THE BLUE MESA FOREST FIRE 



BY HENRY L. SPENCER, Forest Ranger 



HE season opened hot and dry on Blue Mesa. 

 For thirty days no rain had fallen. The large 

 expanse of Kngelmann spruce, with its dense 

 floor cover of down timber and underbrush, was 

 thoroughly dried and awaited but a carelessly thrown 

 match or cigarette stub to start the worst fire that 

 had ever occurred in the Blue country. 



Blue Mesa, in Gunnison County, Colorado, em- 

 braces the territory between Big Blue Creek on the 

 west, and the Lake Fork on the east; and from the 

 Black Canon of the Gunnison on the north to the north 

 boundary of the Uncompahgre National Forest on 

 the south ; a stretch of country ten miles in width 

 east and west, and fifteen miles in length. The upper 

 half of the Mesa reaches up the easy north slope to 

 the Uncompahgre Forest. This fine body of timber, 

 unmarred by axe and saw, lies principally on the pub- 

 lic domain, below the National Forest boundary, and 

 contains about 200,000,000 feet, board measure. This 

 timber is particularly susceptible to fires because of 

 the large number of sheep outfits passing through it, 

 and because it lies entirely outside of a National 

 Forest and has no fire protection. 



While on a trip over my district, on June 21, I re- 

 ceived telephone word from Bill Doran, fire guard at 

 my station, that there was a big forest fire below the 

 Forest boundary, between the Little Cimarron and 

 the Big Blue, l^elephonc messages came from other 

 sources at the same time and all indicated that the 

 fire was serious, and traveling rapidly toward the 

 Forest. Enlisting Frank Carpenter, who had carried 

 the news to Doran, I arranged to have the Alpine and 

 Bally tool caches, a camp outfit and a supply of food 

 packed to the fire that evening. Ranger Wagner, who 

 had been my fire guard for three previous years, tele- 

 phoned me that three automobile loads of men would 

 be ready to start from Ridgeway by the time he could 

 reach there from Jackson. I told him to get the men 

 and come on, and I planned to pick up the first-aid 

 crew from the lower Lake Fork ancj have a follow-up 

 crew come in from Lake City an^ vicinity the next 

 day. Arranging to have Tony Baker provide six 

 horses at the J-J ranch the next morning, I started 

 from Lake City in an automobile with a chauffeur. 

 As our car rolled out of the town and around the 

 shoulder of a mountain our eyes caught the huge 

 cloud of boiling smoke from the fire. It was 20 miles 

 away, as the crow flies, yet it seemed to be just over 

 the brow of the Mesa. 



On the hurried trip we gathered up all the men we 

 could find at their homes and camps. During the 

 night we abruptly topped a ridge, to see the red glow, 



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toward which we had been traveling, suddenly give 

 way to the countless bright lights of the fire itself. 

 The first impression of such a sight is one never to be 

 forgotten. Close your eyes and imagine thousands of 

 brightly burning camp-fires set in the vast, black 

 background of an inky night, and you will gain a faint 

 idea of the wonderful panorama before us. Over a 

 thousand feet of steep hillside, down to Little Blue 

 Creek, which had checked the fire after its first furious 

 rush, then up the slope on the other side and on south 

 for an unknown distance glowed the myriads of bright 

 lights. No conception of the area of the fire could be 

 gotten other than that it was very large. My sense of 

 the beautiful was dispelled by the thought of the mor- 

 row, and the days to follow, when the fire would 

 awaken to the prevailing high day winds and do its 

 utmost to level the Blue Mesa forests. 



In making our way to the fire we had to bow our 

 heads against the thickening smoke and as we worked 

 onward I could see that if the fire should cross the 

 parks through which we had traveled, and get into 

 the heavy timber on the east, it would be beyond 

 control and probably the greater part of the Blue 

 Mesa forest doomed. Just before daylight we reached 

 the camp of the men brought by Doran and Carpenter 

 and with the first sign of dawn we started for the 

 fight, with arrangements completed by telephone for 

 camp equipment and commissary to be sent us. We 

 were joined by Ranger Taft and Guard Lucas of the 

 Gunnison Forest and Andy Enbom, a sawmill man, 

 who had information concerning the northwest jiart 

 of the fire area. We had already determined to fight 

 it on the east and south, and their news confirmed our 

 judgment. The wind was rising rapidly and the fire 

 was responding in many places with high crown 

 blazes. It was about seven miles around the outer 

 edge but the weak places were on the east and south 

 sides. During the day the follow-up crew from the 

 Lake Fork arrived, with Ranger Wagner; Borden 

 came from the Gunnison Forest and Sheriff Hanlon of 

 Gunnison County arrived with ten men, camping on 

 the north end. Wagner brought further reinforce- 

 ments at midnight. 



On the second day every effort was needed to 

 combat the sparks that were carried over our lines by 

 the high wind from the west. The situation was in- 

 tensified as the fire burned closer to the lines and the 

 spark danger grew greater. Within the fire area were 

 many small patches of trees, which on account of 

 topography and slight isolation had not been burned 

 by the first afternoon rush, and' as the fire crept into 

 this heavy timber, high crown fires were started which 



