Swamp Creek Fire Hit by Tree Fatality 1938

The Swamp Creek Fire was started by lightning early on the morning of July 16, 1938 east of Lake Koocanusa on the Kootenai National Forest in an area burned in the Northern Rockies Fires of 1910. Initial attack by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crews contained the fire within handlines, but high winds repeatedly caused the fire to escape those lines. According to the Independent Ledger newspaper of July 20, 1938: "In many places the fallen timber is piled as high as a man's head." On July 18, John B. Jones, a CCC crewmember based at Camp F-52 near Thompson Falls, was killed when he was struck by a falling snag on the Swamp Creek Fire. The snag caused a fatal skull fracture. Jones' body was carried out from this remote location by fellow crewmembers and a pack mule. The Independent Ledger newspaper references an investigation into this incident by Kootenai National Forest officers, although this investigation report is not readily available, if it exists.