650 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



est officer told me that at a distance of 

 a mile the roar of the flames sounded 

 like an express train crossing a trestle 

 near at hand. I do not believe another 

 fire in this district destroyed so much 

 timber. The total loss was not less 

 than 350,000,000 feet, worth on the 

 stump about a million dollars. Here 

 the flames, racing through the tree 

 tops when the wind blew at all, spread- 

 ing along the ground when the air was 

 calm, burned down the green timber, 

 absolutely destroying its merchantable 

 value. 



"The pick of Jackson county timber, 

 to be brief, was destroyed. Much of it 

 was in private ownership. 



"Two companies of soldiers were 

 sent to help the local fire fighters. They 

 spent a good deal of their time pro- 

 tecting the settlers' houses, but they 

 did splendid work. Unorganized work 

 on the Rogue river fire would have 

 done little good. The thing that puz- 

 zled them most was the way the fires 

 spread. They arrived first at the 

 northwest corner of the burning area 

 then began the work toward the east, 

 trenching and back-firing. 



"Occasionally they sent ahead to 

 learn how the fire was spreading. In 

 the morning it was about a mile ahead 

 of them. This gave confidence. They 

 thought by night they would surely 

 have caught up. Night came, and im- 

 agine the chagrin of the fighters when 

 they found that the blaze was five 

 miles ahead of them. It was burning 

 around them and coming back toward 

 them. It was then found necessary to 

 immediately move camp a distance of 

 12 miles before they could get at the 

 fire front. But there is no doubt that 

 the soldiers saved in this locality 300,- 

 000,000 feet of timber. They certainly 

 earned their transportation and their 

 wages many times over. 



"As much could be said for all the 

 soldiers sent to fight fire in the Crater 

 forest. They worked as hard as men 

 could work, vmmindful of the danger 

 or the exposure. Some of them plead- 

 ed that they might be allowed to work 

 extra hours in order that there might 

 be a greater certainty of bringing the 

 flames under control. 



PRAISE FOR THE SOLDIERS 



"Particular credit is due their com- 

 mander, Major Martin, for the master- 

 ly way in which he handled his men. 

 He inaugurated a system of keeping in 

 close touch with all points of danger 

 that was well nigh perfect. He co- 

 operated closely with the Forest Ser- 

 vice. He kept in constant communi- 

 cation with me, so that he might know 

 where to send his men to work the 

 most efifectively. It would take a long 

 time to tell how they worked eagerly 

 and uncomplainingly, with perfect sys- 

 tem and discipline and with organiza- 

 tion impossible to the volunteer fire 

 fighters or to the laborers that we has- 

 tily employed. 



"To say that no lives were lost does 

 not imply that there was no danger. 

 Ashland was in serious danger. It was 

 a wild and dramatic time when the 

 fire bells rang and the people assem- 

 bled on the public square. No wonder 

 the faces of the men grew pale as they 

 heard Ranger Gribble tell them that if 

 the wind kept blowing, their homes 

 and the city might go. 



"Ashland, understand, is a fine little 

 city of between eight and ten thous- 

 and population. But from the edge of 

 the town to dense timber is not more 

 than a mile and a half. There is a 

 great area on other sides of the town 

 that is overgrown with brush tremen- 

 dously inflammable in such a season as 

 this. The business men closed their 

 stores and went out to fight fire in the 

 forest. They did good work, for they 

 were fighting for their families and 

 their property. A foggy day came, 

 when in other places it rained, and the 

 fires subsided. Fear was relieved, the 

 tension relaxed. Then the wind came 

 again, and again the town was in dan- 

 ger. So the people fought their battles 

 against the fire fiend all over, and they 

 won. 



"In the office there was press of bus- 

 iness and dramatic scenes. It was 

 like headquarters in war time. I 

 talked on the telephone on an average 

 of six hours a day. When I got away 

 from that job I had scarcely any voice 

 left. 



