MOVING HISTORY FORWARD: Roman Nose Burn

The history of North Idaho has and always will be shaped by the naturally occurring wildfires caused by random lightning strikes.

Until Aug. 11 the summer of 1967 was not an especially active fire season in Idaho’s Panhandle. On that date the fire index topped out. Lightning strikes set five fires in the Selkirk and Cabinet ranges. Four were immediately extinguished. Three days later, the fifth fire was spotted on Sundance Mountain. Extremely dry conditions now caused this fire to expand as well as new fires throughout the Panhandle (Trapper Peak 18,000 acres and Plume Creek 1,200 acres).

Many of these fires were extinguished by Aug. 29; however, around 10 p.m. word came that the “Sundance” fire was no longer contained. By Sept. 1 it had doubled its size and was now being supported by high temperatures, falling humidity and a strong southwest wind. The wind produced a dreaded “firestorm” which reached a speed of 95 mph and thrust smoke and debris 30,000 feet into the atmosphere. Once over the Selkirk Divide the 4-mile-wide fire raced 10 miles in 3 hours, burning Apache Ridge and most of the Pack River Drainage.

Two firefighters died, Luther P. Rodarte and Lee Collins Thompson. Their bodies were found huddled under the bulldozer which Collins had been operating. Thompson had been sent to lead him to safety when they both were overrun by the fast-moving flames.

The heat was so intense that the timber on the west side of Roman Nose Peak erupted spontaneously into flames before the fire actually reached the area. It was reported that the explosive nature of the heated air ripped trees out by their roots and hurdled them over the top of the Peak.

Decades earlier the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC), a Federal Government “Great Depression” program designed to provide work, had built a fire lookout station on Roman Nose Peak. Randy Langston, 18, was manning the lookout station on the day the fire started in his direction. All he could see was thick smoke. Fortunately, has radio was working well. His contact instructed him to leave the station immediately and gave directions where he could go to be safe and meet someone who would take him to safety.

Randy complied. A half-hour later he was near the pickup point when he met a wall of flames.

He retreated to the station. Twenty minutes later, the west slope of Apache Ridge exploded. (Apache Ridge runs up to the top of Roman Nose Peak from the south.) Randy had been spotted by a circling airplane whose pilot told him to take his radio and get into a rocky crevasse below the station.

Randy spent the night huddled in the rock, and when the fire had passed, he was able to flee down the mountain, where a helicopter was waiting to fly him to safety. The lookout did not survive.

The MoNI has a great exhibit dedicated to fire lookouts and the CCC that built most of them. Be sure to see the discussion of Clyde Fickes who built the early lookouts. Also, take time to learn about how a “Heliograph” uses the sun to communicate long distances by code.

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Richard Sheldon is a member of the Museum of North Idaho board of directors.