The Clearwater Story: A History of the Clearwater National Forest

In presenting this history of the Clearwater National Forest I have divided it into various activities or chapters. Some events do not logically fall under any of the activities I used and yet are too short to make a separate chapter. So I will combine a number of these items into one miscellaneous collection.

Firefinders - Before 1914 the detection of fires was by patrols. A patrol was usually two men who rode the higher ridges looking for fires. If they saw one they would go to it and try to put it out. If they couldn't put it out alone one man would go for help. In 1914 fixed detectors came into use. It was then that the use of an azimuth circle and alidade to give readings and cross-readings on a fire came into use. In Region One this system was first used on the Lolo Forest where Elers Koch invented the Koch board. This simple tool was later refined by Bosworth in 1927 in Region One and Osborne and others in other regions. The boards all had the same basic idea.

The Pulaski Tool - There have been a number of hand tools for fighting forest fires invented. There was the Koch, Council, Lillevig and the Pulaski tool. They were all tried and some of them may still be used locally, but in Region One the Pulaski accompanied by the shovel have stood the test of time as the best combination. The Pulaski is a combination of an axe and a mattock. It is not as good a digging tool as the mattock or as good a chopping tool as the axe but it serves the purpose of both and thus eliminates one tool.

The Pulaski Tool was first invented by Ranger Pulaski of Wallace in 1909 or 1910, although blacksmiths in other localities were making them shortly thereafter without knowledge of Pulaski's work. In making the Pulaski the local blacksmiths destroyed the temper in the axe so that it was a poor axe. I remember the first Pulaski I worked with. I limbed a tree, cutting off several dead limbs. When I finished the blade of the Pulaski was bent and full of nicks. In 1924 the Kelly Axe company redesigned it and tempered it properly. The Pulaski then became a good tool.

Tool and Mess outfits were first developed by Bob McLaughlin of the Blackfeet Forest in 1914. He worked up outfits for 10, 15, 25, and 50 men. All these sizes of outfits could be found on the Forest until about 1924 when Procurement and Supply (P&S) revamped them and eliminated the 10 and 15 man outfits which were seldom used. The 25 and 50 man outfits have undergone numerous changes but the 25 man outfit is still in use.

The Spokane Warehouse resulted from the 1919 fires. It came into being in 1923 under O.C. Bradeen and was a very efficient outfit, furnishing tools and supplies, not only to Region One, but to all other firefighting agencies in the Northwest. It was terminated in 1967 when the fire center at Boise took over its functions on a larger scale.

The first kapok beds came into use in 1931. They were too short for men and the feet were not adequately covered but they were a big improvement over the worn out army blankets the Forest Service had been using since World War One. Their faults were soon corrected. In the early days of the smokejumpers, to cut down on the weight of packs, the goose down bed was developed. They were light and warm. The only difficulty with them was that once they were sent to a forest it was very difficult to get them returned.

In about 1929 the bulldozer was invented. At first these machines lacked power but they were steadily improved. In 1923 the so-called 35 was in use and then they were soon followed by the 55. In 1944 the D7 and other machines came onto the market.

These machines revolutionized road building and firefighting. Roads were built faster and at far less cost than the old hand labor-horse drawn scraper method.

These machines were used on fires as early as 1934 on the McLendon Butte fire by Clarence Sutliff but they were not very effective. By 1940 they were far more useful, but it wasn't until 1944 that the D7 and similar machines had adequate power for firefighting.

Since these machines made road building much easier they also revolutionized logging. The P.F.I. continued to log by railroad and drove the Clearwater River until 1972, but all other logging outfits went to roads in about 1935.

Pioneer Justice. The methods used in bringing law offenders to justice and the action by the courts have changed greatly since the early days of the Forest Service. The two cases that follow will serve as illustrations.

Ranger Ralph Hand once took a man before the local Justice of the Peace and charged him with leaving a campfire burning. In due time the judge asked the defendant if he was guilty or not guilty, to which the reply was "Not guilty". Whereupon the judge said "Not guilty! Of course, you are guilty! Haven't you owed me ten dollars for the past five years? I fine you twenty five dollars".

