- "The raging flames lit the sky like day." THE GREAT FIRE OF 47 BY LARUE SPIKER Photos Courtesy of the Bar Harbor Historical Society. People hoped, and still no rain across Crooked Road from Northeast smoldering deep in the peat. fell. By October 1947 no rain had Meadow, a large heath in the north- dampened the Maine woods for west corner of the Island. It was put weeks, and they lay like a giant out after it had burned about an firebox laid ready for the match. The acre. The next day another broke out inevitable happened. The flames on the meadows of the heath itself. came, burning through the autumn Some still believe that this fire forests out of control in several areas originated at Dolliver's Dump on with spot fires in 40 other places. the south side of the heath. Richard Mount Desert Island was one of Hale, who wrote a history of Bar the big ones. It was not the largest Harbor, declares, however, that by fire in the state but one of the most his personal observation the edge of dramatic and certainly the best the fire never came within 40 feet of publicized because of Bar Harbor's the dump. The cause is unknown. fame as a summer resort. Although This second fire caused some anx- nearly 35 years have passed, the ten- ious days and resulted in some sion and drama and fear are still heroics that were almost forgotten in fresh in the memories of the men the days to follow. The firefighters and women who lived through ran out of water, and Leslie Hamor them. Mention of the fire evokes a drove a truck with a portable pump change in the tone of voice, a through the flaming woods to the cloudy, faraway look in the eyes. creek. The fire was checked in the Actually there were three fires, or nick of time at the crest of a bluff, These Northeast Harbor operators perhaps a fire in three stages on and then surrounded by hose in an used candles, lanterns and searchlights MDI. The first broke out Oct. 16 attempt to drown it because it was to illuminate the switch board. 3 The Islander Magazine Smoldering ruins of the Belmont Hotel the morning after. After the area had been doused and women who stuck to their posts when faced with the loss of all they over the weekend, Chief David during the battle but of the possessed and perhaps of life itself. Sleeper considered it wet enough to townspeople themselves. They had There was a strong northwest stop the pumping, but a watch was that special kind of nerve and wind blowing when the fire was maintained. At 6:30 a.m., Tuesday, discipline needed to follow orders discovered that Tuesday morning, Oct. 21, Sleeper took a relief crew to the area. One man on patrol came flying back to report a spot fire out- side the hose line. Sleeper ran a quarter mile to his car and drove an equal distance to the Jim Shea farm to call for help. This was the beginning of the Great Fire of 1947. Before it was over, three towns on Mount Desert Island had been evacuated, two lives were lost, over half of Bar Harbor burned, to say nothing of about 10,000 acres of forest. Property losses of up to $8 million were reported. Involved in the fire fighting were the Army Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, the National Park Service, the fire departments from Ellsworth, Brewer, Bangor, Old Town, Camden, Surry, Bucks- port, and those from the MDI towns. Perhaps the most dramatic of all was the courage not only of the men The remains of Malvern Hotel from Kebo Hill. 4 The Islander Magazine and it raged southeast toward Eagle tion, but these were exaggerated retreat toward the Trenton bridge. Lake. It jumped hundreds of yards days. A caravan of cars, trucks, vans, flaming up in new spots in section The only exits from the village anything that would run carried the after section after section, and from -south and west-were blocked. people of the town through the that time until Saturday, October The evacuees were sent to the blackened, still flaming, coun- 25, it was "thoroughly out of con- municipal pier where they spent a tryside. The retreat was orderly. Not trol." A stand against it was attemp- miserable night. The temperature a single car pulled out of line during ted at Eagle Lake Road and at an old had dropped SO low that the water the tense, anxious miles. One young gravel road leading north from the was turning to slush in the hoses, woman was killed when her car was lake, but the firefighters never had a and the pier provided no shelter forced off the road by a jeep coming chance. from the wind. Plans to evacuate by from the opppsite direction. The On Wednesday the wind shifted boat were abandoned because of others reached Ellsworth in safety. to the west. The fire jumped the rough waters. Finally the flames A reporter, who came in by plane hose line, and some of the men had were pushed back sufficiently from after the people were gone, wrote: narrow escapes. The fast flames were Route 3 by bulldozers to allow (con't. on page 18) now roaring toward Bar Harbor. In two days the fire had moved be- tween six and seven miles. By Thurs- day, the wind, now as much an enemy as the fire itself, shifted again and drove the inferno toward Hulls Cove. The words of an eye witness give