[2] This disaster is an important part of the local history of the York County and Mount Desert Island areas.
After a wet spring, in which the months of April, May and June were inundated with rainy weather, the climate turned to drought conditions in July 1947.
State and local officials, recognizing the dangers of the dry conditions, began implementing preventive measures such as informing the public to have their chimneys cleaned.
By October 19, many communities in Maine breathed air filled with a smoky haze and the smell of burning wood.
In a book published in 1979, Joyce Butler wrote about the Great Fires of 1947 in Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned: Juanita and Franklin Spofford lived on the Granite Point Road across Horseshoe Cove from Fortunes Rocks.
As burning debris carried by the wind fell in the grass, setting it afire, they wet brooms in the buckets and beat the flames out.