The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-03
BLOW TO THE DALLES,
Sixteen Blocks Swept Away by
the Flames.
LOSS NEARLY ONE MILLION.
The Citizens We're POwerless to Ar
rest the Fire Fiend's Fury.
Engine From Portland Come Too Late
Hundreds of Persons Homeless
Desolate Appearance of the City
The Militia in Control.

THE DALLEs, Or, Sept. Fire broke
out at O'Clock this afternoon in Skibbe's
restaurant. The wind was blowing gale,
and the flames spread rapidk
The fremen were hfteeh minutes in
arriving at the scene, giving the fire big
headway. The flames communicated to
Mrs. Wingate's row Of houses, then to
Wingate e. Co.'S general merchandise
store, Crossing the street, it took in J. G..
Peters lumber yard and swept on three
blocks south. The fire then burned on
toward the east, and in all sixteen blocks
were consumed.
The loss is estimated at from S750.000 to
100000. The hre is now under control.
The names of some of the losers are as
follows:
F. L. skibbe, restaurant; John Larsen, feed
yard; Max Vogt, three-story brick; Odd Fellows
hail and opera-house: 7. c. Nicholson, two-story
brick; Louis Rorden, crockery; Charles Stueb-
ling. saloon; Mays & Grove. hardware;
Graham. restaurant; Huntington IL Thoml
son, law Office; Jones Bros, groceries
Charles Bayard, real estate; John Pashek, tailor;
A. A. Brown, grocer: Chrisman d Carson, gro
Gerry; Dandal d Pagan, frame store; Charles
Tom Wards livery stable: Knebeeks
livery stable; Hoods livery stable;
Jackson house, E. P. Fitzgerald's two brick
buildings, hardware and grocery and two
dwelling houses: Mrs. Williams, residence;
William Mitchell, residence; P. J. Nichols, resi-
denee; Methodist church, Baptist church,
one large frame schoolhouse, Fallons
farm implement building and grocery,
Gibbons d McAllister, implements and grocery;
Judge COO1OuiS
dence, Mrs. Juker's residence, A. A. Bonney,
residence and butcher shop; Thomas Kelley's
residence, Hon. F. p. Mays residence. Duiur
d Watkins law office, W. II. Wilson's law Office
Hundreds of people are homeless and
the city presents desolate appearance
The militia is patrolling the town, but the
best of order prevails.
TIE fire burned for five or six hours and
citizens were powerless to stop
Its progress as the supply of
waser was inadequate. An engine
vas dispatched from Portland, but the fire
wsas under control when it arrived. The
blow will be heavy one to the town.
THE Dalles has several times been a sufferer
from confiagrations About sixteen years ago
boys playing with shayings in furniture store
started a,tire that left the city in ashes, and
more recentiy-six years ago-an incendiary fire
caused between $4,000 and $4,000 damage
Aside from being the third largest city
in Oregon. The Dalles is one of the
Oldest on the Coast. Long ago the site OF
the city of Portland was an unknown forest,
the Hudson Bay Company established trad
ing station at the head of navigation on the
Columbia, and the place was called by the In
dians "Ihe Dalles,' because it was near the
dalles Nhe fallsl OF the Columbia river. In after
years, during Indian troubles, a govern
ment garrison was built at the
falls and for a time General Grant,
then practically unknown, was stationed in
charge OF the barracks. The old buildings of
the garrison, built mostly OF stone. still remain
intact. Through the efforts of the Oregon sem
ators. Dolph and Mitchell the last congress
passed a bill donating fifteen acres which sur
round this ancient garrison to The Dales as a
public park.
Before the Oregon Railway & Navigation Com
pany cut a way through the Cascades from
Eastern Oregon and Washington to Portland,
tapping The Dalles, the latter place was the KEY
to the inland empire. The products OF that vast
section of country to reach Portland, the
business center and metropolis of the North
west, must needs go to The Dalles and it was then
that steamboating on the Columbia was mt its
height. and it was through the old Oregon Steam
Navigation Company, now deunct, that many
Oregoniaus became millionaires.
When the railroad cut through the count-v II
in a large measure deprived The Dalles OF much
OF its resources and wealth, but the country
south and north into Washington still supports
the place 1t is here that the Easterner with
wide open eyes, can yet see in healthy operation
the primitive stage coach and the earlv.day
freichter with his immen,e wagon and
ten and twenty teams OF horses
and mules toiling over the rolling
hills into the city with loads of grain wool and
sometimes minerals. Though at present slow
going, and considered by boom" sections dun.
The Dalles is the center OF great deal of wealth
and property, and those who are ACQUAINTED
with the people will readily believe that in a
short time the city will recover from tn, shock
consequent from sthe eouAagration and arise
again as in DAYS gone by from her ashes