News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
An arching plume of black smoke rising up from a ridge west of Sisters...the sight is all too familiar.
This is the way the Cache Mountain Fire started on July 23, 2002. Lightning struck a tree, a fire blew up and in hours began its inexorable march toward Black Butte Ranch.
The Ranch was evacuated as the fire closed in, eventually jumping onto the resort and consuming two homes. More would have been lost if not for a heroic stand by firefighters.
The Cache Mountain Fire covered some 3,894 acres.
The Cache Mountain Fire overlapped in time the Eyerly Fire, which burned north of Sisters and destroyed some recreational cabins near Lake Billy Chinook.
That fire started on July 9, 2002 and was contained on July 26, 2002. It, too, was caused by lightning and ultimately covered 23,593 acres.
The human-caused Link Fire in 2003 started on the July 4 holiday weekend and burned over much the same area, again threatening the Ranch. This time, no homes were burned, though the fire covered 3,574 acres.
Those fires were but a prelude for the massive B&B Complex Fire that started August 19, 2004 and burned over 90,000 acres before it was contained on September 26.
That fire actually started as two separated lightning strikes west of Sisters. The fires that blew up and gained speed eventually merged together to form one massive conflagration. The blaze twice forced the evacuation of Camp Sherman.
Sisters got a reprieve in 2005. Despite bone-dry conditions, no major fires broke out in the area.
As July comes to an end, Sisters is hoping that the dissipating plume of smoke on Black Crater just goes away.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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