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Ernest de Massey (ND-ND) http://tinyurl.com/deMassey

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Flaming Columns

From A Frenchman in the Gold Rush, 1927. Read Online

Reader: Daniel Maloney

Every year, Californians suffer deeply from wildfires that sweep across vast acres of the Golden State. But for all the devastation they cause, they also evoke a fascination, even for those in desperate circumstances.

Ernest de Massey sailed to California from his native France in 1849. After he found his way to Big Bar, he heard rumors of rich diggings near the Upper Trinity. But after he left the once-thriving gold town, he soon found himself in real trouble.

Out of water and despairing of finding any for our camp, we marched along until four in the afternoon. Suddenly my eye lighted on a tree which bore an inscription cut into the bark notifying the traveller [sic] he could find water a few hundred feet south. Finding the direction with my compass within ten minutes we came to a superb forest which was on fire. Although we thought the message might be a joke, yet we carefully explored the vicinity until we found, near a bed of smoldering ashes, a tiny spring.

This was all we needed to prepare our food and spend the night. But we were in considerable danger from falling sparks and the possibility of one of the great trees falling—they were no less than one hundred and fifty feet high—which were completely on fire. . . . What a night it was, what a hideous picture, and what an orchestra!

With eyes half-closed I could see hundreds of huge, flaming columns surrounding us in the darkness, glistening, crackling, sparking. Occasionally there was a loud crash, echoed, a long time after, in the distance. This was followed by an immense rain of sparks, lighting up the forest. Thunder, lightning, the noise of artillery are all trifles compared to the confusion and turmoil of a forest fire.

Ernest de Massey's California journal chronicles his experiences from 1849 to 1851. It was translated into English and published by the California Historical Society in 1927.