A Legend Comes to Life, Without the Heat

By Scott Poniewaz, 6-15-05

	Mouth of the Nicholson Adit near Wallace, ID where Edward Pulaski held his men during the great fires of 1910. U.S. Forest Service Photo, 1910

Forty-Five men hunkered down on the floor of an empty cave while the sound of fire roared down the canyon of the West Fork of Placer Creek during the great fires in August of 1910. Edward Pulaski, a man in his mid-forties as rugged as the mountains and forest the men had been fighting to protect, rescued them from confusion and an otherwise likely death by bringing them to a cave known by many, but locatable by few. Death by fire was so likely for anything living in the area that a bear was even said to be trying to get in on the trek to safety (though his outcome is still unknown). The fires blazed outside and moved quickly through the crowns, starting spot fires well ahead of the main blaze and closing in on the mining town of Wallace, Idaho. After one firefighter tried to escape and turn his fate over to the fire, Pulaski’s revolver was in hand pointing around the cave as he shouted, "The next man who tries to leave the tunnel I will shoot.”

	David O'Brien peers into the now blocked off entrance tunnel of the Nicholson Adit as it appears today, while Jack Dorrell looks on. Photo by Scott Poniewaz/New West

This is the story that made the Nicholson Adit mine tunnel in Northern Idaho (though many historians have incorrectly identified it as the War Eagle Mine, the original destination the crew shot for about a half mile away) an integral part of the history of firefighting. The tale has been regarded by fire history expert Stephen Pyne as one of the most representative stories of the 1910 fires and a symbol of what Jim See, president of the Pulaski Project, calls the Forest Service’s shift to the fire suppression paradigm.

With the effort of Wallace community members like See and the Pulaski Project, the trail leading to the old mine outside of Wallace will soon be restored and upgraded to include a trailhead with a fully accessible interpretive section of trail. The lower section of trail will include about six signs with history on the fires and Ranger Pulaski, said Jack Dorrell, the Recreation Planner of the Coeur d’Alene River District of the U.S. Forest Service.

Dorrell and David O’Brien, the Information Team Leader of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, were kind enough to give me a guided preview of the project as well as a lesson in the rich history of Ranger Pulaski, the 1910 fires and the Forest Service -- all of which the Pulaski Project represents. Upon completion, the trail will feature a 90-foot bridge across Placer Creek leading to the accessible interpretive area. It will continue to a foot trail that takes visitors through a thick forest of Ponderosa and White Spruce along the West Fork of Placer Creek for just under two miles each way. Along the way people will be able to rest and take in some great sights with benches and viewing platforms.

Edward Pulaski U.S. Forest Service Photo

The trail will allow people to retrace the terrain Pulaski and his men hiked and crawled through to return to Wallace. Pulaski knew the fire was so hot that even an attempt to crawl down through the West Fork of Placer Creek at this point would end in an assured death. After they held their ground in the tunnel for a few hours and many passed out, it got to be 5 a.m. and the men were coming back to consciousness. An attempt to escape after someone announced that the boss was passed out ended quickly when Pulaski jumped up and startled them with revolver still in hand, “Like hell he is.” After a quick attempt to sip from the creek, still too warm to drink, the men convened outside the tunnel to take a head count. Five men went unconscious in the cave and didn’t survive. The men decided to make their way down through the torched forest that was so hot it burned their shoes.

Jim See and the Pulaski Project Board of Directors began their work October 31, 2003. Dorrell and O’Brien said the community support on the project has been rather strong. The property falls mostly on BLM land and that required land easements from both Hecla Mining and Stimson Timber. The easements went without a hitch. “I think that many are realizing that the mining and timber industry will never be what they once were, so the Silver Valley is looking to make a shift to a tourist economy,” O’Brien said. After the trail is completed, the Pulaski Project hopes to bring a National Wildfire Education Center & Museum to Wallace, See said.

It will indeed be part of a growing natural history tourism pull in Northern Idaho. The Hiawatha Trail (see Susan Morgan’s article Biking the Hiawatha Trail (with Kids)), a 15-mile section of railroad converted to a scenic bike trail, was just recently completed. Another is the Trail of The Coeur d’Alenes, a 72-mile bike path stretching across the Idaho Panhandle from Mullan in the East to Plummer in the West. This trend of recreation development, which has been visible in places like Silverton, Colo. (an old mining town) and Missoula (timber), is catching on throughout the West.

“We do need alternative kinds of things, bike trails and ski hills have already brought in new revenue to the area,” said See. He said past projects like the Hiawatha bike trail have given he and his group the inspiration that they would be able to save a trail, the way the Hiawatha was built to preserve historic railroad tunnels. With all the other forms of recreation opportunities created, See felt the need for a hiking trail in the area. O’Brien agreed, “I think every town should have a trail like this nearby.”

The trail will be dedicated August 20, the day Pulaski brought 45 men to safety. “In those days the men fighting fires were either the highly educated type, having graduated from schools like Yale, or they were just mountain men, Pulaski was one of those tough mountain men,” Dorrell said.

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