Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature

But Clergue couldn’t just build a railway up the western side of
Green Mountain without permission-or any land-`on the western side of
Green mountain. in 1881, Clergue was able to obtain a lease of 240
acres of land on the western side of the mountain, along with a right-
of-way from eagle lake at the base, to the summit of Green
Mountain for 20 years from Walter H. Dunton.
Surprisingly, no legal records exist that confirm whether or not
Clergue was able to get permission from the town of Eden, today’s Bar
Harbor, to build the Green Mountain Railway, but we can only assume
that he did, as he continued on constructing the railway undaunted.