WASHINGTON'S FOREST CATASTROPHE 



BY HEISTER DEAN GUIE 



THE greatest forest disaster in the history of the 

 State of Washington occurred January 29 when 

 a tornado, traveling 160 miles an hour, swept the 

 Olympic Peninsula, falling eight billion feet of virgin 

 standing timber. The path of the storm was over 70 

 miles long and 30 miles wide, devastating 2,200 square 

 miles of territory in western Clallam and Jefferson 

 Counties. One-third of the. forest growth in these two 

 counties was flattened to the ground, 25 per cent of it 

 so twisted and splintered that it cannot be salvaged. In 

 the Hoh River district 75 

 per cent of the timber fell in 

 the hurricane, according to 

 an eye-witness, who declared 

 the mammoth trees border- 

 ing the Hoh and Bagachiel 

 Rivers were mown down 

 like grain. 



The famous Olympic 

 Highway suffered incalcula- 

 ble damage between Fair- 

 holme, on Lake Crescent, 

 and Mora, on the coast, a 

 distance of 42 miles. Some 

 portions of the road were 

 not affected but others felt 

 the full fury of the terrific 

 gale, which blew down great 

 trees by the hundreds along 

 what was formerly one of 

 the most beautiful highways 

 in the Northwest. In many 

 places it was possible to see 

 for miles across the storm 

 desolated areas adjacent the 

 road, where, before the dis- 

 aster, primeval stands of 

 magnificent timber kept out 

 the sunlight. 



Trails and telephone lines 

 were obliterated and ranch buildings shattered. Six 

 frame houses at the Indian village of La Push were 

 destroyed and others seriously damaged. Isolated set- 

 tlers were so completely cut off from communication with 

 the outside world that many of them killed their horses 

 and cattle because they could not bring feed to them. 

 Labyrinths of fallen trunks blocked roads and trails 

 for miles. Travel was so laborious and slow that it took 

 five days for the man bringing the first news of the dis- 

 aster to Port Angeles to traverse the distance usually 

 covered in a few hours. 



As far as could be ascertained within two weeks fol- 

 lowing the storm no lives had been lost, but there were 

 several narrow escapes. Five miles from Forks, near 



THIS SHOWS THE MAJESTIC 

 HIGHWAY NEAR FORKS 



the center of the storm area, the automobile of a rural 

 mail carrier was demolished by a tree a moment after 

 the mail carrier and a companion had deserted it. The 

 men escaped by crawling for a mile under fallen trunks. 

 A truck driver, caught in the hurricane, left his truck 

 and ran through tumbling trees for a quarter of a mile 

 to safety. After the storm he returned to find his truck 

 buried beneath branches and debris but unharmed. Set- 

 tlers worked with him for eleven days cutting out down 

 timber, removing 670 trees from the road in a distance 



of two and a quarter miles. 

 Much wild life undoubt- 

 edly perished, in the opinion 

 of veteran woodsmen and in- 

 habitants of the devastated 

 districts. Five thousand elk 

 roamed the territory swept 

 by the storm. Half of them 

 are believed to have been 

 killed by falling trees and by 

 being trapped in tangles of 

 down trunks, where they 

 starved to death. To pro- 

 tect the survivors, the State 

 Legislature in session until 

 March 10 was urged to ex- 

 tend the closed season indefi- 

 nitely. Under existing game 

 laws, elk may be shot this 

 coming fall for the first time 

 in years. Extension of the 

 closed season would not only 

 conserve the elk, but would 

 keep out many hunters 

 whose presence in the rav- 

 aged districts would augment 

 the fire menace during dry 

 weather. 



Ten days after the storm, 

 Governor Louis F. Hart, ac- 

 companied by State and federal forest officials made an 

 automobile tour of inspection the length of the Olympic 

 Highway, their machines following in the wake of road 

 crews, who sawed hundreds of trees to open the high- 

 way for the official party. The havoc wrought by the 

 tornado appalled and saddened everyone as the extent of 

 the catastrophe was realized. 



The inspection tour impressed upon the governor and 

 forest officials the necessity of immediate action to pre- 

 vent a holocaust this summer. A fire once started in the 

 down timber would sweep the whole territory, fighting 

 operations being impossible because of the tangled con- 

 dition of the country. Measures contemplated to reduce 

 the fire menace as much as is humanly possible are the 



BEAUTY OF THE OLYMPIC 

 BEFORE THE STORM 



379 



