The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-08-01
WHAT A WESTERN FIRE Is.
Cities Besieged by Fire and Game Roast
ed by the Tons i'm Colorado.

Ell Tons sOlOFA0O
''That sniff of burning pines that we got
here last night is the first thing that re-
minded me of home since | left Leadville, y
said Captain William Kavanagb, an old
frontiersman, scout, trapper and miner, in
the rotunda Of the Lafayette Hotel. "0f
course this fire up in the State wasn't a
marker in extent to the forest fires we have
in the Rockies and the Sierras, but it's
more serious in its consequences. | see by
! the papers that there was some loss of life
and considerable loss of property, while
out West the only damage done is the de-
struction of few tons of game"
DO the Indians ever get caught p was
asked. gs.ss.. .ss4sls4 - .srf-s,.
Eyes, now and then. Iremember in go,
when twenty-six Utes were caught in
fiery trap in the Red River country and
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
| Fe, New Mexico. They belonged to the
| New Mexico tribe of Apaches and met
their fate while being pursued by party
of Regulators 1t was said that the pines
were fired by the Vigilants, but out West
we don't investigate those points very
closely when redskin is concerned.
THE forest fires in Colorado, y continued
the Captain, and throughout the noun
tain ranges occur twice yepr-in the fall
and spring. They originate from various
lcauses-sometimes from prospector's or
hunters campfire, but more frequently
they are fired by the redskins who use the
forest fires for a dual purpose. When at
war with the whites the forests are fired to
cut off the approach of the soldiers, and in
peace the forests and prairie grass are often
set on fire for the purpose of running out
the game. .s.
| in 1868, half-breed Indian scout in
vited me to join a party of Ute hunters in
hunt down the White River. accepted
the invitation. Our party consisted OF
fourteen bucks, two half-breeds and my
self. supposed, Of course, that we would
simply beat the woods for game. Instead
of that they formed a circle two miles ia
circumference and fired the forests in six
teen different places and then fought the
| flames along the edge of the circle. After
working all night chopping down trees and
hauling them out of reach of the flames we
went into camp at the opposite side of the
| $aI
wolves, for the fire to die out On the third
day we wrapped ourselves in wet blankets
and started through the forest of blacken-
ed and smoking trunks in search of game.
Every man of us was nearly starved TO
death and | am free to say that the best
| relished meal ever ate was when scraped
a cool spot under the hot pine needles and
devoured roasted woodchuck without salt
or pepper or any other of the usual acces-
series. | suppose We piled up ton or
more of small game, such as rabbits,
squirrels and woodchucks, but we tramped
for an hour before we found any big game.
Then we found it in a 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 ran through
the burned forest. A short distance beyond
/ was the carcass of a female mountain lion.
/ which had died in vain effort to save its
litter of three cubs.
/ Il 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 October,
4 1879, when the Leadville boom was at It's
| height. The Ute war, which began during
/ the summer with the massacre of Father
1 Meeker and the employees of the White
4 River Agency, and was followed later by
/ the killing of Major Thonberg and his
! troops. caused an intense excitement
! throughout the State. The farmers de-
serted their ranches and flocked into Der
yer and Leadville. Even the miners, who
are always the last to retreat left their
claims along the range and came to Lead
vile. This stampede was caused almost
| wholly by the forest fires which were rag
| ing ON the opposite side of the Sierra Madre
and which were supposed to have been
f III
started by the Utes.
Zone night the forests in the direction of
Alma were fired and high wind impelled
the flames, with almost lightning rapidity,
towards Leadville. Even the old-timers
| felt nervous and the town was in am uproar.
| I walked into the Windsor Hotel and there
sat about twenty five men, armed to tie
teeth with repeating rifles and revolvers.
Miners kept fiocking in from the gulches,
driven in by the flames, which came rolling
up the Arkansas 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 Leadville nestles were mountains of
fire We were literally at the bottom of a
burning pit. The heat was so intense that
it scorched mems faces a half-lnile away
from the flames. The Indian fighters were
compelled to drop their arms and devote
their attention towards saving the town
from fire instead of from the redskins.
Many cabins ON the outskirts Of the town
were burned, but the greater portion of the
camp as saved. For six weeks afterwards
both Ieadyille and Denver were eHyelolx.<]