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Show The Great Park City . Fire of 1898 Park City as a city was gone, wiped from the face of the Wasatch as if by the wave of a magician's wand. Only the homes and buildings south of cabins and homes. Also lost in the flames was the Record Office, both Opera Houses including the fine new one built less than a year before, and the city hall with all the legal records of the town and its residents, includ-ing includ-ing deeds, mining records and birth and death certificates. More than 500 people were homeless and over $1,000,000 j in property was lost, little of it J covered by insurance since j miners despaired of help arriving in time and took drastic action to save as much of their town as they could. They knew the tiny streams of water being thrown into the holocaust was useless and being experts : in the use of the American Hotel where the tragedy had its start and those in the side canyons and gulches remained. Nearly all of Main Street was gone, Chinatown had disappeared, nothing remained of the 75 homes on Rossie Hill, and I This Thursday, June 19, I marks the 82nd anniversary of I the great Park City fire still j termed the "worst conflagera- I tion" in the history of the I State of Utah. June 18, 1898 J found Park City In its peak of I prominance and . prosperity. I Its population swelled near I 10,000 and its Main Street was I the envy of any western I mining camp Impressive per- I manent buildings of stone and I brick lined the Street giving I residents a sense of progress I and security. Within 24 hours j it was all gone. Main Street I lay in rubble and thousands I were homeless. Within days a I new Park City began to rise I from the ashes which is testimony of the stamina and determination of her resl- I dents. sounds well enough for they had heard them often before, twice for other fires at the same American Hotel. But they were not prepared for the awful sight that confronted them on that warm June night. In the few minutes since the alarm ' had .been . given the tinder dry building had become a blazing torch, sending flames high into the night sky and illuminating the terrified spectators below with a ruddy glare. The strong south winds that blow every morning from the mountain canyons fanned the dancing flames to white heat, sending licking tongues of fire over the closely packed buildings. Frightened home owners and worried merchants carried treasured goods and furniture from buildings in the fire's i : irr r .... mrV".?' in i. i i rJ" J f few insurance companies would write policies on Park City property. , Ar first it was thought the loss was too great to replace, that Park City could never be rebuilt. Salt Lake City's Deseret News of June 30, 1898, reported that M Park City has been wiped out of existence, visited by the worst conflagration in Utah's history. his-tory. It will be many years before it can ; be rebuilt, if recovery is at all possible." But the news writers grossly under-estimated Park City's spirit for before the smouldering smoulder-ing coals were cooled the task of rebuilding began and Park City, like the legendary Phoenix Bird, rose again from its ashes. Not a single life had I been lost and although valu- I ables were piled everywhere J Please Turn to Page 16A J Ruins of City Hall and the First National Bank Building after the fire. Photo, courtesy of The Main Street Photographer. most of the residences, churches, and schools on Park Avenue were lost. The total number of homes and businesses busin-esses lost numbered in the hundreds and included 5 hotels, 2 dozen stores and markets, over 20 shops, a dozen saloons, more than 20 professional offices, half a dozen restaurants, 2 banks, 4 churches, and hundreds of The late Male Raddon testified recently to the horror and sorrow which swept over her as she watched the city destroyed from her home in Lake Flat and Blanche Fletcher Fletch-er will tell you today of the pianist playing "It's Gonna Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" from the back of a wagon as the flames ravished Park City. Evidence of the Great Fire Is everywhere on; Main Street to the discerning eye. Old foundations behind existing buildings, brick laid on top of a ragged stone, wall and blackened ashes, bits of glass and other relics Just beneath the surface of many vacant lots. In observance of Our Centennial Year, we have reproduced a chapter from Treasure Mountain Home by . .Fraser Buck and George Thompson entitle "Trial by path and piled them; in. the : narrow street but the goods only served as fuel to carry the hungry flames across the street to equally old and dry buildings; Soon both sides of . the street were ablaze, send-' ing an angry red glow overhe i entire towm. With the fire jumping from building to f building the helpless people knew theif town of false front i; wooden buildings was doom- Although Park City had a stout-hearted "v; and willing a, volunteer fire department as could be found anywhere It ; was no , match 1 for such Jin -awful conflagration. By 4:30 am both sides of Main;' Street were, engulfed in flames too y hot to approach and by 5am :the fire had roared through ' several homes ..to. Jthe Episco-' Episco-' ' pal Church and on to Park ,. Auanno CirA lincAC Vnrct intr dynamite they resorted to blowing up buildings in the path of the raging inferno to slow its advance! , -j ! It - took strong men and brave women to watch as their homes were blown up ,and a lifetime of work and property destroved in rriinutesHbut it seemed the only way to slow the fames'; advance. The blasts did slow th e f i re s ' spread but by then roost of the town was V gone. Wheri the train with the Coalville volun-feers volun-feers arrived at :8am . only a blackened mass of smoulder-ing smoulder-ing ashes remained. nThe- Salt 4 Lake . City