a vivid picture of what hap- pened there: "Between two and four in the Willey's Style Outlet of afternoon, with a terrific gale blow- Ellsworth, Bar Harbor & Southwest Harbor ing gravel and dirt in the faces of the firefighters, the fire, which had broken on the main road at Sweet's Hill, swept toward the village where occurred a phenomenon few men have before witnessed. It was as though a giant blowtorch had been turned towards Hulls Cove to wipe it WOOLENS from the map. This continued for about ten minutes with a roar never before heard by any of those pre- sent. The flames extended for more than a mile. Then to the amazement of the firefighters there was a dead calm and for approximately five seconds no fire of any type was visi- ble. Then every tree and every bush burst into flame." The wind had swung back into the north and was estimated at be- tween 60 and 65 miles per hour. The fire leapt again toward Bar Harbor and reached the edge of it in 45 minutes. Chief Sleeper ordered evacuation at 4:30 p.m. Residents were at first sent to the Athletic Field with such possessions as they could bring, but that too soon became a danger point. The fire had circled south of the village consuming the Jackson Laboratory as it went and pouring smoke and flame out over Schooner Largest Selection in Maine Head in a vast flare like a belch from NATIONAL BRAND FASHIONS a blast furnace. One reporter said that the plume of smoke was 30 AT DISCOUNT PRICES miles long, probably an exaggera- London Fog - Pendleton - Jantzen - Woolrich - Levi Botany - Arrow - Haggar - Nike - Adidas 5 The Islander Magazine (cont. from page 5) "It was quiet in the village of Bar Harbor today-awfully quiet and quietly awful "A few had made their way back into town. For the most part they stood encircled mutely at the site of their burned out homes, not able to comprehend." "Back down on the wharf, a mite of a black dog stood alone in the middle of the street. He had no fear of traffic. The writer, the photo- grapher, and the pilot were the only persons in view. The terror of the night, the misery of the dawn, the loneliness and desolation all were in the eyes of the frightened little dog who whimpered woefully and sought our friendship no matter how temporarily." Not all the animals fared even this well. Wesley Brown remembers see- ing one with its hair burned off and its entire body reddened with burns. "He was running around frantical- The terror of the night, the misery of the dawn. ly trying to get cool, and they finally had to shoot him." Many people, in addition to the 70 hours, snatching cat naps on cots Dr. Sherman Cleaves and Dr. firefighters, showed the same regard and eating cold sandwiches," said Sadler stuck to their veterinarian for duty the shepherd had. The one report, "for most of them had posts as stoutly as Dr. Charles Mor- women who operated the telephone no homes to go to, and only food rison stuck to a temporary hospital switchboards were among the provided by the relief agencies was heroes. for injured people. The vets treated available on the encircled Island." and sheltered the animals brought In Bar Harbor they were still "Some who worked through the in, returning them to the owners "It was quiet in the village of night of fire and chaos lost their when they were finally claimed. Bar Harbor today-awfully homes. Many did not know where Arnest Crowell of the Bangor quiet and quietly awful." their parents or their children were; Humane Society and representatives but, despite the certain knowledge of the Animal Rescue League of of the loss of their homes and per- Boston traveled the countryside to working when the flames were sonal property, they continued to feed pets and livestock, destroying within a quarter of a mile of the work on at the switchboard." those that were hopelessly injured. building. The office was filled with When the great flooding tides of They saw one German shepherd smoke, and the heat was SO intense fire threatened Seal Harbor and standing guard at the front door of a that the fire department had to hose Northeast Harbor, those towns too house as firefighters turned to save down the outside of the building so were evacuated. Only seven women the building. They finally coaxed the operators could function. were left, two at Seal Harbor and him into their truck. "Many of those girls worked 60 or five at Northeast Harbor. Wendell Gilley Museum THE SOUTHWEST HARBOR, MAINE 04679 244-7555 COLONEL Gilley Bird Carvings BLACK Wendell Gilley Documentary film on Museum MANSION Wendell Gilley at "In Wildness" - special exhibition of Ellsworth, Maine Eliot Porter nature photography Harbor Weekdays 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Museum Gift Shop June 1 to October 15 Town of Southwest Harbor Guide Fee $2. - Children $1. For details of exhibitions, hours, and rates, see listing under "Museums". 