The morning news., 1899-01-23
TERRORS OF PRAIRIE FIRES.
Some Thrilling Examples From the
Past.


Colorado Letter in New York Sun.
The fires that recently devastated forests
in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin, 9TH
er recent fires that swept across areas
of prairie lands in Manitoba and North
Dakota, and stil other fires that burned
over square miles among the Rocky noun
tains have revived a train of "reminiscences
among the old-time plainsmen out this
way concerning their own experiences in
great prairie fires two or three decades
ago. one who has never seen a prairie
fire, such as used every fall to devastate
the plains from the Missouri river to the
Rocky Mountains, and from the Rio
Grande 10 Central British America. can
have no idea what such enormous confia-
grations were No one has yet adequate
ly described the frightful sublmity, the
grandeur and the aWfulness of a sea OF
lurid flames, tens of thousands acres
broad, rolling, tossing and rushing forward
= like an enraged titanic monster and leaV-
ing in the tran blackened and smoking
ruins from horizon 10 horizon. Mark
Twain has said that the most colossal
awing thing in all nature is great fire
on the plains. such as he saw in Nebra sxa
in the fall of 1860
Prairie fires with solid walls of flames
twenty-five and thirty feet high, extending
ten and more miles as the wind might
be blowing, have been common. Descrip-
tive writer's and artists have Wed with
one another in an effort to depict the SEN
sations that animate one who LOOKS upon
a sweeping, roaring prairie fire, but all
efforts have failed The burning of Mos
cow, and the conhagration at Chicago
have been fancfuly pictured in song and
story. but it has remained for the naked
savage Of the plains to tell with some de-
gree of adequacy of the prairie fire at
is" says he, "the spirit of fire, who, in
anger. has drawn his bow of flames across
the path Of the red man"
SO large a part of the prairie Is now
broken up by settlements that the fires
have lost much of their old-time size and
grandeur; but the very fact of the settle
ment makes the danger TO property and
life the greater. When the country, from
the Gulf Of Mexico 10 the northern boun-
dairy of The United States. and even beyond
was almost unsettled a great fire could
sweep almost from one end of il 10 the
other and do no damage except to the
game IL might overtake in its mad chase.
With settlement the danger to man begins.
and as long as there are any considerable
stretches of prairie there is always danger
unless The farm buildings and villages are
In 1874 some hunters started a prairle
fire in Bon Homme county, Dakoia terri
tory, opposite Nobrara Neb There was
a strong southeast wind and il swopt TO
the northwest for over 300 miles. licking nm
the dry prairie grass and rolling m great
columns of smoke on The soft SeDtcmber
all for upward of a week This one was
comparatively narrow. being kent from
spreading TO the west by the Missouri
river aud from making much progress 10
the east at first by the Jim river and
later by the wind, which shifted more 10
the east; but in some places the tract
burned over reached a width of seventy
five miles, and 1t averaged, perhaps fully
1fiy
Il found few streams to impede its proe-
ress on chat side Of The Missouri what few
II did encounter il had no difficulty in
leapng. Indeed, the distance fire VIII iumn
10 crossing these prairie streams. where
the grass grows ranks and tail to the very.
waier's edge, seems almost past belief IN
case fire cannot cross In one place there
IS usually place where il can. and SO
1t rushes on frequently leaving large nm
burned irregular A-shaped places along the
streams or lakes but leaving the country
black, barren and forbidding.
This fire took over week to 90 rather
more than 200 mics. This may seem
slow but several things must be taken
into consideration. In many places the
grass was short, which necessarily hind
cred its progress There was little or no
wind during the nights, so it, OF course
NaYeled slowly then. At other times,