Fire prevention advocates and a paper company united in 1957 on MacMahan Island to create defensible space between combustible natural vegetation and human structures.

Edwin Cromwell, a sawmill owner on Westport Island contracted with the Pejepscot Paper company to conduct managed clear cutting and to create a firebreak between summer cottages and the natural forest.

The operation took over a year. Loggers stayed on the island a week at a time in a cottage provided by a landowner, coming home to Westport on the weekends. Fred Blake, one of the Cromwell's logging crew did most of the cooking.