The following story about Ranger Ed McKay was first told to me by W.W. White, who was Ed's Supervisor when it happened, then by Earl Tennant, Ed's brother-in-law, and finally by Bud Moore. They each told it a little differently but the essentials are the same. I have supplied the conversation as it might have been.

Ranger Ed McKay came upon a man just as he shot an insulator off a Forest Service telephone line. Ed said to him, "I have always wanted to catch one of you monkeys who do tricks like that. Don't you know that puts the line out of order and is against the law?"

The man replied that he had not thought much about it.

Ed said, "I could take you to court for this or I can settle it right here by giving you a good trouncing. Which shall it be".

The man said, "Let's settle it right here".

So they squared away and went at it. Ed was a huge man outweighing his opponent by at least forty pounds but what Ed didn't know was that he faced a prize fighter. In the action which followed Ed found that he couldn't hit his adversary who danced out of the way but repeatedly hit Ed with stinging punches. Ed decided he would have to get a hold on his opponent so he made a rush at him. The result was that Ed found himself sitting on the ground looking at his adversary through fast closing eyes.

Ed said "You win." Got on his horse and rode away.

Paint Guns. In 1944 the paint gun replaced the marking axe for designating trees to be cut and for marking sale boundaries. I believe it was first used on the Kootenai. It was brought about by the wartime shortage of manpower and declining skill in the use of the axe. It has saved a lot of time and accidents.

Power Saws. Power saws for purposes other than cutting fuel became practical in 1945. The early models were very crude. They weighed about 85 pounds and required two men to operate them. They were rapidly improved. By 1950 lightweight makes operated by one man were used everywhere in the woods.

Meal Drops. In 1940 P&S made some insulated containers and began dropping hot meals by parachute to fire camps. This practice had expanded some before 1959. Now a large part of the firefighter meals are delivered either by helicopter or parachute.

Aerial Photography. Using photographs taken from aircraft to make maps started 1930. Howard Flint and Jim Yule did a lot of work on this. The first road in the U.S.A. to be designed from aerial photos was the section of Highway 12 through the Black Canyon.

Water Drops. Experiments in dropping water from an airplane were first tried by Howard Flint in the late 1920's. He found it impractical for two reasons. It was very difficult to hit a small fire and then water dropped at high speeds breaks into mist that does not go to the ground. After World War II, containers that opened with a proximity fuse were tried but were not sufficiently accurate to be practical. Then the Forest Service began dropping sludges. These are used all over the country now and are effective in slowing a fire down until a fireline can be built. They will sometimes put out a fire in grass or other light fuel but they are not dependable.

Land Exchange. In 1924 legislation was passed that permitted land exchanges and gifts of land to the National Forest. A large area now in the Clearwater Forest was acquired under this act through donations from the counties, Potlatch and Clearwater Timber Companies. A large part of the Palouse District and a sizeable area in Beaver Creek was donated to the Clearwater National Forest.

Whiskey Trouble. The personnel of the Forest Service have long enjoyed a reputation of being good citizens and being able to work together in the greatest of harmony even when under the stress of firefighting or other emergency. There were exceptions. For example, take the following incident which was related to me by James Urquhart, a Ranger of the Clearwater starting in 1918.

It was in the fall of 1918 on the Chamberlain Meadows District. The fire season was over. There had been a snowstorm that covered the high country with snow, but it had melted except along the creeks and in shaded places. The lookouts and trail crews had all been discharged for the year. The only forest men left on the district were the Ranger Henry Knight and the packer. They were closing the buildings for the winter. The Clearwater Mining Company had also laid off its crews but hired a man who had worked at Chamberlain Meadows Ranger Station during the summer to stay at their camp to shovel the snow off the buildings etc. This man also planned to do a little trapping during the winter.

