Roosevelt Campobello International Park is located on Canadian soil just over the international border from Lubec, Maine, the easternmost town in the United States. It is supposedly the only international park in the world. Its historical significance is based on its becoming a resort for rich New Yorkers in the 1880s, who included the parents of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the longest-serving president of the United States. To give the park an international flavor, there are exhibits in the visitors center of cooperation and friendship between Canada and the United States. But this park is a celebration of FDR’s life.
FDR came here for the first time as a one-year-old, and he spent most of his summers here while he was growing up. After he married, he and Eleanor continued to come and brought their children. His mother bought him a “cottage” next door to hers in 1905. Here is a picture of FDR’s house. He didn’t own it himself until his mother died in 1941.
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| FDR's Cottage On Campobello Island |
In 1921, while at Campobello, Roosevelt contracted a high fever and within a few days has lost the use of his legs. He had polio. Though he tried various forms of physical therapy, he never regained the use of his legs. To make himself as mobile as possible, he developed tremendous upper-body strength, used leg braces, and stood by using a cane and the arm of a relative or attendant.
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| One of FDR's Porkpie Hats On Display in His Cottage |
Mileage: 106. Cumulative mileage: 4,369.
