2020 in Colorado? Then there were the forest fires…
Update Provided to Colorado Preservation Inc. - December 2020 Newsletter
by Carl Stewart, Colorado Cultural and Historic Resource Task Force
Colorado Preservation Inc. Published a summary of our activity in their December Newsletter: To see the original of the article see:
http://coloradopreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CPI-Newsletter_12-2020.pdf
Grand Lake Cemetery (closed) near Rocky Mountain National Park, November 2020. Photo credit Carl Stewart.
Upon hearing about a fire, a small group from the Colorado Cultural and Historic Resources Task Force (CHR-TF) activates to determine if cultural resources are threatened or damaged by the fires. Zip codes, databases, email networks, and the web are mined for information. Contacts are made, winds blow, and perimeters change. This work is in the background while life safety, firefighting, and property protection are addressed first. We provide our information to the State Emergency Operations Center, especially after recovery begins. If there are unmet expenses and needs, we may be able to help.
Grand Lake Cemetery (closed) near Rocky Mountain National Park, November 2020. Photo credit Carl Stewart.
Through the State Archeologist’s office and State Historic Preservation Office, History Colorado has a database of built cultural assets mapped statewide. Depending on the jurisdiction (private, State, BLM, or US Forest Service), sometimes we can get this information to the firefighting front lines. The hope is that an obscure historic site is not, for example, needlessly used as a staging location by firefighting crews. Some historic cabins were lost in the fires. Still, the most severe loss in structures and sites was in Rocky Mountain National Park, especially around the west entry.
Evacuation of threatened collections before potential floods in Lake City Colorado, 2019. Photo credit Carl Stewart.
Since these structures are under federal jurisdiction with the National Park Service, it is outside our State group’s scope. In addition to structures, an NPS cemetery run in cooperation with the town of Grand Lake also sustained damage from downed trees and is closed.
Amazingly, despite the historic size and intensity of the fires this year, it seems at this point that we escaped extensive loss or damage to cultural resources, except those in Rocky Mountain National Park. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have some close calls. Collections were evacuated by the Pioneer Village Museum in Hot Sulphur Springs in advance of the East Troublesome Fire. The YMCA of the Rockies, both at Winter Park and Estes Park, evacuated some collections. Other collections were placed in safer storage, and some organizations discovered gaps in their emergency planning. The collecting community came together to support each other. For instance, the Greeley Museum accepted some of the evacuated collections from the mountains.
An important thing to remember about these fires is that extinguishing the flames is often only the emergency’s beginning. The danger of landslides and floods from precipitation and runoff from fire scars extends the fire emergency.
The CHR task force will monitor these issues as it has in the past and is a place to go if an individual or organization needs assistance preserving our State’s cultural resources.
The Cultural and Historic Resources Task Force was CPI State Honor Award Recipient in 2017.
To get involved and be a part of their network, sign up for the CHR-TF email list.
To see the original of the article see:
http://coloradopreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CPI-Newsletter_12-2020.pdf
With the assistance of CHR-TF, evacuation of threatened collections before potential floods in Lake City Colorado, 2019. Photo credit Carl Stewart