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Show school burned to the ground while a smaller wooden building nearby continued to stand unscathed. un-scathed. There seemed no rhyme nor reason to the path taken by the flames but one outgrowth out-growth of the disaster was the inauguration of Fire Prevention Preven-tion Week which was initiated on the 40th Anniversary of the . fire-October 8, 1911, and to this day is still observed by Presidential Pres-idential proclamation. The Chicago fire also brought to the attention of authorities the need for safer and more stringent construction codes and modernizing of fire departments. depart-ments. It's interesting to note that as a reminder of the Chicago fire each item of fire fighting equipment, including the firemen's fire-men's uniforms, has some black on it in memory of all the firemen fire-men who died in that blaze. ed over a lantern. There are many who believe otherwise-some otherwise-some think that a tramp using the O'Leary barn for the night carelessly tossed away a cigarette; others believe that the exceptionally dry weather and strong winds had much to do with it. Whatever did cause this holocaust holo-caust in 1871 has never been documented but the results are well known. Two hundred fifty men, women and children died in this fire; totally destroyed buildings numbered 17,450; and dollar losses amounted to almost al-most two hundred million dollars! dol-lars! The fire raced from one building to another, flames poured out of structures, twisting twist-ing metal frames and toppling sturdy brick walls. What people had thought of as an "unassailable structure" the old courthouse was prey to the fire and soon lay incomplete ruin. The furnace-like heat of the flames created such stifling air that people suffocated on contact. con-tact. Onlookers could not believe what they were seeing-great merchants and huge industrial complexes completely wiped out. It was hard to believe that some buildings were spared? Why? No one knew why a large pine trees stayed green all winter win-ter while the maples and oaks were bare. WE CUT CROSS -lots through a farmer's field the cows and horses in Michigan stay in barns in the winter so we didn't see anything other than a couple of rabbits scampering along. Those were good times; and so today provides time for walking, walk-ing, too. It's a good "keep together" time for families or it's good to walk alone. Park City provides plenty of ideal spots to walk up the road toward Brighton; up Rossi Hill; walk along the road toward Heber; prowl around down at the Resort, or how about walking along OUR railroad tracks? Doctors recommend walking for health reasons, but I say it's fun! People are brought together by tragedy. A death in a family or an overwhelming disaster seem to bring out the best in everyone. Look at the response an area hit by a hurricane receives, or a flood. Cities have affinities for one another, cities that have suffered suffer-ed a loss. Would you believe that the metropolis of Chicago, Illinois, and the tiny mountain town of Park City, Utah, have something very much in common? A fire a disastrous fire! October 8 this year will be the 100th Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire the fire that is supposed to have been started when Mrs. O'Leary's cow kick- Bits and Pieces By Eleanor Bennett MANY TIMES visitors come into the Park Record office and ask me 'Are there hikingtrails around Park City?" My answer is always the same, 'There are no MARKED trails but you may hike anywhere you please." Walking is such good exercisemaybe exer-cisemaybe it might be a good idea for the Park City Chamber of Commerce, or somebody, to map out a few trails of varying lengths and degrees of difficulty. dif-ficulty. Not everyone is a hiker, but we all walk. I've enjoyed walking all my life. I remember well many Saturday mornings when I was a real little girl five or six years old my mother and father fath-er and I would start out after breakfast and "take a walk". Sometimes it wasn't more than a mile; sometimes we'd follow the railroad tracks out to the edge of town. There were times when we walked ten or twelve miles. I had a cart-like wagon that Daddy had made for me and we'd pull that along and when my short legs grew weary, I'd get a ride for a while. THESE WALKS most generally gen-erally took place in the spring or the fall of the year but I remember one that we took during dur-ing the winter. We woke up that particular Saturday to find a blanket of fresh snow on the ground and more coming down each minute should we go or should we not? Mother and Daddy weighed it and with me pulling for the "go" side, we started out in a while the town was quiet, a hush lay over the neighborhood. Few had yet shovelled their walks and we didn't make very good time but we pushed on to the edge of town and the white unblemished countryside. coun-tryside. Kid-fashion I'd tear ahead of the folks and throw myself into the snow and make "angels" do youngsters do that today? I'd lie flat on my back and fan my arms up and down and, lo and behold, an outline of an angel! We'd see a few winter birds and I'd be told what kinds they were only to have to be told again at a later date. And the folks would point out to me that |