"The Big Burn" in NID 100 years ago

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Over on the Montana side of the Bitterroots they're commemorating the Big Burn, too: July 16 they had a ceremony at the Memorial Grove at Savenac, and a rededication ceremony is scheduled for Aug.21:
1910 Fires commemorative gathering at Savenac July 16 - The Clark Fork Chronicle

Fire respects no state boundaries...lives were lost in both ID and MT:

Trial by Fire | Flathead Beacon

Of the 78 firefighters who perished, 72 were in the Couer d’Alene National Forest, four in the Cabinet National Forest and two in Pend Oreille National Forest. No fatalities occurred in the Flathead region, though the nearby Cabinet National Forest deaths hit close to home.

Rose Davis, media liaison for the Forest Service’s Northern Region, said 1.2 billion board feet of timber burned in Montana. The hardest hit areas in the Treasure State were Trout Creek, Taft, De Borgia, Saltese and Haugen, including the Savenac Nursery that burned. The fires came just short of St. Regis.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

St. Maries commemorates the Big Burn Aug.20, rededicating the memorial to the fallen fire fighters:
http://northidaho.org/

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Hey, if anyone is going by Wallace, stop in at the visitor's center. Ask for a copy of "When the Mountains Roared", it's a collection of stories about the fire. They are free, but when I was there they were behind the counter and you had to ask. They come with a nice little booklet that has some driving routes that tell some stories of the fire along the way. We went from St. Maries to Avery, up Moon Pass road to Wallace last week. Saw the memorials at the St. Maries and Wallace cemetaries. A few weeks ago I spend a long weekend in Wallace ATVing. I ended up hiking up to the Pulaski tunnel one day. The forest service is really sprucing things up, they were building a new wall with some interperative signs at the tunnel. Kind of interesting, everything was hauled in by helicopter, we saw them one day.

Gets you thinking...those guys were up west of Lake Elsie (named after Pulaski's daughter IIRC) when they were first caught by the fire. They tried to make it back to Wallace, only to hole up in the mine tunnel. We rode the ATVs along the divide trail to Elsie...it's a long haul. I can't imagine going all that way on foot with a fire hot on your heels. OK, I admit it, men were a lot tougher back in them days.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Thanks for the report, Toyman! I'll be following in your tire tracks pretty soon!

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Today, Aug.20, is the 100th anniversary of the Big Burn. Great video report from Jim Kerschner at the Spokesman-Review from Aug.6:
The Big Burn of 1910 - Spokesman.com - Aug. 6, 2010