On August 18, 1937, lightning sparked a fire in the Blackwater Creek drainage on the west slopes of Clayton Mountain. After burning in the undergrowth for two days, it was spotted by owners of a hunting camp and a plane that was observing another fire nearby. After it was reported to the Wapiti Ranger Station, a small group of CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) members began working on constructing a fire line; throughout the afternoon and evening of the 20th, the number of firefighters fighting the blaze, now 200 acres, grew to about seventy. The Shoshone Forest supervisor, John Sieker, left the fire that evening to muster more men, and CCC camps from Tensleep in the Big Horns and the town of Deaver were called in. Fire crews worked through the night, and by early afternoon on the 21st, over 200 men were working on containing the fire.
Ranger Alfred Clayton was in charge of the eastern part of the fire line; a little after 3:00, he spotted some smoke on the wrong side of the fire line and sent a note to a fellow ranger, Urban Post, saying, “Post, we are on the ridge in back of you and I am going down to the spot in the hole. It looks like it can carry on over the ridge east and north of you. If you can send any men, please do so, since there are only eight of us. Clayton.” At about 3:30, the wind suddenly picked up and began erratically shifting directions, which whipped the fire in the treetops into a frenzy. By the time Clayton’s call for help reached Post, there was no way to respond, as the 45 mph gusts had surrounded Clayton and his men with flames. The forty men with Post abandoned the fireline and were able to escape to the northeast to a higher place on the mountain with fewer trees. Here they were completely surrounded by the flames and were forced to the ground by the intense heat, which literally started cooking their skin; four men perished when they panicked and tried to run through the fire to get out.
By about 5:00, the worst of the fire was over, and the survivors gradually made their way down through the smoke. Seven of Post’s men died, and Clayton and six of the men with him died in a gulch where they apparently tried to take cover. One of his men, Roy Bevens, survived briefly but died of his burn injuries at the hospital in Cody. 500 men eventually brought the fire under control by the 24th of August, and it was out by the end of the month.
Killed in the Blackwater Fire:
Alfred G. Clayton, Ranger
James T. Saban, Technical Foreman
Rex A. Hale, Jr. Assistant to the Technician
Paul E. Tyrrell, Jr. Forester
Billy Lea, Bureau of Public Roads Crewman
Enrollees:
Clyde Allen
Roy Bevins
Ambrogio Garcia
John B Gerdes
Will C. Griffith
Mack T. Mayabb
George Rodgers
Ernest Seelke
Rubin Sherry William Whitlock
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