The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1871-10-26
THE FOREST FIRES.
The DevaSted Districts.

Ilo DoVdSC60 DlStrlctS.
EXTENT OF THE FIRES-THE LOSSES
The map printed herewith shows the
districts that have suffered the most
severely from the forest fires. 1t must
not be understood, however, that all the
region distinguished by the dark shading
has been burned over, but the fires have
occurred at places not widely separated
throughout the sections Of country so de-
signated. To give accurate boundaries
of the tracts actually ravaged would re-
quire map upon very large scale for,
while in some places the flames have
moved swathe of destruction ten or
twenty miles wide by hundred long, in
others the area burned has been but a
few square miles, including perhaps vii
lage with the adjacent forests. In many
places not indicated on the map fires of
small magnitude are reported. The map
gives knowledge of the location of the
larger towns that were consumed, and an
appropriate idea of the vastness of the re-
gion ravaged.
The most striking fact about these great
fires is the apparent spoutaneity with
which they burst forth in hundred wide
ly separated places at the same time If
band of incendiaries, scattered over two
States, had lighted the fires by precon-
certed arrangement. the result would not
have been widely different from the ac-
tual fact There are reports Of villages
abaze all along the Huron shore, from
the st. Clair River to Saginaw Bay The
east and west shores of the Bay have alike
been devastated conAagrations are re-
ported in the Saginaw Valley, at various
points along the Detroit and Grand Haven
Railroad, and even as far as far south as
the Central Road while on the western
shore of Michigan, from Grand Traverse
Bay to South Haven, over 200 miles, the
destruction has been great. 1t was on
this coast, about 20 miles south of Grand
Haven. that rhe prosperous town of Hol-
land stood, which was entirely consumed
Further North, Manstee, lumber town,
was in great part destroyed, and Glen
Haven, on Grand Traverse, Bay, was
wholly burned.
Across the Lake, in Wisconsin, both
shores of Green Bay were ravaged, and
the fire swept along the whole length Of
ported in the Counties of Fond du Lac,
Manitowoe, Sheboygan, Dodge, Marathon,
and Winnebago. There is no informa-
ton to show how much Of the uninhabited
country in the northern part of the Low
er Michigan Peninsula has been swept,
or how far into the wild region north and
west of Green Bay the fire has penetrated.
Some exaggerated accounts represent
Michigan as burned from lake to lake,
but these are manifestly based upon the
number of fires reported at many different
points, which to one not knowing the fire.
quency of forest fires in dry seasons ia
the North West would give the impress
sion that the whole country for hundreds
of miles was in flames.
The character of the country desolated
iu Michigan and Wisconsin is quite simi-
Ter. Vast forests of pines and hemlocks,
with occasional groves of beeches and
naples cover the land. 1t is gloomy
wilderness, whose monotonous loneliness
is relieved by an occasional manufactur-
ing village on the shore, at the mouth of
stream, or camp of lumbermen in the
interior. The villages are created by es-
tablishing extensive mills for saving the
logs that are hoated down the streams,
and shipping the lumber or working it
up into tubs, pals, barrels, chairs, bed
steads, end variety Of other articles
There are few farms The climate is black
and the soil generally thin and sandy.
On the Door Peninsula, 10 Wisconsin,
however, there is considerable good land
cleared and devoted to wheat culture; aud
it is here that the principal destruction
of farm houses and crops has taken place.
La some parts of interior Michigan aud
10 the country around Fond du Lac, Wis
consin, damage to farmers is also report
ed. The numbering villages along the
lake and bay coasts and on the rivers are
seldom surrounded by clearings. The
forests, from which only the large trees
have been removed, are in immediate
proximity to the houses, and this made
the destruction of these places certain
when the woods took fire.
The villages reported as burned ID