The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-01-12
AaSMOKYf CONTINENT.
That II. What North America 8AS
Been OF Late.


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Teeeee, Elres-5tFepeo 9iGhte
aad Inesdsn1s.
Reports continue to come In Of forest
and prairie fires in the west. The fires
in Montana and later in the north
west have been followed by others in
Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.
Those who have made study and
record of extensive fires on. plain and
in forest say that those of last summer
and this fall are unprecedented in the
history of this country. The tires
reached from the great lakes to the Pa
cific.
A New York Sun reporter who went
west just before the Minnesota disas-
ter passed through haze OF smoke
that extended clear across the country.
He went from Buffalo to Duluth on
the lakes, and SO thick was the smoke
that it was necessary frequently to
blow the fog whistle of the steamer
for an hour at q time. All the fog .
whistles at the lighthouses on the
lakes were kept going night and day.
Near Cleveland the smoke was so thick
that it was impossible to see more than
the length of the ship when approach
ING the breakwater. On Lake Superb
or the smoke was so dense that scores
of birds lost their way and welcomed
the ship as place of refuge. They
were birds that almost never venture
beyond the forest, and SO exhausted
were they that they were. practically
tame. They took crumbs out OF the
hands of the children on board the
vessel, and one beautiful little green
and yellow songster, almost as delicate
rs = canary, lighted on the head OF the
reporter and rested there for fully fiji
teen minutes, while the reporter re-
NAMED in conversation with party OF
at least half dozen. It was impossi-
BILE to see the famous Apostle islands
as the ship went by them, and the har-
Dor of Duluth was in a thick haze.
On the way down from Duluth to
Minneapolis the fires were burning
freely in the famous lumber district,
but there was no indication of the ter
rible disaster that was to ovcrtake
Uinckley the next week. The country
had been so long without rain that
everyone seemed to think that It must
come in day or two, and there was
little apprehension that anything
more serious than that which had al
ready happened could occur. Travel
ers could see q few hundred feet out
of the car windows, and as night came
on the thin line of flame eating its
way through the leaves and underbrush.
was visible every mile or two.
In st. Paul it was impossible to see
the river and the city itself from the
heights. Out in the wheat country of
the Dakotas the haze seemed to lift
little, but when the grazing country
Of Montana was reached desolation
seemed to reign. For fifty miles at q
stretch the plains were black as far as
the eye could see. The cattle had
been driven back to the mountains,
the herders said, in some cases for hum
dreds Of miles. The streams OF water
and the little lakes, that are the saliva
ton of the country for grazing purposes,
were dried up, Occasionally there
would be patch for eight or ten miles
that would be unburned, but over the
the mounds in that rolling coun-
try there could be seen the approach
Of the fire, aud there was no way to
stop it.
At night the fires. were especially
beautiful. The flame was never more
than from six to eight inches high. Oc-
casionally 1t ran in a straight line par
allel with the railroad for distance
OF several miles. At other times It
formed crescents and circles up. the
sloping sides Of some extended knoll.
Again there were acute and obtuse
angles, and as the smoke rose and
filled the air it made it impossible to
see clearly for more than . few hum
dred yards.
In the Rocky mountains it was the
same story. Far mp the peaks, close TO
the limit Of the wood belt, scores Of
fires could be seen burning briskly,
where no hunter could have left his
campfire burning. Some Of the fires
in the mountains. as well as some Of
those on the plains, were undoubtedly
started by locomotive sparks, and some
were started by the negligence of hum
ters who had not extinguished their
campfres on leaving for their sport,
| but no ono could account tor the fires
tar up the mountain sides,
On the Pacific. slope. the reporter
found scores of tourists who had
] changed their routes and given. up part
Of their trips because Of the smoke.
Seattle wasin . fog, and the attractive
Puget sound was ~ II 1t did not exist
The sound Of the fog whistles on the
steamboats, Was the only indication
| that Seattle was seaport All salm-
on and other kinds Of fishing was ct .
standstill, and the citizens were saying
that the smoke was . most serious loss
| to the industries Of the place. Down
through the beautiful and fertile val
! Ieyg Of Oregon the smoke hid the scene-
II, and not until the tFpyelers -were
| close under the Hanks Of glorious
Mount Shasta in upper California,
could the towering pile % seen. All
| the Cascade range was. hidden, and tho
superb peaks, such - Tacoma, Hood
and Ada,ns, we're - 4 they bad not
| been.
| Not until the reporter had reached
the Sellkirk mountains fh BritfJh CO
lumbdk, on his w1y home, did he find
I the atmosphere clear. Tho hotel lleseper
at Qlar3er lid that tl,a dav that bmrst