Latest / Street Smart Naturalist / The Biggest Burn: Yacolt 1902

Transcript

The Biggest Burn: Yacolt 1902 · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist, Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every week I share my observations and adventures with the human
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode looks at the most catastrophic and perhaps little known fire in
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: the history of Washington State.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: including my next book,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: from which this episode is adapted, please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: You will also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my previous five years
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: of newsletters, as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 89 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Biggest Burn, Yakult, 1902, August 27, 2026.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: 2026 is turning into one of the worst fire seasons in Washington history.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: The reasons are many.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: A fourth straight year of drought,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: unusually hot weather, Previous forest management each play a role.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: The last is perhaps the most important,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: that forests across the state are primed to burn because how we have managed them
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: for the past 100 plus years.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Intriguingly,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: the long-held belief in Washington state that wildfire is one of the great evils of
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: the world and must be held in check,
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: which has dictated many people's relationships to wildflowers,
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: can be traced back to a single fire,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: the Yakult Burn of 1902, still the state's most deadly.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say that a man named Monroe Vallott started the Yakult burn by torching
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: the debris left behind after logging.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Other people accused workers who lit a wasp nest on fire and the flames spread out of control.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: More than likely,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: the Yakult burn originated at multiple locations and was fanned by warm,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: dry east winds coming over the Cascades and down the Columbia Gorge.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: No matter who is to blame,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: the roaring tempest swept death and destruction that torched at least 238,920 acres
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: in Washington.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The fire began around noon on September 11,
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: 1902, near the town of Yakult, about 30 miles northeast of Portland.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Within hours, the smoke led to chickens starting to roost.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: North of the school, flames exploded into balls of fire, killing 11 people out for a picnic.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And 50 miles away, the smoke-tinted sun caused people to drop to their knees and pray.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: By the time the fire mostly burned out,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: it had destroyed trees estimated to contain 12 billion board feet of wood,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: killed at least 38 people,
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: forced at least 146 families out of their homes,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: ruined schools,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: churches,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: bridges, mines, and sawmills, and killed uncountable livestock and wild animals.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Yakult burn was so big and deadly,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: it led to regulations and practices that have guided firefighting
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: in Washington State for more than a century.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: One direct result of the conflagration was the initial establishment of
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: the Weyerhaeuser Company as a major login concern.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: In 1902,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Frederick Weyerhaeuser,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: who had started in the lumber industry in Illinois in the 1850s,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: acquired 900,000 acres of land in Washington State.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: At the time,
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Weyerhaeuser's company consisted of a handful of employees in Tacoma and
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: a small mill in Everett.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: They had no plans to start harvesting their timber.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Yakult burn, though,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: torched 20,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser timber,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: and the company realized they needed to recoup potential losses.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Known as salvage logging, was harvesting burned out trees that could be cut into usable lumber.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Over the next two decades,
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Weyerhaeuser salvaged as much as 75 million board feet annually,
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: ultimately helping to jumpstart the company's rise as
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: the region's dominant logging business and one of the country's most prominent.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Such salvage logging has continued to the present as a widespread
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: and controversial technique across the Cascades.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Studies have found that removing dead trees after
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: a fire disrupts ecosystem dynamics,
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: contributes to increased erosion because of road building,
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: results in overall loss for organic carbon,
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: and has a negative effect on cavity nesting species such as the northern spotted owl
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: because of the removal of dead trees.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: As Weyerhaeuser expanded and thrived,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: the company began to lobby journalists and legislators,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: which soon resulted in statewide fire prevention legislation.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Weyerhaeuser and other lumber companies also funded forest protection agencies
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: to develop,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: promote,
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: and keep in the public eye the idea that fire was the enemy of good forestry
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: and needed to be defeated at all costs.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: The war against fire had begun, and the logging companies were its leading supporters.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The newly developed policies around suppression also led to a new feature of
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: the forest, fire lookouts.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Beginning around 1915,
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: these structures began to pop up on high points across the mountains,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: with at least 450 lookouts eventually located in the Cascades.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those who staffed them had one primary goal, to spot and stop the spread of fires.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: In 1935,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: the U.S.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Forest Service codified this operating principle under their 10 a.m.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: rule, which aimed to extinguish a fire by that time the morning after detection.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Nine years later,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: the Forest Service started the Smokey Bear anti-fire campaign and fire became
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: a public enemy.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: After the Yakult burn,
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: fire in the Cascades was no longer seen as an aspect of nature one could tolerate or
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: as a process with ecological benefits.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like wolves and bears and other predators,
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: fire in the eyes of settlers,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: lumber companies, and government agencies was the enemy.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was a menace that stood in the way of progress.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: It had to be stopped at all costs.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: We are now paying the consequences with forests and communities not resilient to fire.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my walks, talks,
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: and books,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: including In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: along with a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Check out my website,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: geologywriter.com,
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: and don't forget to slow down, pay attention, and enjoy the world around you.