Maine’s Great Fire raged in 1825 and destroyed almost a million acres

SUN JOURNAL • January 14, 2025

(First posted June 14, 2020) In 1825, disconnected fires burned through some 3 million acres in Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, fed by a hot, dry summer that left the Atlantic Maritime region vulnerable. The Great Fire, as some in Maine called it, was the biggest and most destructive forest fire ever seen east of the Mississippi River. At least 832,000 acres burned in Maine, destroying large swaths of forest. An 1894 report to Maine’s forest commissioner said the fire likely began in the Piscataquis River valley before spreading north and east for many miles until it reached, and crossed, the Penobscot River. Miles and miles of timberland burned.