As a rule, I sleep somewhat late; I had noted in my early morning fog that the sunlight coming in through the clerestory windows had a somewhat red tinge, but it wasn't until I arose at 9 a.m. and looked out the window to see a sky hazy with smoke that I realized we had a forest fire somewhere near Prescott. A click on the
Fire Alert link at right revealed that the location was near Crown King.
Approximately 250 people live full-time in Crown King, a forest inholding about 30 miles south of Prescott. Sometimes as many as 1,500 people can be recreating on the forest in the remote area on the weekend, according to the
Prescott Courier. The fire was started late Saturday night by a lost hiker who stupidly set a signal fire. Sson and I were there just this last Friday.
In case you haven't visited this old mining town at the south end of the Bradshaws, it's a favorite summer retreat for Phoenicians. The business district consists of two saloon/restaurants, the general store and a small souvenir shop. You buy your gas at the general store ($5.14/gal.) The
Courier mentioned that Crown King is about 30 miles from Prescott. That's if you are a crow. If you are in a vehicle, 4-wheel-drive preferable, you can make it down the mountain range in 4-6 hours on the old Senator Highway. Almost any car can drive the long way, around the mountains on the Interstate and then across the desert and up the road that was formerly an old narrow-gauge railroad grade up the side of the mountain. Maybe an hour and a half time for the "30 miles" this route.
The general store serves up curios and deli goodies and stuff for the tourist trade. A corner serves as the local post office.
The chapel is a new addition since I was last in town; a new structure, called with suitable irony the Crown King Mall, was also under construction. There is also a one-room schoolhouse.
Popular rides in this mountain enclave include jeeps and their many derivatives, not to mention quads and other ATVs. Far more important are the civic vehicles (below) -- the ambulance and, to the rear, fire equipment.
Most of the trees which died in the past couple of years from beetle infestation were already taken down in the immediate area of Crown King, though big equipment was still much in evidence. It would take dozers like these to topple the tall trees; out in the forest nearby, I saw many dead trees that had simply been uprooted, lying on the hillsides. Eventually, they will be sawn or possibly just moulder.
Many of the houses in the Crown King area are scattered through somewhat remote forest areas. Most of the residents were evacuated on Sunday, though, fortunately, the fire has moved away from the town site at last report. One home and a small sawmill burned, however. Tower Mountain (below), a handful of miles north of Crown King, is an important relay point for modern-age communications, as well as housing a fire look-out station.
Note: both Tombo and Karoliina were up early enough to photograph the red sun shining through the heavy smoke this morning.
And your lungs and everything smells of wood burning. Today, it was a control burn in the forest, south of Prescott. The wind decided to switch directions and head into town; it was a fine day for the photographer to deal in classic Chinese-style perspective, with the smoke separating layer after layer of distance. Picture number one was taken about 10:30 this morning. Shortly after 11 a.m., we saw this pillar of smoke emerging from the burn.
With the Prescott basin filled with smoke, Thumb Butte was a ghost at the horizon. Even the Pioneer Home, only two blocks away (below), seemed to be lost in a Pacific Coast fog. When I tried to locate Granite Mountain, it had disappeared behind a curtain of smoke.
The final three pictures were taken about 2 p.m. from the north side of town. Already the smoke was beginning to clear away in the city and by the time I got home, the wind had shifted again, clearing the air somewhat.
No surprise: the grumbles are being posted at the Courier web site. I can sympathize with those who worried, citing the control burn that got out of hand when the winds shifted up near Williams last week. I think most of the others are convinced that if the PNF fire managers only put out milk at night, the brownies would take care of matters and we'd never have such awful smoke again (and any wildfires would magically disappear). Just incidentally, the Twin Fire on Bill Williams Mountain was 60% contained as of about 7:30 p.m.; I found this out via a Twitter site set up for the fire news by Kaibab National Forest. Great use of this Internet resource!
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