The Great Prairie Fire of 1906

Reprinted from “Prairie Progress” c. 1981
Edited by Darla Bracken


Forward: George Francis McLean, a sheepman, farmer and rancher came to Eastern New Mexico about 1899, running sheep over the eastern half of what is now Curry County. In 1901 he settled on the Frio Draw—18 miles north of Texico and 1 mile west of the Texas/New Mexico state line. George McLean died at Friona, Texas in the late 1940s. He was a colorful character remembered by many of our old-timers. The following piece of history was furnished by Mrs. Val Baumgart, a niece of George McLean, and was written in 1941.

The Great Plains were just being settled and a young married couple decided to move out upon them and establish a home for themselves. They started from their Eastern home in a covered wagon, camping overnight wherever night overtook them. Before they started, someone had told the young lady that if they slept on a cornhusk bed on the ground, then the rattlesnakes would not bother her, as rattlesnakes would not go near a cornhusk bed. The lady complied with the rules as to rattlesnakes, but as there were fleas on the prairies, she got fleas in her mattress at every place they camped.

A fire starts

They finally arrived a point north of Fort Sumner, NM and camped for the night still using their husk mattress for a bed, but by this time it was so filled with fleas that they were kept awake most of the night fighting them. The next morning her husband thought he would pull a little joke on her by asking her a riddle—”What is the difference between a snake and a flea?” he asked her. She could not answer it, so he told her, “ A snake crawls on its own belly, but a fleas crawls on some person’s belly.”

That made the woman mad, and she said she would surely get rid of those fleas, so she set fire to the husk mattress, and from that the fire spread for more than 100 miles! (This version of how the fire started is just one of the many explanations offered these ensuing years.)

That was in 1906, and I lived on the Frio Draw, a few miles north from Texico. It had been an unusually wet season, and the prairie grass had grown so thick and high that hay could be cut on low places all over the plains. There was not much farming done there in those days, but I cut and baled fifty tons of this wild hay.

On account of the unusually high grass, we homesteaders were worried about prairie fires; and several of the ranchers had plowed strips of land around our places and had burned the grass between that and the fireguards. We then connected our ranches with these fireguards, with the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company, commonly known as “The Syndicate” (the famous XIT Ranch), on the east and Joe Rhea, on the west.

We had just got these guards burned and connected, and all of mine was burned but for about a mile, when I was compelled to stop on account of the wind; but the next morning, I was there early to finish burning out the guard. I had just finished it, when I looked off toward the west and saw smoke along the horizon. I knew what that meant, for in Montana, I had seen a large part of the territory burned off by a prairie fire.

Ranch is prepared

I immediately began preparing for safety from the rapidly approaching fire by getting everybody in shape to fight it. I had sheep, and as sheep and fires do not mix profitably, I brought them in from the open range and placed them on a field of wheat, which was up and growing nicely. I knew that the fire would not sweep over that green wheat field. (If you were looking for an early wheat field in Curry County, I had one in 1906.)

With everything being in good shape at the ranch, my crew and several neighbors, started out to help fight the fire. When we came to it, we found that the burning front was 80 or 90 miles long, so we had to hunt for an end. We started west, and at a point about where Ruth, NM [Ruth was located between Broadview and the Frio Draw] is located, we found the John DeOliveira and Joe Rhea outfits working along the south wing of the fire, putting it out as they went.

Joe Rhea had a complete prairie fire fighting outfit, consisting of a large solid tin drag with chains dragging behind it, which was being dragged over the fire by means of two saddle horses, one on each side of the fire line, by a rope, one end of which was tied to the drag, and the other end to the saddle horns. The idea of the large flat drag was to smother out the fire, and the chains to loosen up the cow chips that were burning, and right behind the chains men were walking with sacks or brooms, with which they put out the small fires that had escaped the drag.

Steer used as drag

By the time I got to the fire, there were 10 men in the crew, and by noon there were a hundred men in the fighting crew, headed by Joe Rhea. John DeOliveira drove the water wagon, which contained barrels of water. The men took turns at fighting the fire, and the horses that were drawing the drag, were changed often. South of Hollene the drag broke down, and to get another drag, we killed a larger steer and skinned him, using the hide, head and legs for another drag.

About sundown we were joined by the Capitol Syndicate Cattle Ranch crew, headed by John Armstrong, the district manager for the Syndicate people. Armstrong had a good outfit, and as Mr. DeOliveira was worried about his ranch on the Frio [Draw], he turned back; but I went on east with the firefighters and took my turn at fighting all night.

As we were fighting a side fire and not the lead fire, we saw many wild animals, just keeping ahead of the fire. There were coyotes, rabbits, swifts, antelope, cattle, horses and a few deer. They did not seem to know that they could make a dash across the fire line, and thus escape without being burned. Coyotes, that had run until they were exhausted, would lie down just ahead of the fire and lie there until most of their hair was singed off them, before they would move again; they being almost completely worn out. We knocked several coyotes in the head that were completely exhausted from running before the fire.

Wind changes

The lead fire had passed along the breaks on the north side of Curry County, and as we had fought the side fire to a point several miles north of Friona, TX [founded 1906], we were working hard to connect our firefighting crews again. Then the wind changed to the northeast and the lead fire changed with it and headed southwest, right through the Frio Draw territory. We were right in front of it and my ranch was directly in its path.

I gathered my crew together and started for my ranch, as I knew that all that would save it would be a backfire at the State Line where the Syndicate had burned a wide fireguard. We were on good horses and it was about twenty miles to the State Line fireguards, and we had to ride hard to keep ahead of the fire line. I tied an oiled rope to my saddle and started it ablaze and started a backfire all along those guards that had been burned just a few days before; and that was all that saved my ranch property. It was hard work.

That which causes a prairie fire to travel so rapidly, is, that cow chips scattered over the plains will catch fire and continue burning after the grass has been burned around them. Then the wind will blow the caps off these chips while still ablaze, and carry them far ahead, where they will fall into the grass and start fresh fires in widely scattered sport. Thousands of these fire carriers, blowing ahead of the fire, soon scatter the fire over a large strip of country.

To be continued next week: “My Ranch Escaped”