAD - 1954

Bar Harbor Times
April 29, 1954

BAR HARBOR SHOVEL OPERATOR IS FOUND DEAD NEAR MACHINE

Edward Thomas Jr, Salisbury Cove, tractor operator for Harold MacQuinn, Bar Harbor general contractor was found dead yesterday morning at the base of a 20 foot road bank within ten feet of the one-half yard shovel loader which he had been operating on a construction job on the Acadia National park Paradise Hill road.  Thomas was found by MacQuinn who said that he had arrived at the job and asked of the construction superintendent the where abouts of the shovel and operator.  When he was told that Thomas was at the South end of the road with the loader MacQuinn went looking for him and found the rubber-tired machine upright at the foot of the road bank near the stone overpass at the new Eagle Lake Road.  MacQuinn said that Thomas was lying face down about half way down the bank.
He was pronounced dead by a physician who was summoned immediately.
Maurice Staples, a MacQuinn employee, said that he drove the shovel from the Paradise Hill road to the MacQuinn shop on Holland Avenue following the accident.  He told the Times that there were no mechanical defects apparent in the piece of equipment and that he operated it without difficulty on the way to the shop.
Police Chief Howard McFarland investigated the incident and reported that according to the tire imprints made by the tractor, that the machine apparently left its normal course in its progress along the road and moved diagonally across the roadway and started down the steep bank at the same angle.  The machine rolled over he said and landed right side up.
Maximum speed of the tractor, MacQuinn said, is 10 miles per hour.
Thomas, who lived at Salisbury Cove, was born at Bar Harbor, Sept. 28, 1915, the son of Edward Pettengill Thomas and the late Orra Hadley (Thomas).  He was a resident of Bar Harbor in early life and attended Bar Harbor High School.
Surviving are his widow Shirley (Duffey) Thomas, a son, David, both of Salisbury Cove, and a brother.

TRAGIC DEATH AT SPOUTING HORN - 1918

Acadia National Park
Spouting Horn Death
Bar Harbor Times
July 6, 1918




DROWNING ACCIDENT AT SCHOONER HEAD




Camera Man For Moving Picture Company Meets Tragic Death

John Von den Brock, camera man for the Maurice Tourneue Production Company of Fort Lee, N.J., was accidentally drowned at Schooner Head on last Saturday.

At the time the accident occurred the company was in the vicinity of the Spouting Horn making a picture and Mr. Von den Brock was on a ledge close to the sea with his back to the water using his camera. The sea was rough and a heavy swell was running and the director of the company urged Mr. Von den Brock not to stand so close to the water, but the latter said there was no danger and stuck to his position.

The place is a very exposed one and the sea sweeps in from the ocean with nothing to break its force. When the sea is rough and the tide coming in, it is an exceedingly dangerous place for a person not acquainted with the spot. One may stand there in perfect safety for half an hour when all at once a big wave will come in with irresistible force.

That is just what happened Saturday. The picture company had been at work there all the forenoon when at about 12;30 a high wave came in with over-whelming power and took Mr. Von den Brock off his feet and carried him and his camera out to sea. It happened so quickly that the other members of the company were powerless to render their companion any aid and he was drown before their eyes.

Mr. Von den Brock is said to have been the highest paid camera man in the business and was most popular young man among his associates. He was 23 years of age, unmarried and resided at 156 Riverside Drive, New York City.




SPOUTING HORN CAVE
SCHOONER HEAD
BAR HARBOR, MAINE

NOTE; I was unable to find out the name of the movie they were filming, but a number of movies were filmed in and around Schooner Head and Spouting Horn, including Dead Men Tell No Tales in 1920.

CLIFF OVER LOOKING SPOUTING HORN CAVE
SCHOONER HEAD
BAR HARBOR

STEPHEN HIGGINS DIES ON DRY MOUNTAIN - 1862

Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor Times
December 26, 1928
Dry Mountain

Stephen Higgins the second, or Captain Stephen Higgins, was a sailor in every sense of the word, and in his day was commander of many large clipper ships which were than sailing the world over.
Captain Stephen Higgins died on Dry or Flying Squadron Mountain September 4, 1862.  I will remember the occasion, and the exciting time there was in finding him up there in those lonely woods and darkness, as the search had reached into the early twilight.  Home from one of his long voyages, he, accompanied by a little eight year old girl relative, went up this mountain berry picking, when suddenly Captain Steve lay down in a shady grove and expired.  The little girl quickly scrambled down the mountain and spread the news.
Captain Stephen Higgins, or Stephen Higgins the second, was a brother of Captain Royal G. Higgins, and their parents were Captain Isreal and Polly Higgins, and their grave, although Capt. Israel was lost at sea, was the first one to be placed in the old Village Cemetery on Mount Desert Street.


NOTE - Dry Mountain today is known as Dorr Mountain.

HENRY J. WONG - KILLED IN FALL ON PRECIPICE 1998

Acadia National Park

Henry J. Wong was killed following a fall on the Precipice Trail.  His death and place of accident is listed in his family genealogy.  He was born January 12, 1958 at Bangor, Maine, and died from a climbing accident in Acadia National Park in 1985.