Ranger Knight was raised at Pierce. He had worked for the Forest Service for several summers and passed the Ranger examination the previous year. He had received a probational appointment early in 1918. He was a good woodsman and a man of great strength and endurance. Few men could match him in hiking over the mountains. So far he had a successful year and could expect to receive his firm appointment. However, men who had worked with him knew he had a terrible temper and would resort to acts of violence when enraged. Once in a fit of anger he shot one of his horses.

In 1918 Idaho was a dry state but Montana was wet. Since Knight had a taste for whiskey he decided that as far as liquor laws were concerned Montana lapped far enough west to take in the Ranger Station. Therefore, when he took over the Ranger District, in the early spring, he purchased a small cask of whiskey in Superior, Montana. He kept this cached in a grove of trees near the creek a short distance from the cabin. Other workers at the station knew that it was there but they also knew they better keep hands off.

For the final closing of the buildings Ranger Knight had gone to one of the lookouts where he would stay over night and return to the station in the morning. The packer was to make his final departure the next morning for Superior, Montana with the packstock. He was to leave Knight's two horses for him to take out by way of Pierce.

The next morning the packer got things together and left for Montana but it was almost noon before he got started. Shortly after he left the trapper working for Clearwater Mining arrived at the station from a different direction. He found no one at the station. He knew the location of the whiskey cache and thought what a wonderful addition it would make to his winter supplies if he could someway get it without being suspected of theft and being called to account by the owner.

As explained before there had been a snowstorm a few days before and there were still spots of snow in shady places. There was no snow at the cabin but the whiskey cache was surrounded by snow. The trapper then noticed a pair of rubber shoes hanging on a nail driven into the cabin under the porch. He recognized them as belonging to the packer who had left them there because he would not need them at lower elevations. The trapper quickly changed his shoes for the rubbers, got the cask of whiskey and changed back to this shoes again. He hung the rubbers back on the nail and with the whiskey disappeared.

Ranger Knight arrived at the station shortly thereafter. He decided that his hike in from the lookout merited a suitable reward and went to the cache. The whiskey was gone! His rage knew no bounds! He quickly noticed the tracks and the wet rubber shoes. He had no doubt about who took the whiskey and decided he would pursue the packer! He took out after him!

The trail to Montana forked. One branch followed the divide. The other left the divide, went down to the mine, then back to the divide near the head of Bostonian Creek where the trails rejoined. The trail past the mine was on a better grade so the packer took that route. He traveled at an ordinary gait since he had no reason to suspect trouble. Ranger Knight took the other route and since he was travelling fast reached the junction of the trails first.

Ranger Knight met the packer and at gunpoint demanded that he unload the whiskey. The packer protested that he did not have it. After a few angry words Knight gave him three choices, either produce the whiskey, pay him fifty dollars or die on the spot. Of course, the packer paid the fifty dollars and went on his way.

The further the packer went the more determined he became to do something to punish Knight for robbing him of fifty dollars. He discharged his duties at Superior and then took the train to Wallace where he swore out a complaint of armed robbery against Knight. When Knight was brought to court he admitted he had forced the packer to pay him fifty dollars but told the court that he had been robbed by the packer. This the packer denied. The judge then stated that since Knight admitted the charge he found him guilty and if he wished to file a charge of theft against the packer he was at liberty to do so. He then sentenced Knight to six months in prison. Of course, Knight lost his position as Forest Ranger.

The next spring when Urquhart took the district over he hired the trapper who had stolen the whiskey. He did not hire the packer because he assumed he had something to do with the theft of the whiskey and didn't want a trouble maker in his outfit. Then one day the trapper told Urquhart what he had done and considered it a big joke. Urquhart told him that it was a fool trick that may have resulted in someone getting killed. The trapper admitted that it turned out far more serious than he anticipated.

He was sorry for the packer but said that as far as Knight was concerned it was a good thing for the Forest Service. He didn't think that Knight would actually go as far as shooting someone.

