Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1889 — FOREST AND PRAIRIE FIRES. [ARTICLE]

FOREST AND PRAIRIE FIRES.

Destroying Numerous Cattle Ranches and Threatening Towns In Montana. Forest fires, which have been raging all over Montana for three weeks, have destroyed hundreds of thousands of doliara’ worth of timber, and have reached most alarming .iproportions. A gentleman in from northern Montana reports that ranges in Choteau county which heretofore have escaped, and on which cattle men were depending to keep this winter thousands l ' of head of cattle, are on fire, and all the big companies have their men out trying to suppress toe flames. In two days tbe fire traveled over a section sixty miles wide and one hundred miles in length. In Deer Lodge county the town of Georgetown is surrounded by fire, and a strong wind brought the flames within five miles of Phillipsburg. The mill of the Bimetallic Milling Company, near that town, is in great danger, and the fire is traveling toward it with great rapidity. Couriers who arrived at Phillipsburg from Georgetown, at midnight, reported that the utmost consternation prevailed in the town, and a large force was organized to go to tho rescujh In the Yellowstone country the pineries fires covers an area of eight miles, and is spreading rapidly. Ranges in that section have been almost entirely destroyed, the fire extending nearly from Miles City to Galendive. A letter received Monday from Forsythe says that Henry Casey, J. P. Harrison, and two cowboys recently from Texas, who were out fighting the fire in the vicinity, are missing, and it is feared they have perished.