The Big Burn (St. Maries, Wallace, Clark Fork: appointed, credit, house)

[banjomike]

Folks who are new to living in the Idaho panhandle and those who are thinking of moving there need to watch this.
The Big Burn . American Experience . WGBH | PBS

Forest fire is a part of living in the northwest. Idaho forests catch fire regularly, and the Big Burn of 1910 was the largest forest fire in American history; it burned 3 million acres, the size of Connecticut, in 36 hours and created much of the policy on fighting forest fires for the following 100 years. At least 78 people died, and the city of Wallace was half burned to the ground. Other, smaller towns were completely leveled by the fires.

This episode also tells the story of Ed Pulaski, the man who came to define the modern firefighter, and who saved most of his 45-mand crew. 6 of his crew died when they were trapped as two fires converged. After the fire, Ed designed and built the first Pulaski, the best hand tool for fighting forest fires ever made. All of them are named after Ed.

The Big Burn shaped in large part the way the entire panhandle looks today, and while the weather factors that created the Big Burn haven't occurred in exactly the same way since, the years of 1999 to 2001 came very close.

If anyone living in the middle of a pine stand doesn't know what a Pulaski is, they should. And they should have a couple of good ones hanging in the toolshed or garage. A good Pulaski can save your house in a fire.

[Cnynrat]

Thanks for the heads up Mike.

I recently read the book by the same name written by Timothy Egan - I recommend that for people that are interested in this subject.

Dave

[banjomike]

Thanks, cynrat. I've heard of the book, but I haven't read it. the reviews were all excellent, so it's going on my reading list right now!

Norm McClean, the noted author of "A River Runs Through It" was a firefighter in the Big Burn as a very young man.

His last book "Young Men and Fire" is about the Mann Gulch Fire, a bad one in the early 50s that killed a bunch of smokejumpers, the fire fighters who were thought to be supermen until Mann Gulch. The first part of the book gives his account of his experiences during the Big Burn.

"Young Men And Fire" is one of my very favorite books. It's a compelling, sad, and engrossing read; McClean really puts the leader there, right on the slopes. He walked the gulch as an old man, and really imparts how it must have been for the smoke jumpers as they became trapped, racing up the steep hill, running for their lives in a race that only two won.

Like all his books, it's about much more than only fire and young men. McClean is one of the very best writers ever to come out of the northwest. His writing on Montana and Idaho is better, I think, than Faulker's writings on the south, and a whole lot more lucid.

[Cnynrat]

I've also read Young Men and Fire, and really enjoyed that book as well.

With respect the The Big Burn, you will find that Egan spends a lot of time discussing the early formation of the National Forest Service, the people involved (Gifford Pinchot features prominently in the book) and the politics surrounding it's creation. This was all happening right around the time of the big burn, so it's very relevant. That part of the story almost gets equal billing to the story of the fire itself.

Dave

[ScottStielow]

Thanks Mike for the heads up. Will read the books you talked about, on this thread. Will see if i can find the Big burn on PBS, or somewhere else.
Scott

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Always a good thing to revisit an important subject. I just want to point out that we had an anniversary thread about the Big Burn in 2010 with a lot of great info and observations:

//www.city-data.com/forum/idaho...years-ago.html

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

Always a good thing to revisit an important subject. I just want to point out that we had an anniversary thread about the Big Burn in 2010 with a lot of great info and observations:

//www.city-data.com/forum/idaho...years-ago.html

Credit where credit is due, it was from that thread that I picked up the recommendation to read The Big Burn by Egan. Thanks CFF!

Dave

[Clark Fork Fantast]

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

Thanks for the heads up Mike.

I recently read the book by the same name written by Timothy Egan - I recommend that for people that are interested in this subject.

Dave

I liked the story as he related it, but I got sick of his anti-Bush rants throughout the whole book. I though the book was going to be about the 1910 fire, not just a chance for a far-left author to push a political point of view. Once you get past that he did a decent job of collecting the stories. I'm disappointed in his maps though.

I'll do some digging, back in '10 I had picked up most every book on the 1910 fire I could find. A lot of the major stories are based south of Wallace, an area I know well and travel frequently. Kind of haunting riding some of those trails after reading about the lives lost. Moon Pass road connects Wallace to Avery. Just south of Wallace (maybe a mile) is a trail head to the "Pulaski Tunnel". A fire crew led by Ed Pulaski was cut off by the fire. Ed led them into an old mine he knew of and held them at gunpoint when some panicked. 39 men lived because of him. Sadly 6 did not. The hike to the mine is nice and has some interesting historical markers. If you go down that road, about 1/2 way to down there is a flat, swampy area in some lowlands. There are some old, huge cedars, standing dead, from the fire. The 9 mile cemetary in Wallace and the one in St. Maries both have bodies from the fire. IIRC 78 people in the area died, most near Avery....Storm King drainage IIRC. There are some markers just downstream from Avery that tell some of the story. Also the visitor center in Wallace has a good collection of literature.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

We have blackened cedar stumps on our Clark Fork property--a very sobering reminder. We had planned to do a tribute trip to Wallace in 2010, but we were too busy working on our property. Maybe this summer we can find the time.

Tim Egan is such a good writer, and he comes from the NW (Spokane, I believe), so he understands about local issues. He is also a regular contributor to the NYT, and, indeed, he is a liberal. Whatever he writes, he generally takes a stand. And if that's not one's own point of view, it can be somewhat irritating. But, again, he's a great storyteller!