Nature
11
In October 1947, a series of fires lasting 26 days blazed across more than 25 square miles of Mount Desert Island, seriously threatened Bar Harbor, and transformed much of the landscape into an apparent wasteland. The fire consumed 170 homes of year-round residents, and more than 60 summer mansions burned, leaving only chimneys and garden statues standing. One-third of the park woodlands burned before the flames died at the ocean's edge. A forest of birch, aspen, and other hardwoods emerged where the charred stumps of spruce and fir trees can still be found, and over time these fast-growing species may be replaced by others until spruce and fir perhaps dominate again. Although natural cycles always create a mosaic of different forest types across the island, the 1947 fire stands out as a singular and powerful force of change.
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Bar Harbor, Maine · United States
