The Great Timber Fires of 1883
Uncontrolled forest fires rage across Washington Territory, destroying logging camps and infrastructure with no end in sight.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
From Joseph Kellogg, of the steamer Toledo, it is learned that most destructive fires are now raging in the woods from Kalama, both up and down the Columbia, and up the Cowlitz rivers. Mr. Bodine, on the Cowlitz, has lost a large amount of logs, and his camp is totally destroyed. Capt. Smith, who has a mill about fifteen miles up the Cowlitz, has lost 200,000 feet of cedar timber, and the fire is so fierce in the woods that no one dares go to see what the damage is. Geo. W. Weidler, who has an extensive logging camp near Oak Point, will be a very heavy loser, it being reported that already his loss is $100,000. He has lately built about six miles of railroad and made other extensive improvements, all of which it is thought will be total loss. The fire rages so that no one can make an investigation, but everything in the woods now will burn until a hard rain puts it out. Never has such a destructive fire been known either in Oregon or Washington.
“The fire rages so that no one can make an investigation, but everything in the woods now will burn until a hard rain puts it out.”
While Washington is now more concerned with wildfire season management and smoke mitigation, the absolute helplessness felt by these 1883 loggers mirrors our own modern anxiety about climate-driven fire seasons in the Pacific Northwest.
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