Prairie fires were a harsh reality of life in Dakota Territory. The blazes were often fast-moving and deadly. On this date in 1886, residents of the Bottineau area were dealing with the aftermath of a recent three-day prairie fire that burned about 500 square miles. A local history book recounts the fire as “probably the greatest forest and range fire in the history of the area.”
The fire was first spotted by its “lurid glare” in the west at night as it moved along the Mouse River. High winds drove the flames. Residents plowed fire breaks around buildings. With the courthouse thought to be in danger, a clerk of court gathered the courthouse records and his own possessions into trunks, hauled them to the town square, and sat on them to keep them safe! Bottineau’s new railroad grade helped halt the fire, but the blaze continued to burn in the Turtle Mountains. A newspaper item that week suggests how the fire may have ended, noting: “Rain, rain beneficent rain.”
Barely a week later, Turtle Mountain residents again dealt with “the dreaded prairie fire fiend.” The Dunseith and Willow City areas were “one unbroken scene of desolation,” reported The Bottineau Pioneer newspaper. Hillsides, plains and meadows were blackened and burned. Many people lost everything, including their homes and crops. One settler estimated the fire burned 300 square miles of timber.
The Dunseith Herald carried a dramatic description of the fire: “The flames leaped upward to the top of the trees with marvelous rapidity, steadily advancing with a roar that was almost deafening. In the paths of the avalanche of fire were numerous small lakes. When the flames met the water there would be a temporary halt, but it seemed as if it was only to gather renewed fury, as in a short time the fiery tongues would dart up from thousands of throats and extending clear across the water to the woods on the other side. In an instant the lake would be covered with a garment of flame, and, as the fire advanced, would give forth a shower of steam and debris as from a volcano.”
Rain, finally, put an end to the fire after about two weeks.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
- Diamond Anniversary Publication Committee. (1959). Diamond jubilee 1884-1959: A brief history of the county of Bottineau, North Dakota. N.p.
- The Bottineau Pioneer. 1886, September 30. Page 1: A close call
- The Bottineau Pioneer. 1886, October 7. Page 1: Local items
- The Bottineau Pioneer. 1886, October 21. Page 4: Dunseith
- The Wahpeton Times. 1886, October 28. Page 2: General news notes, One Hundred Miles of Flames
