The 1910 Fires

The 1910 Fires. . , One of the largest forest fires in the history of the United States, ...swept over Idaho and Montana on August 20 and 21, 1910, including the area where you now stand. The fire burned three million acres, destroyed eight billion board feet of timber and killed 86 people. Hurricane-force winds shot fireballs for miles across the mountains. The sky turned dark as far east as Colorado. An army of 10,000 firefighters made dramatic, but ultimately futile efforts to stop the blaze., You can still see the impacts of the 1910 burn around you--in the fire-ravaged cedar snags in the valley below, and in the surrounding hillsides, now covered with lodgepole pine. These trees replaced the magnificent white pines, cedars and other more desirable species destroyed in the fierce fires., Because of the large amount of dead and down timber, invasion by bark beetles and white pine blister rust, successive fires re-scarred the burned over areas. This resulted in long-term changes in the area ecology., In recent years the Forest Service has logged and burned some of the lodgepole pine stands, replacing them with other species to diversify and improve the valley ecosystem.