But Knight would go that far. Up to this time Knight had been guilty of some minor infractions of the law, but from that time on he led a life of crime. He was in and out of prisons. He finally committed murder at Butte, Montana. When surrounded by police, he took his own life.

Computers - The computer has brought changes in almost every activity of the Clearwater Forest. The payrolls were the first to be computerized in about 1955 and this was quickly followed by road engineering. Then came timber management and fire control in 1969. No doubt the services provided by computers have greatly shortened the amount of labor time required, but they have also had their limitations. They can solve a complex mathematical problem in a split second, but there are some situations, especially in an area like fire control, where only good, common sense on the part of an experienced fire fighter can solve the problem at hand.

Multiple Use - The Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act was passed in 1970. It was hailed by some as a major change in Forest Service policy. I think, however, it merely confirmed what the Forest Service has been doing all along.

Unique Plants - The Clearwater Valley has a number of plants found no other place in Idaho. These plants are common along the Oregon Coast and inland to some extent along the Columbia River as far east as The Dalles. Plants so far separated from their normal habitat are called disjunct species. This simply means "disconnected".

These species became disconnected from the coast through a geological change which brought about a plant change. At one time the portion of the Cascade Mountains south of the Columbia River were much lower than at present. At that time rainfall was much heavier along the Snake River as well as along the Columbia below the mouth of the Snake and in the Clearwater Country. The forest of the coast extended east and covered not only the portion of the Columbia that is now desert but also the Clearwater valleys.

When the Cascades rose they cut off a great deal of the rainfall over the country to the east. The area immediately east of the Cascades became a desert, or nearly so. The forests died or were burned so often they ceased to exist. Only the species in the warm, wet portions of the Clearwater survived.

There are a number of these disjunct plants, but perhaps the best known is the Pacific dogwood (cornus nutalli). This plant has a large white flower (botanically, a group of flowers or a cyme) surrounded by white sepals. It blooms in May and sometimes in September. It is a beautiful flower. Its leaves turn scarlet after the first frost, making it a very attractive plant then too.

The only place it grows in Idaho, as far as I know, is from the mouth of Lodge Creek on the Middle Fork of the Clearwater upstream to about a half mile above the mouth of Fish Creek on the Lochsa River. On the Selway it reaches to about Selway Falls. I have heard reports that it grows elsewhere, but I doubt this. At least I have never seen Pacific dogwood anywhere else in Idaho. It is most abundant from the Selway-Lochsa junction up the Lochsa to the mouth of Old Man Creek.

I first saw this shrub in 1924, but it was already well known locally by that time. The oldest record I have found which makes reference to this plant is John Leiberg's 1900 report. He wrote:

"This shrub is of rare occurrence in the Bitter Root Reserve, being confined in its range to the bottom lands and stream banks of the central and lower portions of the Middle Fork and Selway Valleys. Its altitudinal range extends to the 2800 foot contour line, but it is chiefly found in proximity to the banks of the two streams mentioned, at elevations below the 1800 foot level.

"That the species should occur in the fauna of the Clearwater drainage is remarkable. Its home in this latitude is in the Cascades and, so far as is known, it does not grow at any intermediate station."

Dr. Shattuck of the School of Forestry at the University of Idaho also recorded its presence in 1910.

In 1977 the Lochsa Research Natural Area was created to encompass and protect these unusual species. It is approximately 1300 acres in size.

Glaciers - The Clearwater country had numerous local glaciers. These glaciers usually formed on the north and east side of a mountain or high ridge. That was because the snow melted less on the north side and because the winds in this part of the world generally blow northeast. Much snow which fell on the ridges drifted to the valleys to the northeast. However, some of the glaciers first started moving in a northerly direction, but the valley course turned south. These glaciers, through their slow grinding and pushing, produced results which are very noticeable today. Let us consider some of these results

There are a number of lakes, ranging in size from ponds to lakes about a mile long in the high country. These lakes were all formed by glaciers. Some are called craters, but I have never seen a lake on the Clearwater not formed by a glacier. There are few lakes that I have not visited.

