Tree still stands for Ingram, killed in the forest he loved

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The forest area around Fourbit Creek east of Butte Falls is a pleasant place for a weekend picnic.Bill Miller

Fires run uphill, and there's nothing worse for a firefighter than looking down on a blazing forest.

Doug Ingram and Ernanie St. Luise knew they were in trouble.

This wasn't a ground fire that took its time eating through the forest. The Camas Creek fire that raged in the Chelan National Forest in Eastern Washington in 1929 was a crown fire, a hot wave of flame riding the tops of trees faster than a champion racehorse.

A few days before, Ingram had calmly saved a dozen panicky men from this same inferno by telling them not to run and leading them to a clearing where they laid flat until the fire passed over.

Now, Ingram's only hope was to flank the blaze and get behind it. But a quick walk along the ridgeline turned into a run when the flames did something unexpected. Instead of climbing the hill, the fire raced in a straight line, parallel to the men's escape route.

Then, with a mind of its own, the fire scrambled uphill on a freak gale-force wind. Like a runaway freight train, the hot flames roared over treetops toward the men.

They saw it coming. They ran to an open slope where there was little to burn and laid down, faces pressed against the earth.

It lingered over them for a moment, burned their clothes, blackened their skin and left them dead. Their bodies were found nearly two weeks later.

Ingram emigrated from Scotland in 1898 and headed for the mines of Nevada. Within a decade he became a U.S. citizen, moved to Roseburg where he was an unsuccessful farmer, and eventually graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in forestry.

He began his career with the Forest Service at a time when ranger districts hadn't been defined in Oregon's Cascade Range. His first assignment was to post sheep and cattle grazing allotments within the forest.

He progressed through the ranks and in 1918 was appointed Northwest regional range examiner, tasked with scientifically studying the forestlands and livestock range of the Pacific Northwest.

Not long before he died, Ingram came across a ponderosa pine sapling along Fourbit Creek, a few miles east of Butte Falls. Admiring its strength and form, he marked the tree and recommended it never be logged.

After Ingram's death, the Forest Service placed a barrier around the pine and dedicated it as the Douglas C. Ingram Memorial Tree. For more than 70 years it grew, reaching nearly 40 feet in height before it died.

"It was overtopped," said former Forest Service historian Jeff LaLande. "It was suppressed. Too many thirsty and aggressive Douglas firs were left after fire suppression in the area."

Ingram is remembered as one of the best field naturalists in the Pacific Northwest. He was a ranger and a scientist, traveling throughout Oregon and Washington collecting plants and documenting habitats. Two plants are named for him — the Ingram Columbia lily and a pink Southern Oregon wildflower called the Silene ingrami.

In the words of a colleague, ranger G.C. Blake, "He became a very able man and he did great work for the Forest Service."

Writer Bill Miller lives in Shady Cove. Reach him at newsmiller@yahoo.com.

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