18 The Islander Magazine of the summer estates that burned were reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes; others were unscathed although the fire burned to within yards of them. Positions would be taken for a fight to the finish, and the fire would jump right over the men and equipment. In one place a row of five houses burned like match boxes and a sixth was left standing unharmed at the end of the block. Rumors were rife, but the juiciest came from the Paris newspaper, FIGARO, which claimed that the fire had been started by Maine peasants out of resentment against the wealth and ostentation of the summer colony. When the final accounting was done 170 homes, about one-sixth of the permanent residences were destroyed; 70 summer estates were leveled. Thousands of acres of Acadia National Park were charred. Naturally there was dismay, but Thirlstane Cottage on Hamilton Hill no one's spirit was broken. A remark made by Clarence Little, head of the "They were dependent on passing the center of town after dark and Jackson Laboratory, was characteris- trucks for food They had lost their read a newspaper by the reflection tic. The physical plant was gone lights and their power and had to from the flames. Oil trucks were and, even more seriously, nearly its use a hand generator for ringing emptied and filled with water to be entire stock of inbred mice, famous On a small table behind the girls was sent to Bar Harbor to help in the the world over in laboratory a lonely and bedraggled bouquet of fight, and coal trucks were pressed research. When asked about the flowers, snatched from a roadside into duty to transport baggage dur- future, Dr. Little exploded: "Re- garden by the Seal Harbor fire chief, ing the evacuation. build? Of course we'll rebuild!" who took time off during the height The whole earth seemed ablaze But the spirit of the people was of the fire fighting to present them on Mount Desert Island as the not the only source of strength. to the operators with the remark, relentless flames of the fire swept Given time, the earth will heal 'We would be lost without you. on The smoke was terrific and itself. Today, the once blackened Please keep going'.' vehicles had to drive with their ledges, stark with a few charred tree Southwest Harbor was never headlights on," said one observer. trunks standing like dead fingers, seriously threatened after the floods A GI who had come in to help of fire turned from the head of said: "A lot of German towns that are alive again with birches, aspen, and maples. In their shade the Somes Sound toward Northeast Har- were bombed got off easier than Bar Harbor." spruce and fir are coming up, and bor. But everyone was aware of what they will one day grow into a climax was going on. Lawrence Murphy The fire, predictable only in its forest like the one that was remembers that you could stand in fury, was doing freaky things. Some destroyed. Glenda's STRONG 207-667-7614 Choice CRAFT GALLERY LEADING AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN Glenda Whitney The finest works of over 250 important American craftsmen, with the emphasis on Maine POTTERY WOOD GLASS METAL Gifts and Crafts JEWELRY GRAPHICS We gift wrap & ship anywhere in the U.S.A. Handmade in Maine - OPEN ALL YEAR SUMMER HOURS - MON.-FRI. 9-9; SAT. 9-6; SUN. 11-6 667-2595 114 Maine Street Ellsworth, Maine 04605 BAR HARBOR ROAD, TRENTON 19 The Islander Magazine Flames lit up the night and Bar Harbor was forever changed. Photos courtesy of Bar Harbor Historical Society. The Great Fire People hoped, and still no rain fell. of '47 By October 1947 no rain had dam- pened the Maine woods for weeks, and they lay like a gaint firebox laid ready for the match. The inevitable happened. The flames came, burning by LaRue Spiker through the autumn forests out of control in several areas with spot fires in 40 other places. 18 The Islander Magazine Mount Desert Island was one of the big ones. It was not the largest fire in the state but one of the most dramatic and certainly the best publicized "It was quiet in the village of Bar Harbor today because of Bar Harbor's fame as a awfully quiet and quietly awful." summer resort. Although nearly 35 years have passed, the tension and drama and fear are still fresh in the Bucksport, and those from the MDI 60 and 65 miles per hour. The fire memories of the men and women towns. leapt again toward Bar Harbor and who lived through them. Mention of Perhaps the most dramatic of all reached the edge of it in 45 minutes. the fire evoked a change in the tone was the courage not only of the men Chief Sleeper ordered evacuation at of voice, a cloudy, faraway look in the and women who stuck to their posts 4:30 p.m. Residents were at first sent eyes. during the battle but of the towns- to the Athletic Field with such posses- Actually there were three fires, or people themselves. They had that sions as they could bring, but that perhaps a fire in three stages on MDI. special kind of nerve and discipline point became a danger point. The first broke out Oct. 16 across needed to follow orders when faced The fire had circled south of the Crooked Road from Northeast Mead- with the loss of all they possessed and village consuming the Jackson Labor- ow, a large heath in the northwest perhaps of life itself. atory as it went and pouring smoke corner of the Island. It was put out There was a strong northwest wind and flame out over Schooner Head in after it had burned about an