Trail of the 'Big Burn'
A plaque on the Pulaski Trail memorializes the men who died from Pulaski's crew during the Big Burn of 1910.
A remnant of an old mine along the Pulaski Trail. Pulaski originally tried to get his men to the War Eagle mine, but finding the way blocked, settled for the Nicholson adit.
The scars of the fires are still visible along the Pulaski Trail. The Big Burn torched more than 3 million acres.
The entrance to the Nicholson adit. Pulaski and his 45 men hid in the exploratory mine, which measured no more than 200 feet deep. The wooden beams outside were recreated by a local Wallace artist.
Standing at the mouth of a dense forest, Placer Creek rambling by on a cloudless day, it's hard to imagine the scene 100 years prior here in Wallace, Idaho.
On Aug. 21, I headed to the historic town to hike the Pulaski Trail, a four-mile roundtrip jaunt along the West Fork of Placer Creek to an end point at the Nicholson adit, the small mine shaft where Edward Pulaski, the famous Forest Service Ranger, saved 39 of his 45-man crew during The Big Burn of 1910.
The Pulaski Trail, as it is known, wasn't well maintained until 2003, when the Pulaski Project began a plan to resurrect his crew's historic escape from the United States' biggest forest fire. More than 3 million acres of forest burned that summer, approximately the size of Connecticut.
The forest has regrown in the intervening century, but plenty of information-filled plaques line the trail, making the hike not only good exercise but also an unbelievably fascinating history lesson. I went in as somewhat of a novice in all things "Big Burn" and Pulaski, but after my few hours on the trail I came out a self-proclaimed expert on said subjects.
Did you know that the energy created by the two days of fire, during which 80 mile per hour winds gusted, was equivalent to a World War II-era atomic bomb going off every one to two minutes? Bam! A quick lesson from Professor Goldstein, courtesy of just one of the plaques.
While the physical characteristics of the forest have changed, aside from the occasional burned tree trunk lining the trail, the enormity of the historical impact the fire had on Montana, Idaho and Washington weighed on my mind as I took in the sights, sounds and smells of the trail. I wasn't the only one who decided the 100-year anniversary would be a good time for the hike; the trailhead was jam-packed with cars, as was the trail, complete with people of all ages, wearing all manner of footwear.
The day also happened to be Wallace's annual huckleberry festival, so the town was teeming with tourists and locals taking to the streets on a beautiful day. That evening, the local Elks Club hosted a lecture by Timothy Egan, noted expert on the fires and author of "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America."
A large turnout came for the free speech and question and answer session, and according to my friend Denis Moran, who attended, Egan was lively, funny and extremely informative.
Part of what is so astounding about the hike is how the men survived such adverse conditions. Not only did Pulaski have these 45 men huddled in a 200 foot abandoned mineshaft, known as the Nicholson mine, he had to hold them in at gun point as several men threatened mutiny.
"I drew my revolver and said, ‘The next man who tries to leave the tunnel I will shoot," Pulaski said in his journal, tidbits of which are quoted on plaques along the trail. "I did not have to use my gun."
Knowing the firestorm outside would kill anyone instantly, Pulaski kept the men in the crowded shelter as trees fell and exploded up above. A few puddles allowed Pulaski to soak blankets to put at the mouth of the mine, but the intensity of the fire burned the cloth and sucked much of the remaining oxygen out of the shaft.
Unable to breathe well, most men passed out from lack of oxygen, including Pulaski, whom his men believed to have died when most woke up in the morning. "The hell I am!" Pulaski bellowed as he heard the crew consider leaving. Five of the crew did not emerge, dead from some combination of smoke inhalation and pure exhaustion. A sixth man apparently died on the way to the adit, struck by a falling tree.
As they emerged from the tunnel, half-dead and parched, the men found Placer Creek so filled with ash and warm as to be undrinkable. The survivors, unable to walk, crawled themselves back several miles to Wallace, the town itself having been heavily damaged by the magnificent inferno.
Pulaski went on to serve with the Forest Service until 1930 and he died in 1931. The legendary ranger suffered serious injuries from the fire, including damage to his lungs and eyes; he reportedly was blinded for approximately two months and never had the same vision afterwards.
Most notably, Pulaski is known for creating the tool that bears his name. A combination axe and hoe, the "Pulaski" is used world-wide by fire fighting crews, bearing the head of both tools and creating an invaluable piece of equipment to many. The tools align signposts along the trail, a fitting tribute to one of the legends of the Great Fire of 1910.
If you're looking for history and a beautiful hike, head to Wallace, located just off Interstate 90. Head south of town on Placer Creek Road, also known as Forest Development Road 456, until you run into the trailhead approximately a mile down the road.
The trail gains 800 feet of elevation in two miles, and can take longer than a normal hike if you stop to read the many plaques and really enjoy the trail.