The Arizona champion., 1884-05-31
FOREST FIRES.
Cities Besoiged by Fire and Game Roast
 cd by the Ton.

"Inat bnin Oi burning pines tnat we got here last night is the first thing that reminded me of home since I left Lead ville," said Captain William Kavanagh, an old frontiersman, scout, trapper, and miner, in the rotunda of the Lafayette Hotel recently. "Of course this fire up in the State wasn't marker in extent to the forest fires we have in the Rockies and the Sierras, but it's more serious in
 it's consequences. I see by the papers that there was some loss of life and con siderable loss of property, while out
 West the only damage done is the des-
 truction of few tons of game"
 "Do the Indians ever get caught" ?"
 was asked.
 "Yes, now and then. 1 remember in 60, when 26 Utes were caught in fiery trap in the Red River country and only
 one escaped to tell the story, and he
 died forty-eight hours afterwards from the burns he had received. About two years later twelve red devils were burned to death in the Black Mountains near Santa Fc, New Mexico. They be- longed to the New Mexico tribe of Apaches and met their fate while being pursued by party of Regulators It was said that the pines were fired by the Vigilants, but out West we don't inves- tigate those points very closely when a rcdskin is concerned.
 "The forest fires in Colorado" con
 tinued the Captain, "and throughout the mountain ranges occur twice year in the fall and spring. They originate from various causes-sometimes from a
 hunters or prospector's s campfire, but
 more frequently by the redskins, who
 use forest fires for a dual purpose. When at war with the whites the forests are
 fired to cut off the approach of the sol diers, and in peace the forests and
 prairie are often set on fire for the pur-
 pose of running out the game"
 In 1868 a half-breed Indian scout in
 vited me to join party of Ute hunters in a hunt down the White river. l ac- cepted the invitation. Our party con sisted of fourteen bucks, two half-breeds and myself. supposed, of course, that we would simply beat the woods for game. Instead of that they formed a circle two miles in circumference and fired the forests in sixteen different places and then fought the flames along the edge of the circle. After working all night chopping down trees and haul ing them out of the reach of the flames we went into camp at the opposite side of the White river and waited there, hungry as wolves, for the fire to die out. On the third day we wrapped our selves in wet brankets and started through the forest of blackened and smoking trunks in search of our game. Within hundred yards we began to pick up the small game. Every man of us was nearly starved to death and am free to say that the best relished meal l ever ate was when 1 scraped cool spot under the hot pine needles and devour- ed a roasted woodchuck without salt or pepper or any other of the usual access
 ories. suppose we piled up ton or more of small game, such as rabbits, squirrels and woodchucks, but we tramp ed for an hour before we found any big game. Then We found it in heap. Twenty head of deer, dozen or more of elk, two bears and stray antelope lay dead along the bed of little mountain stream that lay through the burned for est. A short distance beyond was the carcass of female mountain lion, which had died in vain effort to save it's litter of three cubs.
 "I have seen scores of big forest fires compared with which these blazes up in the State would look like bonfires; but the most exciting one occurred in Octo- Der, 1879, when the Leadville boom was at It's height. The Ute war, which be- gan during the summer with the mas sacre of Father Meeker and employees of the White River Agency, and was fol- lowed later by the killing of Major ThorDberg and his troops, caused an in tense excitement throughout the State. The farmers deserted their ranches and flocked into Leadville. Even the miners who are always the last to retreat, left their claims along the range and came to Leadville. This stampede was caused almost wholly by the forest fires which were raging on the opposite side of the Sierra Madre and which were supposed to have been started by the Utes.
 cone night the forests in the direction of Alma were fired and high wind i'm pelled the flames, with almost lightning rapidity, towards Leadville. Even the old-timers felt nervous and the town was in an uproar. walked into the Wind sor Hotel and there sat about twenty-five men, armed to the teeth with repeating rifles and revolvers. Miners kept flock ing in from the gulches, driven in by the flames, which came rolling up the Arkan- sas Valley and down Big Evans gulch. By midnight Leadville was shut in by roaring mass of flame. The mountains which surround the basin in which Lead vile nestles were mountains of fire. We were literally at the bottom of burning pit. The heat was so intense that it scorched mems faces a half-mile away from the flames. The Indian fighters were compelled to drop their arms and devote their attention toward saving the town from fire instead of from the red skins. Many cabins on the outskirts of the town were burned, but the greater portion of the camp::was saved. For six weeks afterwards both Leadville and Denver were enveloped in cloud of smoke denser than any that ever hupp