Idaho History: Forest fires and smoke have been with us for generations
“Smoky Air,” read the headline above an item in the Idaho Tri-weekly Statesman on Sept. 29, 1868. “Why this smoke and fog? Some think it results from burning woods in Oregon and California, of which we have had many accounts. Perhaps so, but it does not seem possible that any amount of burning timber could so fill the atmosphere with smoke from Puget Sound to the Gulf of California, and from the ocean to the Rocky Mountains.
“In Oregon the smoke has been so dense that steamers could not run on the Willamette River in daylight, and in some of the settlements the people were nearly stifled. California and Nevada have likewise experienced a smoky atmosphere more dense than ever before known. In this place, if not so bad as reported by our exchanges in other places, it is so much more than usual as to be quite remarkable.”
Oregon’s Coos Bay Fire of 1868 that burned 300,000 acres certainly contributed to the smoky conditions in Boise that year. As bad as this was, the Silverton fire of 1865, the worst forest fire in Oregon history, burned a million acres.
Partly because the forest country of the West was sparsely settled, these great fires caused little loss of life, unlike those of the upper Midwest. The deadliest year in forest history was 1871. The Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin killed more than 1,700 people, and burned 1,200,000 acres. The great Michigan Fire of that same year burned 2,500,000 acres. Both started on the same day as the great Chicago fire that wiped out the city and took 300 lives.
On Oct. 24, 1868, the Statesman told its readers and its exchanges with other papers “We desire to give notice to our contemporaries that the atmosphere of Idaho has cleared up. The smoke which for two months hovered over the hills thicker than ever seen since Idaho had a name, has lifted and gone. The Owyhee Mountains were plainly visible yesterday for the first time in many weeks.”
On Aug. 24, 1869, the Statesman reported “The timber on the hills north of town has been set on fire by some miscreant. Timber is too scarce in this country to be wasted in that manner, and a severe penalty should be visited upon those guilty of the offense.” Since a number of Boise families camped in the woods above town every summer to escape the heat of the valley, it seems more likely that the fire was set by accident, or even by lightning.
Every summer, reports like this of August 1871 could just as well have been written in August 2015: “The air is full of smoke these days, caused probably by the fires in the mountains. The sun shines through it redly and warmly.”
In September 1871, the editor wondered “If it is true, as stated in natural philosophy, that extensive fires produce corresponding copious rains, how does it come that we are not treated to a young deluge in this region. The woods are on fire from here westward to the coast, and the smoke is so dense that we can hardly see the hills close by us.”
In July 1889, as delegates met in Boise to form the state constitution, preparatory to Idaho statehood in 1890, other news in the Statesman dealt with a familiar subject: “Great fires are raging in all directions.” Ketchum was surrounded by fire, but all the aid Gov. Shoup could send them was $200. At Lewiston, people were suffering great discomfort from dense smoke, and the Snake River was lower than it had ever been “since the advent of the white population,” and Boise, reported the Statesman, “for more than a month has been enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke.” There was no air-conditioning in those days, no escape, and no relief until mother nature relented.
Next week: the greatest and deadliest forest fire in Idaho history.
Arthur Hart writes this column on Idaho history for the Idaho Statesman each Sunday. Email histnart@gmail.com.
This story was originally published August 29, 2015 at 11:31 PM.