Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/573



in the fall frosts killed the wild grass and in a few weeks it became dry and would readily burn. Many of the recent settlers were not aware of the danger and neglected to take the proper precaution for safety of their buildings, stacks and even the families. Emigrants crossing the great prairies and camping at night where water could be found, late in the autumn, were often the victims of carelessness or ignorance of danger. There can be no more fearful sight or situation than the approach of a prairie fire before a strong wind in the night. The horizon is lighted up in the distance with a vivid glow, and dense columns of black smoke ascend in darkening clouds as the long line of fire circles far to the right and left. At first the sight is grand beyond description as the rays of the glowing red rise higher and higher and the smoke rolls upward in increasing density. But soon an ominous roar is heard in the distance as the hurricane of fire is driven with an ever-increasing wind, exceeding the speed of a race horse, and the stifling atmosphere glows with the smothering heat of a sirocco from a parched desert. Escape for man or beast is impossible unless a back fire has been started in time to meet the advancing tornado of resistless heat that can only be staid by a counter-fire. Houses, barns, stacks, fences, bridges and all animal life are quickly destroyed as the hot blasts strike them and in a moment the ground is left a blackened, blistering waste of desolation. The ruin of the camp or farm is as complete as the wreck of a burning town, or the track of a tornado. Scores of people and hundreds of homes were annual victims of these fires in the early years of scattered farms on the great prairies, before experience brought to emigrants and settlers the wisdom to protect their lives and property by timely back-fires as soon as the frost had killed the grass.

It was during these years of hard winters when the homestead settlers ventured far out on the wild prairies at great distances from timber and before railroads had