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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
fire of 1910, or as it is otherwise known as the “Big Burn of 1910”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Courtesy
of the Spokesman-Review and their thorough series, located at:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.spokesman.com/1910fire/">http://www.spokesman.com/1910fire/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Great
fire wiped out wild towns of Taft, Grand Forks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Logging
outposts reviled for boozing, brothels<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Back
in 1910, respectable folk believed that the wild, debauched towns of Taft and
Grand Forks deserved to burn in hell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>They
got their wish. Both towns were wiped clean by the Big Burn of 1910.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Search
for them today, and you’ll find nothing but a dusty and uninhabited
freeway exit (Taft) and a tangle of undergrowth below the Route of the Hiawatha
mountain-bike trail (Grand Forks).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>But
from 1907 to 1910, those old towns howled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Both
owed their existence to the most expensive and audacious railroad engineering
feat in the nation’s history – the construction of the Milwaukee
Road over (and through) the Bitterroot Range from the St. Regis River in
Montana to the St. Joe River in Idaho. These rough-hewn towns sprang up
overnight as work began on the line’s dozens of tunnels and trestles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Taft
was the biggest and most notorious of the new railroad towns. Its population
shifted with the arrival of practically every work train, but at its height it
was said to be 3,200.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>At
one point the town had 23 saloons. It also had, according to one contemporary
letter-writer, “300 women and only one decent one.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>They
served the railroad work gangs, who were not exactly model citizens. In the
spring of 1907 alone, 18 murders were committed. Sometimes, no one even knew a
murder had taken place until the spring thaw came and a corpse appeared from
under a snowbank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Taft
was also the scene of Balkans-style ethnic tensions. In one notorious incident,
the self-proclaimed “king” of a large contingent of Montenegrin
laborers was shot by a foreman. An ethnic riot nearly flared; subsequent
shootouts left the foreman and five Montenegrins dead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
very name Taft was a kind of ironic joke, according to a story told in both
“Up the Swiftwater” by Sandra A. Crowell and David O. Asleson, and
in “The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan (two books which provided much of
the information in this story).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
story, possibly apocryphal, goes like this: In 1907, William Howard Taft, then
the Secretary of War, came through the unnamed – but already notorious
– work camp and stopped to make a speech from the platform of his
Northern Pacific train. He berated the town as a blight and a smudge on the
American landscape and told the assembled throng to clean up their act. The
railroad workers gave him a big, drunken cheer (or maybe jeer) — and
then, by acclamation, they named the town in his honor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Taft
burned down at least twice before the Big Burn, each time being reborn with
more saloons and brothels than before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In
1909, a Chicago Tribune reporter came through and called Taft “the
wickedest city in America.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>But
there was plenty of competition. When Grand Forks hit its stride, it
“quickly went into first place for that honor,” said ranger William
W. Morris.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Grand
Forks was at the mouth of Cliff Creek on the Idaho side, down in a lush hollow
far below the tracks. It was built around a muddy square, surrounded on all
sides by rough wooden saloons, chow houses, boarding houses and
“hotels.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Here’s
how the Forest Service’s Joe Halm – famous for his Big Burn
exploits – described Grand Forks in a memoir:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“During
the mornings, the court (square) was deserted except for a few sobering
stragglers sitting on empty beer kegs piled in front of the 12 or 15 saloons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“…
Toward evening, the town would begin to show signs of life and as night came on
and as oil lamps began to glow, player pianos began their tinny din, an
orchestra here and there began to tune up. Women daubed with rouge came from
the cribs upstairs and sat at lunch counters or mingled with the
ever-increasing throng of gamblers and rough laborers from the camps. As the
hours wore on, the little town became a roaring, seething riotous brawl of
drinking, dancing, gambling and fighting humanity.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Grand
Forks had burned twice before, once in 1909 by accident and again in July 1910,
when a prostitute poisoned a customer and set her room on fire to cover up the
murder. By August, the town had revived in hastily built shacks, tents and even
a treehouse, which became the place of business for two high-flying
prostitutes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Yet
on the afternoon of Aug. 20, 1910, when the winds whipped the mountains into a
roaring, red-hot frenzy, both Taft and Grand Forks were defenseless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
saloon-dwelling population of Taft, to the disgust of the forest rangers,
showed no gumption when it came to saving the town. The rangers went from
saloon to saloon trying to round up men to work the firelines, but got few
takers. In Egan’s words, Taft’s denizens had decided that “if
they were going to be burned to death in an inferno … they would go down
drunk.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>They
tried to drain as much whiskey from the barrels as they could before the
evacuation train came through. Everyone was staggering toward the platform when
the burning embers came raining down and the trees began to topple. The train
made it out just before the wall of flame hit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>There
was only one fatality – a drunk whose clothes caught fire before he got
on the train. A ranger rolled him in the dirt, extinguished him and hauled him
to the train. When the man got to Saltese, he was wrapped in bandages and put
in a dark boxcar to recover. A fellow drunk came in to see him, lit a match
– and caught the man’s oil-soaked bandages on fire. He burned to
death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In
Grand Forks, the inhabitants had time only to race to the train platform at
nearby Falcon before the saloons, tents and shacks vanished “in a
sniff,” according to Egan. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
inhabitants, along with the frightened population of Falcon, huddled at the
depot, hoping a rescue train was on the way. It was. An engineer backed an
engine and boxcar six miles to Falcon. The frightened people grabbed on to
whatever handhold they could find and, after a harrowing trip, finally made it
to Avery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Both
Taft and Grand Forks made desultory attempts to rebuild, but by 1911, the
forest rangers managed to shut down the last tent saloon in Grand Forks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Taft
revived partially and served as a staging point when the Milwaukee Road
electrified its line over the Bitterroots. But Taft never regained its former
size or notoriety. By the 1930s, the Federal Writers Project reported that Taft
consisted of only four buildings, all abandoned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Today,
travelers who take the Taft exit on I-90 won’t even see abandoned
buildings. There’s a sand pile for use by freeway snowplows and some
piles of old railroad ties. The old main street is covered by the interstate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>That’s
more than you’ll find at Grand Forks. The green forest reclaimed it long
ago. You can drive to the spot where Cliff Creek empties into Loop Creek, but
rangers say you can find the old townsite “only with metal
detectors.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>And
what might those metal detectors find? Maybe the wires and mechanisms of old
player pianos, which played their last ragtime tunes in August 1910.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>---------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#111111'>Patrons gather at a saloon in Grand Forks, circa the summer of
1908. The patrons’ attire and flies on the wall indicate it’s
summer, and the electric light on the ceiling indicates a time before a power
plant at Taft was shut down in early 1909.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/19/GRAND_FORKS_HISTORICAL_t620.jpg">http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/08/19/GRAND_FORKS_HISTORICAL_t620.jpg</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Seeya
round town, Moscow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tom
Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Moscow,
Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“Evening
found our little party many miles from camp. We saw the remains of an elk and
several deer; also a grouse hopping about with feet and feathers burned off
– a pitiful sight. Men who quenched their thirst from small streams
immediately became deathly sick. The clear, pure water running through miles of
ashes had become a strong, alkaline solution, polluted by dead fish, killed by
the lye. Thereafter, we drank only spring water.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-
Joe Halm, fire fighter (August 27, 1910)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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