Whitewater News & Opinion for Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Again, Happy Birthday to all who celebrated birthdays in September. This includes Irene Wendlen (my friend from Chinook).

Mrs. Stenvick, Anita Wisher, and others attended a Baptist Women’s Conference in Great Falls.

“Get Well Wishes” to Pastor Bob Nagy, who had surgery and is home now. Pastor Steve Schumacher is preaching at Whitewater for now.

As a change of pace here’s a chapter out of Dad’s book titled “Prairie Fire”.

Prairie Fire

My brother, Howard, and I met Dane on horseback the day he went to Malta to get his final payment to turn the ranch over to the new owner. He stopped his car and said to me, “Harry, I thought I would be glad to leave but now I hate to go.”

We talked awhile and I asked him, “Where is the fire?”, as the air was full of smoke and had been for two or three days. He replied, “The fire is in Canada.” He said “Goodbye” and went along to town. My brother and I didn’t think it was there, as the smoke was backing in against a southeast wind. We hadn’t ridden far until we could see the fire!

It was a few miles west, about where Loring is now. We followed the trail to the fork going north and south. We looked over the situation and wondered how we could fight it. The only equipment we had was our jackets and slickers. We made a backfire, that’s where you burn a strip and when the main fire gets to it, it will go out. We worked from early afternoon until late, about 2 o’clock the next morning putting it out. We had no water and no supper. I was about 16 then and Howard was about 12 or 13. We were both played out. That was in August.

We finally met 2 or 3 fellows who came from the north and 3 or 4 from the south that helped put out the fire. They had eaten and were rested. They told us, “Go back along the edge of the burnt and see if the fire’s out,” so we did, and it was. But sometime during the night, the wind came up and started it again, going down a coulee only a foot wide in one place, and it burned the beautiful Dane place! The ranch house, barn corrals, and hay were gone. There was nothing left, the fire had destroyed it all! Dane, or the new owner, didn’t know it until two days later. The new owners were the losers.

But Dane lost all his personal property that he had reserved. He came down to our place, riding his pet horse bareback because his saddles and bridles had been burned. He and Dad had run a roundup wagon together for cattle.