A Forester Recounts the Fire

The Ambitious Tree, cover.

Friends of the Forest, cover.

F.A. Silcox, Assistant District 1 Forester, 1906-1911, recounted the story of the fire:

"By the middle of August over 3,000 small fires had been put out and over 80 large fires brought under control. On the afternoon of August 20 a hurricane, which continued for twenty-four hours, fanned every fire in its path into uncontrollable furry. The roar of them was heard for miles and likened by some of the rangers to the noise of a thousand freight trains. At some points, fires leaped rivers a quarter of a mile wide. Within forty-eight hours on August 20 and 21 a strip of county along the Bitterroot Mountains 100 miles long by 20 to 35 miles wide was burned."