acre. blowing when the fire was dicovered a vast flare like a belch from a blast The next day another broke out on that Tuesday morning, and it raged furnace. One reporter said that the the meadow of the heath itself. Some southwest toward Eagle Lake. It plume of smoke was 30 miles long, still believe that this fire orginated at jumped hundreds of yards flaming up probably an exaggeration, but those Dolliver's Dump on the south side of in new spots in section after section, were exaggerated days. the heath. Richarl Hale, who wrote and from that time until Saturday, The only exits from the village- a history of Bar Harbor, declares, October 25, it was "thoroughly out of south and west- blocked. The however, that by his personal obser- control." A stand against it was at- evacuees were sent to the municipal vation the edge of the fire never came tempted at Eagle Lake Road and at pier where they spent a miserable within 40 feet of the dump. The an old gravel road leading north from night. The temperature had dropped cause is unknown. the lake, but the firefighters never SO low that the water was turning to This second fire caused some anx- had a chance. slush in the hoses, and the pier pro- ious days and resulted in some heroics On Wednesday the wind shifted to vided no shelter from the wind. Plans that were almost forgotten in the days the west. The fire jumped the hose to evacuate by boat were abandoned to follow. The firefighters ran out of line, and some of the men had nar- because of rough waters. Finally the water, and Leslie Hamor drove a truck row escapes. The fast flames were now flames were pushed back sufficiently with a portable pump through the roaring toward Bar Harbor. In two from Route 3 by bulldozers to allow flaming woods to the creek. The fire days the fire had moved between six retreat toward the Trenton bridge. was checked in the nick of time at the and seven miles. By Thursday, the A caravan of cars, trucks, vans, crest of a bluff, and then surrounded wind, now as much an enemy as the anything that would run carried the by hose in an attempt to drown it fire itself, shifted again and drove the people of the town through the black- because it was smoldering in the peat. inferno toward Hulls Cove. The ened, still flaming, countryside. The After the area had been doused words of an eye witness give a vivid retreat was orderly. Not a single car over the weekend, Chief David Sleep- picture of what happened there: pulled out of line during the tense, er considered it wet enough to stop "Between two and four in the after- anxious miles. One young woman the pumping, but a watch was main- noon, with a terrific gale blowing was killed when her car was forced off tained. At 6:30 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. gravel and dirt in the faces of the the road by a jeep coming from the 21, Sleeper took a relief crew to the firefighters, the fire, which had opposite direction. The others reach- area. One man on patrol came flying broken on the main road at Sweet's ed Ellsworth in safety. back to report a spot fire outside the Hill, swept toward the village where A reporter, who came in by plane hose line. Sleeper ran a quarter mile occurred a phenomenon few men after the people were gone, wrote: "It to his car and drove an equal distance have before witnessed. It was as was quiet in the village of Bar Har- to the Jim Shea farm to call for help. though a giant blowtorch had turned bor today-awfully quiet and quiet- This was the beginning of the towards Hulls Cove to wipe it from ly awful Great Fire of 1947. Before it was over, the map. This continued for about "A few had made their way. back three towns on Mount Desert Island ten minutes with a roar never before in town. For the most part they stood had been evacuated, two lives were heard by any of those present. The encircled mutely at the site of their lost, over half of Bar Harbor burned, flames extended for more than a burned out homes not able to com- to say nothing of about 10,000 acres mile. Then to the amazement of the prehend. of forest. Property losses of up to $8 firefighters, there was a dead calm "Back down on the wharf, a mite million were reported. Involved in and for approximately five seconds no of a black dog stood alone in the the fire fighting were the Army, Air fire of any type was visible. Then middle of the street. He had no fear Force, Navy, Coast Guard, the Na- every tree and every bush burst into of traffic. The writer, the photo- tional Park Service, the fire de- flame." grapher, and the pilot were the only partment from Ellsworth, Brewer, The wind had swung back into the persons in view. The terror of the Bangor, Old Town, Camden, Surry, north and was estimated at between continued on next page 19 The Islander Magazine Opposite: The remains of the cottage "Greenway Court" and below a glimpse of how it looked before the fire. Below: The Malvern Hotel Cottages before and after October, 1947. 