and ,Ogden fire departments arrived by " mid-i mid-i morning and 1 although ; they were too late to;fighi tHe: fire they unhesitatingly-; joined ln -the job of -dowsing, .trie last- coals and starting the cleanup'. IFire". It appears with permission permis-sion and all applicable copyrights copy-rights are in force. We have also re-printed from the June 25, 1898 issue of the Park Record the story of the fire called 'Park City's Awful Fire9'. That issue of the Record was put together in a tent in Swede Alley erected before the ashes had barely cooled. flame in the terrible heat into V which no fireman dared ( venture. As the morning winds shifted, burning firebrands fire-brands were carried onto the matchbox' like . shacks of t Chinatown. Almost in a twinkling they exploded in ;a; siiddn angry burst of flame and carried the inferno to the foot of Rossie Hill. The fire ,; roared from house to house up : Rossie" Hill like a forest fire sweeping through a thick stand of pines;k Housewives carrying children escaped only moments ahead of the fiery on-slaught, saying only the -clothes on their backs, and often t hey were scorched and smoking. . As soon as it was seen that the fire was out of hand and bcvond the ability of the fire department to control an appeal for, help was sent out to surrounding towns. As quickly as men ind equipment could ' jbc assembled, special trains were dispatched from Coalville. Coal-ville. Ogden. and Salt Lake - City. The . distance ;to; come-wjis come-wjis so great however that the substantial structures. Among some of the well-built buildings build-ings that soon appeared was the Park City Hotel, Paul Brothers & Wilson's store, Adams Photo shop, Hurlburts Drug, the First National Bank, several doctors and legal offices, and the Park Record office. ' The Record had lost all of its printing presses and equipment equip-ment in the great fire but still never missed an issue. It was printed by the Salt Lake Herald until July 30 when the first issue printed in Park City since the fire hit the streets. It reported that at least one new building a day was going up, . including Charlie Street's new store, a temporary post office, The Park Record's Account 'Park City's Over 200 Business Houses arid Dwellings Destroyed 1 "v : The Loss Over a . . , Million Dollars : .arts, etc., were coming apparently from all directions. The Danger Not Realized "The Town" has seen so many fires of the same nature that no one (not withstanding Vl a stiff breeze was blowing , from the south at the time) for an instant had any other ' thought than that the fire would soon be brought under t control. But the fiery tongues began to leap higher and higher, the wind increased, and (only a few moments elapsed before the buildings t adjoining on the north were also aflame. Then the people . who had congregated began to waken , to a; sense of the danger, that threatened the more fire ' Jcntinusd frcm Page : 11 A no looting or theft took place. After a town meeting was held it was announced that no charity was wanted, that Park - City would - take care of its own. Although Park City was proud and asked no help those who had been helped so generously in the past by Park City when disaster struck their communities refused to watch idly from the sidelines. Both the Union Pacific and Rio Grande Railroads -announced they would haul relief supplies and 'building material free of charge. Soon car loads of foodstuffs donated by valley farmers and city merchants began pouring in and clothing r- androther items gathered by Relief Societies all over the state were sent to the stricken -.. people. Welsh, Driscoll, and Buck announced their prices would - be at the lowest possible rates and the Ontario Company sold lumber at cost. Cash donations dona-tions were received from far , and . wide. : The Silver King Mine donated $2,000, and David Keith and Thomas Kearns gave $500 each. W.V. Rice donated $100: R.C. Chambers and D.C. McLaughlin McLaugh-lin gave $50 each, and Father Blake of St. Helena, Calif., sent $100r Many business houses contributed, including $75 from Welsh. Driscoll and Buck; $50 from the First National Bank, and $100 each town. Then the whole gulch in which '.the business district is located was a river of flame. Fire brands were being swished, through the , air for hundreds and hundreds of feet and dropping among the inflammable material around the buildings, stables and outhouses, soon had the blaze covering a 'yast extent of ground. Saying the Mill "When it became apparent that the fire - could not be controlled, the employees of the Marsac Mill, under the direction of Mr. Jurdock and Mrs. Watson, got down to work to save the company's property, arid by , the most heroic, work, aided at one time by, the change in the wind, succeeded in doing so. ... How It Was Stopped v , "Finally, after the fire had leveled every building on : Main Street, with the exception excep-tion of the Marsac Office and the Law; Office of D.C. McLaughlin, as well as r all buildings on Park Avenue from James G. Watson's residence.; down to : David Keith's horne, and all residences residen-ces on Rosste Hill, from Harry Woon' s north ' to the Marsac tank house," buildings on the south side of John Harwood's concrete residence were blown up with giant powder and the flames brought" under subjec. . tion. Long before the fire had reached the Crescent office however, firebrands had blown through the air, caught - the Crescent Concentrator, , east, of the : Weeter , Lumber yards, and "also" ignited the residence of Robert Mawhin-hey Mawhin-hey and. Joseph Fares. How i v " , - 11 v S ': .....::iVy- 1- 1 $ " . ' ' V ' " 4 , . . . , ' i i n i in mmm , , . . ; Looking south from the bottom of Main Street in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1898. Enterprising saloon keeper George