Add to ORKGLooking out over Frenchman Bay and the Porcupine Islands northeast of town from Acadia National Park; Bar Harbor is a town on the northeast shore of Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine. As of the 2010 census, its population is 5,235. Bar Harbor is a famous summer colony in the Down East region of Maine. In 1604 French explorer Samuel de Champlain ran aground on the island, which he named Isles des Monts Deserts, meaning "island of barren mountains". It was first settled by the British in 1763, and originally named Eden (after Sir Richard Eden). By 1880, there were 30 hotels, with tourists arriving by train and ferry to the Gilded Age resort that would rival Newport. On March 3, 1918, Eden was renamed Bar Harbor. In 1947, a month lo...