The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1919-10-02


five days would not enable = force to
reach the valuable stand until the fire
had swept through it, and the men
were directed elsewhere. Subsequent
reports showed that this calculation
was correct. Roads must therefore be
built Immediately to the remote areas
between the continental divide and
Spokane and the Thunder Mountain
country and the Canada line. The val
ue of the governments timber destroy
ed this season would build adequate
roads, so that by autos the body of
timber described could have been
reached and saved. This year where
there were roads the fires were put
out 1t was where, through the nee
essity Of three or four days of foot
travel the fires got great headway
that they were almost unconquerable.
And the money expended this year un-
der handicap for lack Of roads, and
thus not As effective as Uncle Sans
dollars should be, would have gone =
long ways toward providing such
roads.
Great Falls the rapidly developing
city at the falls Of the Missouri, il
proud, and rightly 20, of the we'll
built 4S miles of scenic highway ACROSS
the Jefferson forest through the Little
Belt mountains. The 'hairpin curve
il Of surpas1ing beauty. But in mid
die August camper in leaving IN nm
extinguished fire or dropping a match
started blaze at the lower end of the
camping grounds that has impaired
the beauty of lower Belt creek and
Kibby canyon for many years. Swept
along by a southwest gale the fire
almost refused to be checked, flying
embers jumping the trenches and even
across canyons for distances Of per-
haps half<a mile. Supervisor Wiley,
of the Jefferson, who is a brother-in-
law of Homer Fem, and who was
himself fire-seasoned in the dense
orests Of the Occur fAlene and Clear
water country, was the Marshall F6ch
of this occasion. E4ch time his bat
tie lines gave way, or "blew up" az
the fighters say, he smilingly COM
menced q new trench, and the shift
repaired at meal time to q new camp,
leaving one or several miles of black
ened hillside behind Willey's daily
reports to the district forester sound
not unlike those from a battlefield,
and thnrnap Of his trenches ON sscees-
sttsip dnsas remind one q those ef
Flanders.
1t seemed almost like retributive
justice that the big Jefferson forest
fire, started unquestionably by a
should have done serious and
almost its sole damage to the camp I
ing grounds. Campers are almost IN
careful with fire. It takes
but one careless member to burn out
md bring reproach on all the rest. The
others should make it so unhealthy for
the one when they observe tendency
to carelessness with fire that whether
Or not he is concerned from principle
he il obliged to avoid possibility Of
destroying their heritage.
Following the fire m unusual down.
pour Of rain quilted the fire-swept
and transformed the usually {
stream Of "dry fork in
10 muddy and ashes-laden mixture,
and undrinkable Tree
trunks and bouldeYs were brought
lown the mountain, and gravel and
tilt left, several inches deep, on the
-ancher's meadow. The protective in
1uence Of the tree crowns is strik-
ngly illustrated by the absence Of III J 4
"chute-like" gullies, where
he rainfall was similar, just y..nd
he limits of the fire.