This book thoroughly destroys all the current misinformation campaign surrounding forest fires.
“Every year over 200,000 fires burn and sear the forests of the United States. Every year an average of 31,000,000 acres of forest land is burned over — an area larger than the State of New York.”
“Old trees still reveal scars of fires that occurred centuries ago. There are scar records of conflagrations in the big tree forests of California as far back as A.D. 245 and again in 1441, before any white man had set foot in the West. We know that extensive fires swept over the forested mountain slopes of Colorado in 1676, 1707 , and 1722, for venerable Englemann spruces still bear the scars. White spruce forests in Maine likewise tell of a fire that burned some 200 square miles in 1795 .”
“1825 … The Miramichi fire in Maine and New Brunswick … 3,000,000 acres burned … 160 persons killed.
1846 … The Yaquina fire in Oregon, covering 450,000 acres containing some of the finest stands of Douglas- fir, Sitka spruce, and western cedar that could be found on the Pacific coast .
1853 … The Nestucca fire on the Oregon coast … 320,000 acres burned.”
“The Pontiac fire in Quebec … 1,600,000 acres burned .
1865 … The Silverton fire in Oregon, said to have burned 1,000,000 acres.
1868 … The Coos fire on the Oregon coast, more than 300,000 acres burned from FIRES . September 15 to October 20.
1871 … The Peshtigo fire in Wisconsin -one of the most calamitous in American history . About 1,280,000 acres burned … homes, towns, settlements swept away . 1,500 lives lost.
1876 … The Bighorn fire in Wyoming … 500,000 acres burned.
1881 … A Michigan forest fire destroyed a million acres of timber … property loss, $ 2,000,000 … 138 people killed.
1894 … The Phillips fire in Wisconsin 100,000 acres burned … 300 persons killed. The Hinckley fire in Minnesota .. 160,000 forested acres burned … 12 towns wiped out … 418 lives lost .
1903 … The Adirondack fire in New York … 450,000 acres burned over.
“Every year America’s forests and woods and ranges suffer an average of 210,000 fires … 575 a day”
