Charlevoix county herald., 1908-12-12

Inc natlOn may we'll pause III
nournful contemplation of her raw
iged forests-forests which have been
olackened, and SCARED and ruined in
large sections by the fires which have
ragged within them.
This years forest fire record
eclipses that of any other year of
which we have record, both in eX-
tent of territory burned over and
value of timber destroyed. In speak
ing of the matter Mr.. Clifford Pinchot
chief of the United States forest serv-
ice, declares that in many ways this
years forest fires have been the worst
&c has ever known. The whole north
ern half of the country has been at
tackled, he says, and the losses which
have been caused represent a serious
drain on our timber supply.
Besides destroying valuable tim
Der and other property, the fires
which have been raging during the
last few weeks in the east have caused
an almost incalculable loss to water
sheds of important streams supplying
power for countless industries. In the
Adirondacks the destruction has re-
suited in marring one of the nations
most useful Fairgrounds.
One Of the earliest of the great for
est fires which have attained historic
Importance was the great Miramichi
fire of 1925. 1t began it's greatest
destruction about one o'clock in the
afternoon of October of that year, at
a 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 New
castle. In nine hours it had destroyed
a belt of forest 80 miles long and %
miles wide. Over more than two and
one-half million acres almost every
living thing was killed. Even the fish
were afterward found dead in heaps
on the river banks. Five hundred and
ninety buildings were burned, and
number of towns, including Newcastle,
Chatham and Douglastown, were de-
stroyed. One hundred and sixty per-
sons pershed and nearly a thousand
head of stock. The loss from the Mira
michi fire is estimated at 100000, not
including the value of the timber.
In the majority of such forest fires
as this the destruction of the timber is
more serious loss, by far, than that
of the cattle and buildings, for it car
ries with it the impoverishment of
whole region for tens or even hun
dreds of years afterward. The loss of
the stumpage value of the timber at
the time of the fire is but 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 pub
lie improvements, furnish much
truer measure of how much, sooner
or later, it costs region when its for
ests 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 a loss in timber and other
property, of many millions of dollars.
Between 1900 and 1900 persons per-
ished, 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-
structive in Michigan. A strip about
40 miles wide and $50 miles long, ex-
tending across the central part of the
state. from Lake Michigan to Lake
Huron, was devastated. The estimat-
ed loss in timber was about 100000
600 feet board measure, and in money
over 100000. Several hundred per-
sons persisted.
In the early part of September, 1881,
great fires covered more than 1900
| square miles in various parts of Mich
igan. The estimated loss, in proper
ty, in addition to many hundred thou
sand acres of valuable timber. was
more than $2,300,000 Over 5000 per.
sons were made destitute, and the
number of lives lost is variously esti-
mated at from $50 to 500.
The most destructive fire OF more
recent years was that which started
near Hinckley, Minnesota, September
l, 1924 While the area burned over