Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1920-11-25


A film of smoke, the daily flight OF
nm Observers airplane, rangers scurrS7
ing around in the woods with DICKS
and shovels and wet gunnysacks-these
are things that signify forest hre 10
the average city dweller.
Modern equipment by which the
location of smoldering brush may De
accurately conveyed to o map I'D the
district foresters office few hundred
miles away; telephone lines tbat rh"
to the peaks of the highest mountains
where lookOuts are stationed, ana no"
the advent of the birdman-ail THESE
Lucille f. Saunders tells the Portland
Oregonian, have robbed forest fires or
lIuch of their horror and have cut
down the period of time required TO
check their spread.
Allowing for fires started by camp
ers smokers and lightning. there re-
main In the annals Of Oregon's tim
bered areas many mystery fires,
sources of which have never been faith
omed. A popular theory used to be
that the sun shining on broken bottles
furnished such intense heat as to
ignite dry grass and chips. A forest
examiner with an investigative mind
once spent hour after hour on red
hot afternoon trying to make any or
a dozen or so broken bottles igni
every sort of inflummable material.
The theory would not work out. Fires
don't happen that way.
Queer Fires Take Place.
There are queer fires, however-fires
that spring from hundred accidental
sources. Automobile back-firing often
leaves trails of sparks, or man burn
ing out rattlesnake's or yellow1ack-
cts nest has left the pestiferous crea-
lures to roast while the flames spread.
Once, up in the Wind river country,
where a company was taking out dead
cedar logs, the friction caused by the
timbers drawing across one another
started a fire. Sometimes In other
camps haul-back pulleys have become
red hot, with the same result, or brake
shoes on q moving train have scattered
sparks.
The biggest mystery fire of them all
is the one that about eighty years ago
swept along the coast from the mouth
of the Nehalem river nearly to Coos
bay. Then in the early fall of 1902
the smoke was so dense that II made
Portland in midafternoOn exist as In
twilight. Again in 1910 was another
bad season that convinced the United
States forestry service that slow but
persistent campaign of propaganda
would be the only remedy. Instead Of
waiting for big contlagratiOns to fight.
every tiny brush fire was watched with
Infinite care and precautions taken to
prevent its spread.
Story Of Fire Recalled.
Not long ago. while rummaging
through files In the federal building. a
forest service employee CHANGED 10
find report on the famous Yacalt
fires in Washington and the Spring
water fire In Oregon, both In 1902.
which laid waste vast areas. whose
few inhabitants now live In da"v
dread of carelessly thrown cigarette
butts or lighted matches during the
summer months. Even now fire on
the Lewis river is sweeping over u
portion of the same devastated terri
tory. 1t recalls the story of the origi-
nal contlagration.
Fires of unknown origin had been
burning for more than month In this
memorable fall of 1902 near Silver
Star mountain, and still others, said
to have been started by careless set
tiers burning slashings on lower parts
of the Wind river and WashOugal.
were steadily gaining Roadway unno-
ticed In the mountains. On Muddy
creek one fire was burning for weeks.
but no one paid attention to It. On
September these crept through gaps
in the first range from Washougal to
the north fork of the Lewis river and
for seven days thereafter settlers were
compelled to fight night and day for
their lives and their homes.
Sixteen Lives Lost.
Sixteen lives were lost on the nortf,
fork of the Lewis and forty more per-
sons would surely have persisted had It
not been for Speleyah prairie, clover
meadow a mile long and half mile
wide, where the party endured intense
heat and survived. though several men
were seriously burned and one became
insane.
party of nine pleasure seekers had
been camping at the foot of Mount St.
Helens and were driving ahead Of the
fiery storm in an effort to reach the
prairie when they suddenly found the
narrow road barred by fallen timber.
All persisted together.