On September 16, 1934, Ina described the fire in
Little Canyon for Vance:
The fire was pretty bad. The men fought it over two
weeks day and night up and down the canyon. It destroyed a lot of pasture for
the Dieterle boys and got Aunt Maud’s timber. It got the house, barn, 15 tons
of hay, a lot of harness and farm machinery on the old John Shod farm about
west across the canyon from us.
It [the fire] spotted across the canyon and was into
our hay before we knew it. . . . . Well, in a very short time cars were
arriving and men spilling out with sacks, buckets, shovels, etc. At least a
dozen cars came and they fought it out of the gulch leading up behind June’s
hen house and from Shockley’s and John Boehm’s. It might have got June’s
buildings had it come up that gulch. They were on that job all Sunday night,
Monday, and Monday night.
I called for Earl at Dryden’s as soon as I could,
and he made the grade in 15 minutes and drove right through to the syphon and
went right on down to where the fire had started and fought it alone there for
about an hour, then Jay C. and a few others thought they’d better go back down
there instead of following the fire head, and he was mighty glad of help. Later
that evening Henry Shockley came down to do our chores, and he and Irl stayed
down there all Sunday night. Earl came up and did chores Monday a.m. and took
breakfast back to Henry. They dug a trench down the canyon side to the old road
that day and back fired along it for there was danger of the fire crossing the
canyon and coming down on our side and it would have just swept us clean if it
had.
You see, the grass is awful thick over west and this
old fence row running through to the west from the “green grove” is a rod wide
at least and a regular fire trap, so with a west wind I don’t think we could
have saved the house after this grove got afire.
The Saturday night before this about 40 men went
into the canyon and using Aunt Maud’s old road up the canyon as a break, they
back fired to the creek to keep it from burning us out on this side, and then
it spotted across and came up here after all. Henry and Earl stayed on the fire
all day Monday. Shirley and Dad carried hot food and coffee to them as far as
they could without going down the steepest part, over the bench. That night
Earl came out again to milk and get more food while Henry pulled Mormon oats
and made a bed for them, and they slept on the fire Monday night and put in
most of Tuesday down there watching the back fire principally. Everything was
so awful dry.
You’ll wonder why someone had to do chores. Well,
Dad had a bad spell with his back. . . .
. Dad was better on Sunday, though, but
took his cane to help him get over to the fire and went and did some back
firing.
It was surely an awful time, and the danger great.
It went on way up the canyon and they had a terrible time with it up there and
finally Lewis County sent a deputy sheriff with an experienced fire fighter to
direct matters, and men rallied enough to put it out. The canyon doesn’t look
so bad as you’d think for it burned in patches sort of.
Dad went into the canyon yesterday and got a mess of
trout. He said there was quite a lot of water in the creek and the springs
seemed to be running good. Water is scarce on the hill, though, and people
hauling from Wheeler Springs. We had a nice rain last Saturday night and it has
cleared the atmosphere so that it is very beautiful now. Grain threshing is
done long ago and bean threshing all done except a job or so.
Earl and Bernice left for Idaho Falls August 29.
They came up and stayed one day and two nights with us. Earl was very tired. He
worked so hard on the fire and lost so much sleep, only got 19 hours the first
6 days he was on it. It came near to getting Dryden’s place, that is, only
strictest watching and back firing kept it out. Then that put the work back and
the heat was terrific. They had a good trip down [to Idaho Falls] and found
everything o.k. at the same little house they’ve had so long. ~Ina~
[Photos 1&2: Little Canyon views taken by Vance in 1960 with Earle's camera. The farm that you can see there is the Dieterle place where the hay burned. Photo 3 was taken by Earle in 1939 -- same view as #2. Photos 4 & 5 were taken in 1912. Photo 4 is "the old swimming hole" in Little Canyon Creek. Photo 5 is a canyon rock structure the children dubbed "the Great Pyramid."] KW
10 comments:
Oh my! So frightening to read about a fire. Ina told the story in great detail. FYI, The ages of the cast of characters: Grandpa Jack Dobson was 70. Grandma Ina Dobson was 64. Earl Dobson was 38. Bernice Dryden Dobson was 34. Henry Shockley was 29. Shirley Dobson Shockley was 25. Aunt Maud (a neighbor) was 67. The Dieterle brothers were 37 & 33.
Oops. Made a mistake on the Dieterle brothers ages. In 1934, Alvin Dieterle was 41 and Loris was 37.
Thanks for the fun facts, Leah! Of course, the Shockleys weren't married yet and wouldn't be for three more years. They were still "courting" and Ina said Henry was poor as a church mouse.
Mike and I are roughly the ages that Julian and Ina were then. Seventy doesn't seem as old now as it looked then. In fact, twenty-five seemed more mature then than it does now.
I didn't realize the place that is now the hunting club was the Dieterle's. My dad used to speak of the Dieterle place. I just didn't know what he was talking about, I guess.
Where is this creek/swimming hole? Is it still there? If so, we need to go exploring!
so very interesting!
I think the homesteading families were friends, and the children roamed freely over the countryside. To explore today as the children did then would be called trespassing.
My dad was friendly with Max Walker, the previous owner of the "Dieterle place," now the hunting club. When Max sold, he called my dad and invited him to come for one last fishing excursion in Little Canyon. We all got the picture -- the free roam was over.
The sad thing is, the place seems like a geological wonder, doesn't it?
Explain how we can find "Little Canyon" on Google maps. Is it the area with the trees stretching northwest to southwest of the farmhouse? It's easy to find the farm on Google. Just type "Dobson Road, Orofino, ID."
Maybe "Little Canyon Creek Road" is how to id the place.
Mike might help us locate Little Canyon. I have a map program on my computer (DeLorme)and the farmhouse is:
Latitude N 46° 27.709'
Longitute W 116° 29.016'
What are the coordinates of Little Canyon? Obviously not one spot.
Oops. Little error in the longitude. Longitude for the farm house is roughly
W 116° 19.016'
And I misspelled Longitude. Well, gee,it isn't a word in my every day language (and I ignored the spell-check warning).
Don't send me out to find buried gold!
It's fun to look at that satellite view. If you follow Dobson Road in the westerly direction, it makes a pronounced left (southerly) turn. Instead of following the road, continue westerly down a gulch. You'll come to Little Canyon Creek and Little Canyon Creek Road, which seems to parallel the creek but at a little distance. I'll mention your comments to Mike.
It's a beautiful afternoon here. Temps in the low 70s. Mike washed the car. Hard to believe I froze to death last Friday.
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