Sept. 30, 2019
This photo of an early sawmill currently on display in the Summit Pacific Clinic can be dated after Sept. 1902 but probably before 1910. The clue is in the background toothpicks that used to be trees.
The devastating 1902 fire wiped out the entire town of Rayville and most of what we call White Star. Rayville was an embryonic town that used to exist in the area where the Elma-Hicklin Road crosses the railroad tracks and joins the old 410 highway, now called the Elma-McCleary Road.
The flames headed east and in no time at all surrounded the new logging camp. But then the ring of fire just stopped rather mysteriously. So for years the burned trees just stood, shorn of their limbs by flame, baton noir. For some time the children would come home covered in soot after playing outside.
The 1902 fire was region-wide and later called The Big Burn or the Yacolt Burn, but actually was many individual forest fires that took place in a short span of time. My grandmother, who was 11 at the time and living in Centralia, said the smoke was so thick that daytime turned into night and some felt the End of the World had arrived.
