Acadia National Park's Hulls Cove Visitor Center Gets New Name: The George J. Mitchell Visitor Center

This bill is short, sweet, and purely administrative. It officially changes the name of the Hulls Cove Visitor Center at Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, to the George J. Mitchell Visitor Center. Essentially, this is a procedural move to honor a prominent figure, and it’s about as low-drama as legislation gets.

What’s Changing on the Ground?

The core of this bill, found in Section 1, is the renaming itself. The existing Hulls Cove facility is now officially the George J. Mitchell Visitor Center. The bill also has a forward-looking provision: if the National Park Service decides to build a new main visitor center to replace the current one down the road, that new building will also carry the Mitchell name. This ensures consistency for the park’s main information hub, regardless of future construction plans.

The Paperwork Impact

While this doesn't change the price of admission or the trails you can hike, it does mean a mandatory update for Uncle Sam’s filing cabinets. The bill requires that every official U.S. government document, map, law, or record that currently references the old Hulls Cove name must now be treated as a reference to the George J. Mitchell Visitor Center. This is the kind of administrative cleanup that happens behind the scenes, ensuring that park officials, mapmakers, and federal agencies are all using the same terminology immediately. For the average person planning a trip to Acadia, the only real change will be the sign on the building and the name on the map—same parking lot, same park rangers, same beautiful views.