16 POTLATCH TIMBER PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 



quainted with the country, were kept at Headquarters and were 

 used in chasing down smokes and to take charge of the men when 

 it was found necessary to send out a large crew to a fire. 



The force at Headquarters consisted of a clerk, a chief 

 packer and his two assistant packers and a cook. The clerk kept 

 track of the time, settled with the men, attended to the commissary 

 and acted as chief warden in my absence.. 



Camps were located as near as possible to the fires and a com- 

 petent foreman was put in charge of each camp. If the crew was 

 large a straw boss was put in charge of 20 men, under the general 

 supervision of the camp foreman. In crews of less than 25 men 

 the foreman kept the time. If there were over 25 men in the crew 

 a timekeeper was sent in to keep the time, sometimes acting as 

 straw boss and at other times helping the cook and carrying the 

 lunch. 



Three pack trains were used, Lester Riddle, the head packer, 

 taking one, and each of his assistants one, each packer having a 

 helper. As far as possible the management of the horses and 

 packers was left to the head packer. In the early part of the sea- 

 son the packing was light, most of the forest fires being located 

 where they could be reached by either rail or wagon, but after 

 the big electrical storm of August 17th many fires were scattered 

 along the North Fork of the Clearwater River and the nature 

 of the country and the distance from a base of supplies made it 

 doubly hard to get supplies in to the men. During the fires in 

 Twp. 38 X., R. 1 E., supplies were hauled in by wagon from South- 

 wick, and the men were taken over the trails from Elk River. 

 Tools and blankets were brought in on pack horses. 



The number of temporary men employed varied. At no time 

 during the month of August were there less than 200 men fight- 

 ing fires, and on the big fires around Bovill over 800 men were 

 employed most of the time. These men were paid 25 cents an 

 hour, with board. 



We had three large and very stubborn fires near Bovill. T\v 

 of these fires ran together on Moose Creek, in the western portion 

 of Twp. 41 X., R. 1 W., and may be considered as one fire. The 

 third fire, in Twp. 42 X., Ranges 1 E. and 1 W., was so near the 

 other two that it was handled at the same time and by the same 

 crews. 



These three fires are so ably described and analyzed in the 

 report of Air. E. A. Holcomb, Supervisor of the St. Joe Xational 

 Forest, which appears in full elsewhere, that I will only refer to 

 them incidentally. 



The main fire was discovered on July 26th by Patrolmen 

 Alackev and Campbell. The air was perfectly clear, making it 

 possible to locate the fire quickly and accurately, and our men were 



