Did you know Mount Desert Island has a smuggling history that predates Prohibition by over a century? Or that locals once fought off a British naval frigate in Norwood Cove in Southwest Harbor?

MDI is famous for Bar Harbor's Gilded Age estates and the founding of Acadia National Park, but the island's history runs much deeper and stranger than most people realize. In this talk, MDI Historical Society Director Raney Bench takes you on a romp through lesser-known island stories: from the Jefferson Embargo of 1807, to the Battle of Norwood Cove against the HMS Tenedos, to one of the top ten weirdest weather events in US history — the Purple Fire Snowstorm. You'll never look at these familiar landscapes the same way again.

Recorded June 3, 2026 at the Northeast Harbor Library, in partnership with the MDI Historical Society's 2026 public program series.