St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-09-23
Historic Forest Fires.
How Our Vast Timber Lands Have Been
DESTROYED.

The terrible work of the flames which
have burned over and destroyed hun
dreds OF thousands of acres of timber
and property to the value of millions in
the Lake States, recalls to memory other
great forest fires which have attained
historic Importance.
One of the earliest of these was the
great Mramichi fire of 1925. 1t began
it's greatest destruction about one o'clock
in the afternoon of October I of that
year, at place about 60 miles above
the town of Newcastle, on the Miramichi
River, in New Brunswick. Before ten
O'Clock at night it was 20 miles below
! Newcastle In nine hours it had destroy
ed belt OF forest 80 miles long and 25
miles wide. Over more than two and
one-half million acres, almost every liv-
ing thing was killed Even the fish were
afterwards found dead in heaps on the
river banks. Five hundred and ninety
buildings were burned, and a number of
towns, including Newcastle, Chatham,
and Douglastown, were destroyed. One
hundred and sixty persons persisted, and
nearly thousand head of stock. The
loss from the Miramichi fire is estimated
at $300,0 600, not including the value of
the timber.
In the majority of such forest fires as
this the destruction of the timber is a
more serious loss, by far, than that OF
the cattle and buildings, Tor it carries
with it the impoverishment of a whole
region for tens or even hundreds of years
afterwards The loss of the stumpage
value OF the timber at the time of the fire
is but a small part of the damage to the
neighborhood. The wages that would
have been earned in numbering, added to
the value of the produce that would have
been purchased to supply the lumber
camps. and the taxes that would have
been devoted to roads and other public
improvements, furnish a much truer
measure of how much, sooner or later,
it costs a region when its forests are
destroyed by FIRE
The Peshtigo fire Of October. 1871,
was still more severe than the Mirami-
Chi 1t covered an area of more than
1000 square miles in Wisconsin, and
involved loss in timber and other
property, of many millions of dollars
Between 1900 and 800 persons
persisted, including nearly half the pop
ulation of Peshtigo, at that time a town
of 1000 inhabitants. Other fires of
about the same time were most de
structiye in Michigan A strip about
40 miles wide and $50 miles long, cX.
tending across the central part of the
state, from Lake Michigan to Lake
Huron, was devastated. The estimated
I t.,t -. al. G
feet board measure, and in money over
Several hundred persons
persisted.
In the early part of September, 1881.
great fires covered more than 1.sOO
square miles in various parts Of Mich
igan. The estimated loss, in property,
in addition to many hundred thousand
acres of valuable timber, was more than
So, 300 900 Over 5000 persons we're
made destitute, and the number of lives
lost is varlously estimated at from $50
TO 800.
The most destructive FIRE of more re-
cent years was that which started near
Hinckley, Minnesota, September /, 1894
While the area burned over was less
than in some other great fires, the loss
OF lite and property was very heavy,
Hinckley and SIX other towns were
destroyed, about 500 lives were lost,
more than 1000 persons were left
destitute, and the estimated loss in
property of various kinds was SO, 900
600 Except for the heroic conduct of
locomotive engineers and other railroad
men the loss Of life would have been
much greater
This fire was all the more deplorable
because it was wholly unnecessary. For
many days before the high wind came
and drove it into uncomfortable fury, it
was burning slowly close to the town of
Hinckley, and could have been put out.