The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-05-23
YAKIMA MEN
TELL Of FIRES
BURNED DISTRICT WELL-KEOWN
Loss Was Not Great Enough to Cause
Much Advance in Prices
of Lumber.

4 number Of citizens of Yakima
are acquainted with the districts Of
Wisconsin and Michigan recently de-
vastated by fire, and have expert
enced some narrow escapes in former
great forest CONGREGATIONS.
A lumberman who formerly lived
there, in describing the fearful scenes
said:
"a have been in several of the dis
tricts while the timber was burning,
and the scenes were past description
Tho smoke and flames rolled fifty
ana 100 feet above the talest trees.
the limbs and trunks falling with
great crashes and noise much like
heavy artillery in battle.
"A mighty wind usually follows
and drives the flames with such ter
rife force that ali living creatures
fee before it with all possible speed T.
A number Of the employees Of the
Cascade Lumber company have been
through the burned district in the
last five years.
NJ. H. Grover, manager Of the Cas-
eade Lumber company, said: 4 am
well acquainted with the country that
has been burned. ] don't think | can
give you much information about the
territory that would be of benefit. /
do not consider the loss so great as
compared with other districts Of first
class timber Much of this area has
been stripped Of its pine and cedar.
Or course there We're also great for
ests of hard wood, but this can be
used to a great extent if taken out
under two years. We have logged
in burned districts and the results
were good. The timber is all killed
but the fire is mostly in the UNDER
brush. l do not consider the loss is
sufficient to cut much figure with
the prices as concerns the west. The
fires are difficult to account for, but
are more liable in a timbered coun-
try where there are many old slash :.
ings. We may have such q fire on the
west side Of the Cascades, or even on
the east side, when the districts be-
come stripped of the best TIMBER
E. ]. Furlong, tallyman at the Cas-
cade mill, said: 81 have visited 4
number of the towns in Michigan
that have suffered loss The Wolver.
inc Single company has shingle
mills at Northland, Cornell and An
tome. The Stephenson Lumbar COM
pany has extensive interests in the
burned district. The towns are not
SO large, but are thrifty saw mill cen
ters"
F. Heines, barn foreman for the
Cascade Lumber company, formerly
worked in this district He said: Il
have been over some parts of the
burned district and there was much
hard wood there yet. The l. Steph-
enson company built big lard wood
saw mill in this territory less than
five years ago and expected to cut fos
the next twenty-five years. They
built their own railroad and had
large holdings in the burned dis
trict'
e. Erickson, green lumber fore
man for the Cascade Lumber COM
pany, another lumberman from the
east, said: 81 have never been
through that district, but from what
| Know about the lumber there II
was mostly hard wood, for all the
pine and cedar had been cut very
closely and the fire passed over great
slashings. Those forest fires are ter
rible. One can smell the smoke
from the fires for hundred miles
and the atmosphere in the immediate
vicinity of one of these fires is simply
suffocating.