On May 8, 1968, two separate forest fires destroyed more than 6,200 acres of forest in this area, and smoke from both would have been visible from here. The first fire, observed around 3 p.m. in the Grass Lake area in Kalkaska County, burned northeast across Fletcher Road before crossing into Crawford County and was finally slowed to a halt at the south end of Camp Grayling's mortar range. It threatened the south edge of the oil fields, but no wells were lost. An investigation revealed that sparks from a welding crew working on a trans-Michigan pipeline started this fire, which destroyed 4,692 acres in Kalkaska and Crawford Counties before it was stopped. At 5 p.m., an arsonist started the second fire 5 miles to the east, just north of Roscommon, and it burned a total of 1,576 acres. Firefighters from the Michigan Department of Conservation, Kalkaska, and other local communities worked together in dangerous conditions to control and stop both blazes. Both the pipeline company and the arsonist were prosecuted for their roles in starting the fires.