There are also quite a few meadows on the forest. Some of the meadows, especially in the Weippe and Grangemont areas, are the result of lava flows. In the high country there were lakes formed by glaciers and then filled with silt. When the outlet eroded, the lake and its silt would flow out, forming a meadow.

Traveling up a stream which arises in the high country, a visitor's first sight of glacial action is a terminal moraine, a ridge of rocks, sand, gravel and mud left by the glacier when its leading edge melted and receded. These moraines are often easily picked out, but sometimes water action removed much of the moraine and left only portions noticeable on either side of a valley. Above the moraine the valley is usually U-shaped from the grinding and scraping action of the glacier.

Occasionally the glaciers did some unusual and interesting things.

I will give a few examples. Kelly Creek is formed by the joining of the North and South Forks of Kelly Creek. Glaciers came down both of these valleys. They joined and moved on down to below the mouth of Bear Creek.

When they melted back, the glacier coming down the North Fork, being from a lower country than the one from the South Fork and being more exposed to the sun, melted first. The water coming out of the North Fork formed a pond back of the glacier which built up until it ran over a low ridge and came back to the Kelly Creek below its original mouth. When the glacier in the South Fork melted back to above the old channel of the North Fork it left so much mud, rocks, etc., in the mouth of the North Fork that it never returned to its original channel. The trail up the North Fork goes up through the old channel because the new one is still quite steep and rocky.

Another good example of ice action is on the Lolo Divide at the head of Squaw Creek. A glacier formed in the high country at the head of Cayuse Creek and moved downstream. The leading edge was many miles downstream near the Cayuse Landing Field.

At Cayuse Junction this glacier was very thick. In fact, it was so thick a portion of it was higher than Cayuse Saddle. The result was that water from the glacier drained down into Squaw Creek. So great was the volume of water and so steep the grade that the water tore out portions of the hills sloping into Squaw Creek. The result was some very steep, cliffy country in the head of Squaw Creek. The Lolo Divide was also worn down so that the top of the divide is now much further north than it was before the glacier. Had this eroding process continued a few more thousand years, it is likely that the head of Cayuse Creek would have drained into the Lochsa River. However, before this could happen the glacier melted and the stream returned to its old channel.

Although glacial action was mainly confined to the higher portions of the Clearwater, the water from melting glaciers had marked effects on the rivers below. The increased flow caused the rivers to cut deeper into the earth. That is the reason the Clearwater and its branches have steeper side walls near their bottoms than on the high banks. The banks before the glaciers formed a flat V or a U, but the water action changed them to a broken V. After the glaciers the lower part of the broken V began to fill and are still filling because there is not enough water to remove the material that washes and rolls in from above.

Minor Events

First pack bridge built at Bungalow, 1914; burned 1919.

Second pack bridge built a Bungalow, 1920.

Bungalow built by Nat Brown, 1905; burned 1919.

Fish Lake Landing Field started in 1933; finished 1935.

Cayuse Landing Field built 1935.

Big flood years were 1933 and 1948.

Big floods tore out Isabella, Grasshopper, Skull, Quartz and Larson Creeks in 1933 just before Christmas.

The flood of May 1948 came out of almost every major stream.

Big floods came out of Orofino Creek in December 1933 and May 1957.

Fire Creek washed out in July 1952.

Split Creek washed out in May 1931.

Willow and Lower Fish Creek washed out in July 1953.

The first use of an airplane to scout fires on the Clearwater Forest was in 1926 on the Skull Creek Fire.

The first use of smokejumpers on the Clearwater was in 1944.

The first delivery of men on a fire by helicopter was in 1959 on a fire in Old Man Creek.

The first supply drop from an airplane was in 1933. It was a free fall drop. Parachutes were used beginning in 1938.

The Lochsa Lodge was built in 1931 by Andrew Erickson.

The last grizzly bear killed on the forest was in the 1950's at Colt Creek Camp.

The Dworshak Dam was completed in 1972.

The Wild Rivers Act passed in 1968.