Wanning is already backin business in a shanty here the Claimjwnper now stands. Photo courtesy,' The Main Street Photographer, where others W . are available. V trom Auerbachs, walkers Store, and the Walker Brothers Broth-ers Bank, all in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake City Corp. sent $1,000; Evanston, Wyo., $220s; 'mount Pleasant $104; Eureka $70: and from Alma. Wyo.y where ; Park - City had sent relief only three years earlier. $175 was received. In reply to the .newspapers that said Park City could never be rebuilt the Record answered. While housed hous-ed in a tent pitched among the . ruins the editor wrote "This is the hand of charity the good book tells us is the greatest of Christian acts. It is the kind of ; thing that elevates mankind. " Though the first step on the way back had been taken the people knew there was no time to lose for winter's snows . come early, in the Wasatch. Buildings of rough pine boards appeared where once proud structures of brick and stone had been. Appropriate- - ly, perhaps, it was a saloon built by George Wanning that .was, the first new. building to be built. Fire fighting and saloon building is dry work so it was fortunate that the brewery located in. the base-menj base-menj of Joe Dudler's saloon, later-. Rasbands HaIlf wasn't lost in the. fire Wanning's saloon was housed in the -V roughest of buildings but it ".Was followed by other far more Wiseman's Jewelry. George Smith's meat market, the Bell Telephone office, Riley & Towey's saloon and gambling hall, as well as a whole host of shops and office buildings. A fine new building to house the First National Bank and Silver King Mine offices was built of , brick and stone, , all fire proof, and boasting a V burglar-proof vault that weighed ten tons. Sutton's meat market, a completely modem butcher business having hav-ing its own slaughter house and processing plant, opened for business. Like Henry Newell's early butcher shop the Suttons bought cattle. in large number and kept them in their large pasture just north of town. - A great new opera house named the Dewey in honor of; the hero of Manila Bay was I started and had its opening on j Christmas with a grand ball, j The Dewey had a stage 25 feet deep and a tilting floor that could be raised ,,for stage, performances or lowered to I level for dancing. It also had a bowling alley in the basement. At 'the arrival of the new, year, when the new' City Hall was completed. Park City could boast that it was still the vvesVs'leading silver carip, and' its newest as well! Hundreds of People Left Homeless Many left Destitute and Scores of Business Men : Ruined The Heart of the City Burned Out Very Little Insurance Manv Firms Will Rebuild and ; .Commence Anew ' Bang! BanglBang! "Three pistol shots fired by Policeman Walden at 4 o'clock , Sunday morning last sounded the death knell of Park City's happiness and contentment. A few. heart-rending shrieks y from the whitle" at the Marsac mill and a drowsy community was aroused to witness a sight : that caused stoat-hearted men -. to stand paralyzed,, women to faint and children to scream -with fear. "The. whistles did not give the alarm for- some minutes . after the pistol shots. And when . they did screech, the American Hotel, formerly Harrington Housed was jseen to be doomed to destruction, a as flames were shooting many feet into the air at the rear of : the structure.: U was not yet ; broad daylightarid the flames cast a sickly arid ominous ' glare over the whole town. A . stream or two 1 of water was'4 playing on the fire, and hose town, and all were excited. " .'Adjacent; property holders, began to move their effects into the street. All Too Late "By .4:30 the fire had crossed ; the street and was burning fiercely on both sides. Firemen were crowded : backy by the heat, and notwithstand- ing the fact that four strearns of water were then at work it was plainly seen that the town was doomed. The , fire had been discovered all too late, and r nothing could now . be done but try and save their belongings but nearly everything every-thing that was taken into the, street was quickly consumed' in the fierce heat and the blaze that, was driven through the town with ?. an intensity- that resembled ;the flame from the . , end of a blowpipe. : v 5 "The wjnd shifted occasionally occasion-ally and caused a few moments lull in the speed, of : the destructive element on . first one sideof the'streef aricT-then aricT-then the other,. onlys.to change , "again and hurry on the work of ,5 O'clock .'the fire had broken through the block and on the west side pi the street aridcaught. the Episcopal .church from the rear and soon after.' that' 'it had f crossed ' eastward and taken in China- the u.p: depot and Kimball Bros, stable escaped is a miracle. " ' "The fire is supposed to have originated in the Kitchen of the American Hotel, but Proprietor FreemamT says he is ignorant of how or where it started. He believes, however, that sqme lodger left a light burning and that it became ignited from the flame of a candle. People who saw the blaze early are quite positive, .however; that it started in the kitchen. . ' The Losses; "The Record is unprepared to go into "detail regarding the-losses the-losses sustained at this time, but when everything is taken . into account it will be found that the total money damage is ' not far short of $1 lOOO.OOO if it does not exceed that amount. "The total amount of ; insurance will not reach anywhere near one-quarter of ' that amount and most of the businessmen, as well as ' private residence owners, carried ncvjnsurance at all." Not a. single, issue of the paper was missed as a result .j-of.-.thc'-'.firc.-.Thepaper1 was -s printed on the- presses of the Salt Lake Tribune and Salt Lake' Hctald .imt it a new press was installed m'Park City.-' |