The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-10-13
THE MICHIGAN BURNT DISTRICT.
Authentic Statementof the Present Situa-
tion There-Need ofRellef for the Winter.
Charitable Action Already Taken.

ton There-Need ofRelief for the Winter
Charitable Action Already Taken.
The exciting events OF the past ten oil
twelve days have drawn public attention
away from matter which in the earlier
part of the month was topic Of general con
versation, and one which in another way
than these more recent events called forth
the general sympathy of the people in this
and other sections of the country, namely
the catastrophe of the Michigan forest fires
In the nature of the case the situation in
the devastated region remains substantially
unchanged, and will remain so till after the
black embcrs and the gray ash heaps of the
been whitened by winters SHOWS, and until
the kindly ministrations of another vernal
season shall clothe the landscape atresh
and open opportunities to the industrious
hands of the farmers and builders of the re-
gion. But the powers of nature and
the activities of man cannot effect COM
pletc restoration. More than go graves al
ready mark the pathway of the destroyer,
and there yet lie on beds of suffering vic
tins of the flame whose recovery is impossi-
BILE, whose sepultures are yet to be added to
this number, which finally will amount to
nearly 300. The grass and flowers of the
coming summer will overspread and adorn
them, and the lapse of time will mitigate
the present pervasive grief; newcomers
will plant the fields and gather the harvest
where those who have persisted once la
bored, but the same scenes of domestic life
and the same happiness will not return.
In conversation with Mr.. j. p. Sanborn, the
collector of Port Huron, who is Of the local
INSTRUMENTATION and who is now visiting
this city on business not connected with that
organization, information of interest con-
corning the present state of affairs in the
burnt region has been gathered.
THE STRICKEN COUNTRY
is a region the outer limits of which de-
scribe an area of from 1000 to 2,2OO square
miles OF this from 1000 to 200 square
miles have been ravaged by fire and made q
desert. The flames in their progress did
not make a clean sweep on all sides, but
pursued irregular pathways, spreading. out
1aterally in many places, and in others
leaping over considerable spaces through
force of the prevailing gale, which carried
the burning embers over the less combusti-
BILE tracts and lodged them where dry ma
terial was abundant. Tins new. fires kept
springng up, irregularly to the leeward. of
those which first began to rage. The region
was, in fact, prepared for this conhagration
by one which swept over it in 1872. Then
the country was very sparsely settled and
the destruction, besides the forest of pine
trees and some harder woods, was
almost wholly of saw-mills and
other cheap structures used IN
numbering. By that fire all the green tim
Der was killed. Such of it as was not so far
injured as to be worthless was Immediately
cut and sawed into salable lumber. One
effect of this destruction was to facilitate
the clearing of the ground for tillage, and
as the soil is excellent for wheat-growing
farmsin great number have meanwhile been
laid out. But as these purchases for tillage
were irregularly made, according TO the
fancy of the settler or relative fertility OF
the soil in different places, areas OF the old
woodland were left between farm and farm,
or between one farming district and an
other, full of charred and dried leaves and
branches, constituting so many spaces.
The method generally adopted was to burn
the encumberipg material, and ordinari-
ly the process was not q hazardous one, as
the woodmen were watchful and ever ready
of resource to check any undue spread OF
the flames. Several of these fires were in
progress on Monday, September 4, but as
the wind rose to gale, blowing from the
southwest, forty or fifty miles an hour, as
estimated, the flames got beyond control,
and swept away with inconceivable rapldl-
ty toward the shore of Lake Huron. Near
ly all the loss that was sustained TOOK place
between the hour of noon and the hour OF
sunset on that Monday.
THE REGION TRAvERsED.
The region traversed is about sixty miles in
length up the lake shore from Port Huron,
and from thirty-ive to fifty miles in width.
More than half the isolated farm-houses
and their surroundings. and about quar-
ter part of the villages of the district, are
wholly obliterated. At present there are
from 1900 to 10000 people depending on
the local relief organizations for assistance.
being houseless, and for the most part, pen
niless. Some of them, indeed, own, free of
debt, the land which they farmed, and
many, tho majority, were owners, subject
to mortgage. Others owned nothing but
their personal property, being.employed in
farming, lakc-shore or mechanical work.
All personal property, excepting the cloth
ing worn, they, almost without exception,
had to abandon to the flames. The meas
ures taken for instant relief by the local au-
thorities and organizations, supported as
they were by prompt and generous contri-
buttons from distant places, proved ade-
quate for the immediate occasion, and up to
this time no suffering for want Of food,
shelter or clothing has been experienced.
The victims of the catastrophe !are at pres
ent sheltered in barns, school-houses, and
in such rooms as can be spared by owners
of farm-houses that escaped. So far as