Sunday marks the 70th anniversary of the deadly Rattlesnake Fire in the Mendocino National Forest, a long ago arson fire that killed U.S. Forest Service Officer Robert Powers and 14 volunteer firefighters.
The volunteers killed were part of a 24-man team from the New Tribes Mission, based at Fouts Springs, in Colusa County, a boot camp where missionaries of all faiths came from around the country to train in rugged conditions before scattering to foreign countries to teach the gospel to tribal people.
Until their deaths, few people knew the missionaries were there, although it was common for the men to help battle fires during the dry summer months in western Colusa and Glenn counties.
According to newspaper archives, 26-year-old Stanford Pattan, of Willows, who was beset with personal and financial problems, confessed to starting the fire around 2:30 PM on July 9, 1953, so he could get a job fighting it.
By 7 PM, about 100 men were on the scene, including the large detachment from the New Tribes Mission.
It was believed at that time that the fire would soon be under control. The 1,300 acre blaze had been corralled on three sides, and firefighters gathered on Powder House Point to watch the final effort hemming in on the other side.
The wind at the time was blowing in from the southwest.
At 10 PM, Powers and crew went to check a spot fire, but within 15 minutes, the wind had sprung up from the opposite direction, from the north, causing the fire to jump the lines.
According to news reports, the fire began billowing down the canyon, eventually overtaking the 15 men as they tried to make a run for it to Alder Springs Road, just a few hundreds yards from where the crew had sat down to a dinner of sandwiches and milk a few hours earlier.
Nine other members of the crew barely escaped by racing to the top of the mountain to safety.
When Powers and the others failed to return to camp, the missionaries feared the worst.
In the early morning hours of July 10, 1953, firefighters discovered the badly charred bodies of the missing New Tribes crew, still recognizable by their friends.
Nine were found together in a small cluster, the Willows Journal reported. Some had died while trying to dig a fire trench in the hard earth. One man was found with his arm around the shoulder of another, as if in comfort as they met death together. Some were found with their hands clasped together, as if they died with one last prayer on their lips.
The suet-covered gold wedding bands worn on their left hands bore testament to the 10 wives and 24 children left behind.
Although the New Tribes Mission at Fouts Springs, later used as a youth correctional facility, had long since been abandoned, several family members and surviving firefighters returned to site in 2003 on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, when a stone memorial in Grindstone Canyon was dedicated.
The 15 white crosses placed on the side of the 2,000-foot mountain, which marked the spots where each man fell, were destroyed by a wildland fire a few years later.
The last two outbuildings from the New Tribes Mission were lost to the Mill Fire in 2012. That blaze started on July 7, nearly 59 years to the day from the Rattlesnake Fire.
Fire officials said what happened 70 years ago was a unique fire phenomena that occurs at night in Grindstone Canyon, where cool air and hot air collide, causing fire to suddenly change direction and burn quickly down hill in a wall of deadly flames.
Although few people venture up the old bulldozer-blazed trail to where the monument to those killed stands, between 300 and 500 firefighters train at the site every year.
According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, lessons learned from the Rattlesnake Fire played a large role in the 1957 decision to form the first national level task force to examine wildland firefighter safety and how weather phenomena affects fire.
Pattan served three years in prison for starting the fire and returned to Willows. He died in 2009 at the age of 82, after making a name for himself as a wildlife artist. ■