The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-11-27

mournful contemplation of her raw
aged forests-forests which have been
blackened, and SCARED and ruined in
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,
CHEF of the United States forest serv-
ice, declares that in many ways this
years forest fires have been the worst
he 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 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 1926. 1t began its greatest
destruction about one o'clock in the
afternoon of October of that year, at
place about co 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 so miles long and 20
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 a
number of towns, including Newcastle,
Chatham and Douglastown, were de-
stroyed. One hundred and sixty per-
sons persisted, and nearly thousand
head of stock. The loss from the Mira
mich 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
q more serious loss, by far, than that
of the cattle and buildings, for 1t car
ries with it the impoverishment OF
a 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 $500 persons per
ished, including nearly half the pop
ulation of Peshtigo, at that time
town of 1000 inhabitants. Other fires
of about the same time were most de-
structive in Michigan. A strip about
40 miles wide and 1870 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 1000, 000,-
900 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 1880
square miles in various parts of Mich
igan. The estimated loss, in proper
". in addition to many hundred thou
sand acres Of valuable timber, was
more than s2,SOO,OOO. 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
!, 1924. While the area burned over