igo2. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



467 



E W I S 



C 0. 



oO ^^- Adams. 



MAP OF COWI^ITZ, CLARKE, AND SKAMANIA COUNTIES, WASHINGTON ; DOTTED SCTIONS SHOW 



BURNED DISTRICTS. 



of the line was mapped in carefully, a 

 portion was sketched in from mountain 

 peaks, and the remainder is located from 

 information obtained from ' ' cruisers ' ' 

 and others claiming to know where the 

 fire limit is in certain localities. 



Within the area surrounded by burned 

 timber there are considerable tracts over 

 which fire did not run. In estimating 

 the total area burned, all such tracts, no 

 matter how small they were, have been 

 deducted. Yet the number of acres 

 actually burned over cannot fall short 

 of 434,000, distributed in the three 

 counties as follows : 



Acres. 



Cowlitz county 104,000 



Clarke count}'. 150,000 



Skamania county 180,000 



Total. 



434,000 



LOSS OF LIFE. 



Where the fire swept along the North 

 Fork of Lewis River, in Cowlitz county, 

 it probably attained its greatest severity. 

 This was on September 11. It was 

 here that a party of nine pleasure-seek- 

 ers, who had been camping at the foot 



of Mt. St. Helens, met such a tragic 

 fate. They were driving ahead of the 

 fiery storm in an attempt to reach 

 Speleyah Prairie when they suddenly 

 found the narrow road barred by fallen 

 timber. There was no escape for them 

 and all perished together. When found 

 by a relief party the nine charred corpses 

 lay close together near the irons, all 

 that remained of the wagon. The 

 horses had managed to get only a few 

 steps from the wagon when they, too, 

 succumbed. 



One settler, as he left his home on 

 the morning of September 1 1 , told his 

 wife that should the fires work danger- 

 ously near, she was to take the children 

 and leave the slashing in which the 

 house was situated and get into the 

 green timber, where he supposed there 

 would be no danger. She followed his 

 advice, but this fire swept through the 

 green timber more fiercely than in the 

 slashings, and the fire claimed four more 

 victims. 



In all, sixteen lives were lost on the 

 North Fork of Lewis River near Spe- 

 le3^ah Creek. Forty more people would 



