The Green Mountain Cog Railway

The train at the top of the East.

Green Mountain Cog Railway
Photo courtesy of Maine Historic Preservation Commission
Acadia-June-2016-Cover
From our Acadia: Special Collector’s Edition

In 1883, rusticators were hiking Cadillac Mountain — then called Green Mountain — in record numbers. So an enterprising local named Francis H. Clergue built a narrow-gauge cog railway to the top and charged visitors for a lift. The two-car train took a half hour to travel from Eagle Lake to the summit along a track just longer than a mile, gaining more than 1,200 feet. But business sagged as the novelty wore off, and five years later, a new carriage road stole traffic away (even though railway employees once tried to destroy it with dynamite). Today, stray metal spikes on Cadillac’s western face mark the former railway’s path.

Down East Magazine, May 2025

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