"The Big Blowup"

"The Big Blowup" (HM235K)

Location: Wallace, ID 83873 Shoshone County
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Country: United States of America
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N 47° 28.641', W 115° 56.016'

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Inscription

In two terrifying days in August 1910,

—nearly the whole of the Bitterroot Mountain Range was consumed in a fiery holocaust —

Walls of flame pushed by hurricane-force winds raced through the region, trapping fire crews, destroying mines, homesteads, and igniting towns.
Much of the town of Wallace, Idaho was left in ashes.

In the end, over 1,700 fires ravaged three million acres throughout the western U.S. and killed at least eighty-five people in the summer of 1910.
August 20th and 21st were the two most grueling and deadly days of that searing hell.

Amidst the political haggling over the newly formed U.S. Forest Service, not only its mission, but is very existence was in question.
With abnormally low amounts of precipitation and soaring, high temperatures, disaster was inevitable.
The heroic efforts of the Forest Service's overwhelmed rangers, who lost 78 firefighters in the firestorm, touched the hearts of the public and prompted legislative action.

The Great Fire of that summer 1910, led to significant changes in the nation's forest fire fighting policy and continues to influence forest management to this day.
Details
HM NumberHM235K
Tags
Year Placed2010
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, November 24th, 2017 at 7:05am PST -08:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)11T E 580348 N 5258763
Decimal Degrees47.47735000, -115.93360000
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 47° 28.641', W 115° 56.016'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds47° 28' 38.46" N, 115° 56' 0.95999999999989" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)208
Closest Postal AddressAt or near The Harry F. Magnuson Way, Wallace ID 83873, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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