MINNESOTA PRAIRIE FIRE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 66, 22 December 1871, Page 3

MINNESOTA PRAIRIE FIRE.

From a party lately arrived in this city from Dakota, who travelled some days through and along the burning district of Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota, we glean the following. We use the language of our informant: For some days previous to leaving Cheyenne River, in Dakota, at a point seventyfive miles west of the crossing of the Northern Pacific Railroad, at Red River, a dense smoky atmosphere prevailed, which each day grew more dense, warning us that immense “ prairie fires ” were approaching our quarters rapidly, and our party deemed it prudent to move eastward as fast as possible. We made immediate preparations, but found that we were in the saddle none too soon, lhe intense heat and smoke affected us very much, and soon after starting we weie forced to ride as rapidly as it was possible for our beasts to carry us. All through the long day we toiled along, our eyes nearly blinded; with parched throat, and cracked lips and intense thirst; we rode on and on, till at night-fall we came in sight of Red River, having ridden seventy-five miles without rest or halt but once. Glad weie the hearts of our party, and much rejoicing was there at our escape from great danger, if not from loss of life. At points along the route the wall of ilames would be quite near us. Its roar could bo heard many miles,and its rapid motion was surprising. The line of fire seemed to be a solid wall of flame of about twenty to thirty feet in height, and moved as rapidly as a fleet horse could run. Occasionally a portion of the line would break away in bodies of forty or more feet square, and be carried, with almost electric rapidity, a distance of fifty or a hundred rods ahead, and then strike the high, dry grass, which would immediately ignite and add its destroying force to the already gigantic conflagration. After resting at Red River, our party, reduced to three persons, proved on eastward and southward, passing over a district but lately burned. We could not distinguish an object fifty yards away. Great, heavy clouds of smoke hanging, like a pall, through all the distance of two hundred and fifty miles we travelled, before reaching the Mississippi River, and even there the smoke was very oppressive. We deviated somewhat from a usual route travelled, and found at different points the charred remains of three human beings, nothing loft but the bodies, and those burned to a crisp. The sight was horrible in all particulars, and not a thing could be found that would in any way identify the burned corpses. We heard of one case that showed great presence of mind and much calmness. A man who had been with Sherman in his “ march to the sea,” was caught in the midst of a fire which was approaching him from .all sides. Having no matches to create what is called “ setting a back fire,” and death staring him in the face, his wit suggested a “ gopher hole.” Setting at work with the will a man would use in working for his life, he attacked the sod with a large hunting-knife. Cutting quite a large piece away, he rolled it back, and at once commenced throwing the soft, dry earth upward and outward, and soon had a hole dug of sufficient size to admit his body.. Carefully drawing the cod toward him, he succeeded in drawing it over his body, and then filled up the 11 chinks” from dirt within. He lay thereuntil the fire passed over him and was speeding furiously on its way miles distant; then slowly lie crawled out of his living grave, heated fearfully, but injured in no way whatever. Ilis soldier experience had saved his life. No one who has not witnessed this besom of destruction on the “ plains,” can form any idea of its magnitude, its velocity, its fiendish-like cruelty, its thundering roar, and its vast destruction. The latest information we had was that the fire had reached the “ Big Woods,” about 200 miles northwest of La Crosse, and was raging furiously, destroying everything it came in contact with, houses, barns, cattle, everything is lost to settler and farmer who are in the track of the destroying element. In the peat country the fire will linger much longer than on the prairies, and do much more damage, as it destroys the earth.