20 The Islander Magazine night, the misery of the dawn, the loneliness and desolation all were in ACADIA the eyes of the frightened little dog POINT OF HULLS COVE who whimpered woefully and sought NATIONAL PARK our friendship no matter how tem- 1947 FIRE porarily." Not all the animals fared even this MILES well. Wesley Brown remembers see- BURNED AREA PARK BOUNDARY ing one with its hair burned off and its entire body reddened with burns. HARBOR "He was running around frantical- ly trying to get cool, and they finally had to shoot him." Dr. Sherman Cleaves and Dr. San- dler struck to their veterinarian posts as stoutly as Dr. Charles Morrison stuck to a temporary hospital for in- jured people. The vets treated and sheltered animals brought in, return- ing them to the owners when they were finally claimed. Arnest Crowell of the Bangor Humane Society and representatives of the Animal Rescue League of Boston traveled the coun- tryside to feed pets and livestock, destroying those that were hopeless- ly injured. They saw one German shepherd standing guard at the front door of a house as firefighters turned to save the building. They finally coaxed him into their truck. Many people, in addition to the firefighters, showed the same regard for the duty the shepherd had. The women who operated the telephone switchboards were among the heroes. In Bar Harbor they were still work- ing when the flames were within a quarter of a mile of the building. The HARBOA office was filled with smoke, and the SOUTHWEST INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HARBOR PREPARED BY DEVEREUX BUTC HER heat was SO intense that the fire department had to hose down the trucks for food They had lost their gage during the evacuation. outside of the building SO the oper- lights and their power and had to use "The whole earth seemed ablaze on ators could function. a hand generator for ringing On a Mount Desert Island as the relentless "Many of those girls worked 60 or small table behind the girls was a flames of the fire swept on The 70 hours, snatching cat naps on cots lonely and bedraggled bouquet of smoke was terrific and vehicles had to and eating cold sandwiches." said one flowers, snatched from a roadside drive with their headlights on," said report, "for most of them had no garden by the Seal Harbor fire chief, one observer. homes to go to, and only food pro- who took time off during the height A GI who had come in to help vided by the relief agencies was of the fire fighting to present them said: "A lot of German towns that available on the encircles Island." to the operators with the remark, 'We were bombed got off easier than Bar Some who worked through the would be lost without you. Please Harbor." night of fire and chaos lost their keep going'." The fire, predictable only in its homes. Many did not know where Southwest Harbor was never seri- fury, was doing a freaky thing. Some their parents or their children were; ously threatened after the floods of of the summer estates that burned but, despite the certain knowledge of fire turned from the head of Somes were reduced to rubble in a matter of the loss of their homes and personal Sound toward Northwest Harbor. But minutes; others were unscathed property, they continued to work on everyone was aware of what was go- although the fire burned within yards at the switchboard." ing on. Lawrence Murphy remembers of them. Postions would be taken for When the great flooding tides of that you could stand in the center of a fight to the finish, and the fire fire threatened Seal Harbor and town after dark and read a newspaper would jump right over the men and Northeast Harbor, those towns too by the reflection from the flames. Oil equipment. In one place a row of five were evacuated. Only seven women trucks were emptied and filled with houses burned like a match boxes and were left, two at Seal Harbor and five water to be sent to Bar Harbor to help a sixth was left standing unharmed at at Northeast Harbor. in the fight, and coat trucks were the end of the block. "They were dependent on passing pressed into duty to transport bag- continued next page 21 The Islander Magazine Rumors were rife, but the juiciest came from the Paris newspaper, FIG- ARO, which claimed that the fire had been started by Maine peasants out of resentment against the wealth and ostentation of the summer colony. When the final accounting was done 170 homes, about one-sixth of the permanent residences, were destroyed; 70 summer estates were leveled. Thousands of acres of Acadia National Park were charred. Naturally there was dismay, but no one's spirit was broken. A remark made by Clarence Little, head of the Jackson Laboratory, was characteristic. The physical plant was gone and, even more seriously, nearly its entire stock of inbred mice, famous the world over in laboratory research. When asked about the future, Dr. Little exploded: "Rebuild? Of course we'll rebuild!" But the spirit of the people was not the only source of strength. Given time, the earth will heal itself. Today, the once blackened trunks standing like dead fingers, are alive again with birches, aspen, and maples. In their shade the spruce and fir are coming up, and they will one day grow into a climax forest like the one that was destroyed. Exhausted, but confident that the fire was finally out. 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