Neighbors

Four Trenton Elementary School 8th graders—Aaron Rourk, Amy Boudreau, Derek Pelletier and Nick Swanson— contributed essays about their town for today’s profile. Their topics—a schoolmate who died, the Trenton Grange, citizen-statesman-storyteller Dennis Damon and Trenton traffic—are as insightful as they are varied. Space does not permit publishing all four essays, so we selected one that developed a theme brought up in interviews with town officers: traffic.

I’ve heard some people call Trenton a corridor, the hallway between Ellsworth and Bar Harbor. Perhaps they say that because most of the town sits between Route 3 and the coast. Unlike Ellsworth, Bar Harbor and many other surrounding communities, Trenton has no traditional center of town. Nevertheless, it is the home of a variety of businesses. Many are dedicated to tourists and some are year-round, but all of them benefit from the increased activity during the summer, when Trenton is a very busy place, indeed.

There are people everywhere. They are on Route 3, on the “backside” (Route 230) and everywhere in between.

Summer residents reappear from their winter “Shangri-La’s,” relatives make the voyage to visit loved ones, and tourists come up to, well, tour.

Visitors as well as employees traverse Route 3 on their journeys between MDI and Ellsworth. Many tourists flock to MDI to sightsee, go whale watching, sea kayaking or derive joy from Acadia National Park’s carriage roads. They need a place to stay, lots of food, recreation and entertainment. Trenton has plenty of opportunities to fulfill these needs.

And many of those travelers stop in Trenton to amuse themselves with the variety of recreational pastimes. There’s golfing—whether it’s miniature, 18-hole or the pleasure of smacking those balls up to 400 feet at the driving range. At the Lumberjack Show, professionals do more than chop wood. They put on a spectacular demonstration of a trade that has been mostly replaced by modern technology. While visiting the local Acadia Zoo, one can watch the monkeys amuse themselves, feast their eyes upon a rare tiger, be eyed by a hungry wolf, or simply view the beavers who are asleep in the sun. In addition, a boat landing near the airport offers free access to the great blue sea.

Motels also line the road where a great number of tourists stay during the summer cycle. They can choose a two-story motel with an outdoor pool, an inn or a series of small cottages for those who enjoy a more private setting.

Trenton restaurants serve ice cream, lobster and other seafood, Hawaiian foods, subs, pizza and many other scrumptious treats. Small shops are also found here and there. They include country stores filled with hidden treasures, a card store, ethnic specialty stores, antique havens, nurseries, a source for all home and yard power equipment, a cupola shop and the necessary local market and gas station.

The price to pay for this influx of people is traffic—unbelievable traffic. Ask any year-round resident what it’s like. They’ll tell you.

It’s often been described as “Mission Impossible.” And believe me, sometimes it really does seem impossible.

To summarize, I have just a few words to say: food, lodging, shopping, and fun, fun, fun!

So, Trenton may be a corridor, but it’s a very crowded one during those months of summer.

Aaron Rourk
8th grade, Trenton Elementary