The Great Fire of 1947

The Great Fire of 1947 and the End of Bar Harbor’s Golden Era tells the riveting story of the desperate evacuation of residents through the heart of an uncontrolled forest fire burning all across Mount Desert Island. After an extremely dry summer, all areas of Maine spent the month of October fighting fires, with the island seeing the worst of the damage. Soon after the first flames were spotted, in a last, desperate and deadly escape from the quickly approaching and ever-growing flames, many Bar Harbor residents found themselves fleeing to the water, while others fled in a caravan for the causeway behind a bulldozer that cleared the way, all the while watching the loss of many of the mighty cottage-mansions and historic hotels that once symbolized the island’s heritage as a summer playground for the world’s richest people. Through extensive and meticulous research, Maine author and historian Mac Smith makes this important part of the state’s history come to life.