Bar Harbor

The Harbor from Newport House (c. 1901)

After Newport, Rhode Island, Bar Harbor was the resort of choice for wealthy eastern Americans until the great fire of 1947 destroyed many homes and forested areas. Acadia National Park dominates tourists’ itineraries when the town’s population swells each summer. The College of the Atlantic is located here.

Mount Desert, Fires of 1947

Through the summer and into the fall of 1947 Maine received only 50% of its normal rainfall. Vegetation dries; water supplies dwindled. But the autumn rains never came and by mid-October, Mount Desert Island was experiencing the driest conditions ever recorded. The stage was set for a disastrous blaze in the state’s history of forest…