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EARLY RECOLLECTIONS ON THE FOREST

BY BEN SAINT • 1907-1929

Continued from last week

In every fire crew we seemed, somehow, to draw an agitator or trouble maker and their wails were numerous. Kicks about hours allowed and poor food furnished and it was quite a problem for the Ranger to solve. We were instructed to keep these men on the job if possible for many of them were far back in the forest and it was hard to get men to replace them. This continued as time went on and in 1910 the year of the great fire, we were really having serious trouble and there were times when one’s patience was sorely tried. We were shipping men from Butte and from the west coast, it was costing plenty to get them to the fires and they would start grumbling the minute they arrived, many of them would ask how far it was to the fire and then demand transportation and of course the only transportation was by foot from the train to the fire. 1910 was an endless nightmare, we started fighting fire in June and there was no relief until the rains came the fore part of September and then what a desolate waste, after the storm and the clouds and fog cleared away it was a sorry sight to behold. The timber was burned and the game depleted. Many homes were burned and considerable loss of human life sustained.

At this time, I would like to say a few things regarding F.A. Silcox whom as I recall now I saw for the last time at Spokane shortly after the close of the 1910 fire season. Silcox was then working out of Missoula. He had been promoted from Supervisor of the Cabinet about the first of the year, 1908, and we met in Spokane at the Northern Pacific depot. He had just come from the Coeur d’Alene district where the fire had caused the greatest loss of life, and told us of seeing twenty-four men, all firefighters, in one place and burned to a cinder. The only one whom they could identify was the man with the badge. I wish it was possible for me to describe what I saw on the face of Silcox that night. He had received a shock that few men ever go through and I will never forget it. Silcox was one of the few men that I have met and known to whom I felt that strange attachment that is indescribable and to have known him was a pleasure and to have worked with him during the early days among the trials and hardships of the Forest Service is something worth living for. He possessed a great understanding of human nature and was so fair and honorable about his feelings with mankind that men whom he penalized for timber trespass were afterwards staunch friends and admirers. Men who worked for or with him would work their daylights out for him and no man ever went farther or did more in a day than he. It is little wonder that the Cabinet got off to a flying start and kept right on going through the years to come. In 1910, Ralph Bushnell was head of the Cabinet. Ralph was another fine old chap but he did not have the punch of Silcox or Roy Headley.

Headley followed Silcox and only stayed about a year but he covered a lot of ground while with us. During the years of 1907, 1908, 1909 we were hitting the ball (a western term for getting things done). By getting things done I mean trails, telephone lines, lookout points for spotting fires, ranger stations to live in along with general administration work, timber sales, homestead entry examinations, taking most of the time of the Rangers. I was just “loose on the handle” or handy man for any and all rough work, too young to get by the Rangers examinations, but anxious to get going and proud of my job. I passed the examination in 1909 and got my first Assistant Ranger appointment in 1910 just in time to get some real firefighting.

I recall when the big blow-up came, I was at Heron and had some two or three crews out through the hills and was running my legs off trying to keep them all going when a big smoke showed up off the southwest. I called Bushnell and told him it was the biggest fire of the season and was throwing ashes miles ahead. They were then dropping in Heron and it was growing dark and the fire appeared to be miles away, somewhere in the Coeur d’Alene Forest. “OK” the old man says, “get back there and see how many men you need to put it out and let us know quick.” I replied that he had better call out the regular Army for a starter at least and that I would let him know if I needed more, and took off for the fire and it never occurred to me to be afraid, for timber fires had always been so tame. I had never seen one on a real rampage before. I did not get very far, just at the head of Jacks Gulch. And It is a good thing I met it there or I would not be telling the story now. I went up a fairly open mountain side and the fire met me at the top, and an old black bear came over just ahead of the fire, passing within fifty feet of me and did not so much as look my way. Lord knows how far he had come but his tongue was hanging out and he was ready to drop. Again, I wish I could tell what I saw from the top of that ridge and how I felt. The nearest I can describe it is the way a towel looks when it comes out of the wringer, that is the way I felt, and I never want to see as much fire again.

As most of my readers know, Mt. Silcox is the town of Thompson Falls’ sentinel. Bushnell is west of Eddy Mountain on the CC Divide and Headley is north of Mt. Silcox and is the headwaters of the West Fork of Thompson River and the West Fork of Fishtrap. These three mountains were named after the first three Head Rangers of the old Cabinet Forest.