A flight down Miller Creek after the Big Flood and memories of a lively day during the 1988 Big Fire

In 1988, the year of the Big Yellowstone Fires, I was the Lamar Backcountry Ranger. For most of the 1988 season I was a firefighter. I had started my Yellowstone years in the Fire Cache in 1977 as a firefighter, so I was familiar with the work. The day that I became a firefighter that season was July 14. On July 13 I started my 10+ day hitch by riding Stringbean and packing Slim the mule into Calfee Creek Cabin about 8 miles up the Lamar River from the Soda Butte Trailhead. The focus of this backcountry patrol was to meet the party of Vice President George H. W. Bush at Cold Creek Cabin which was another 8 miles up the Lamar River. The “A Team”, the maintenance backcountry cabin restoration crew, headed by the late Pete Hoe, was at Cold Creek Cabin sprucing it up for the Vice President’s stay. A few days before there had been a couple fire starts on the Mirror Plateau. One just above Calfee Creek Cabin at the head of Clover Creek and the other in the upper reaches of Mist Creek just above Cold Creek Cabin. On the morning of July 14 as I was packing Slim the mule to head for Cold Creek Cabin, I noticed a column of black smoke boiling up from the Clover Fire. It was very early in the morning to have that hot of a fire cooking. I called the Fire Cache to let them know that the fire was putting up a lot of black smoke and starting to rock. I headed for Stock Campsite 3M1 just up Miller Creek from the confluence with the Lamar River where a 7D Guest Ranch stock party was camped. I knew the 7D folks since I had worked on the trail crew and been a Wilderness Ranger out of Sunlight Ranger Station on the Shoshone National Forest which is near the 7D Guest Ranch. The 7D would invite the folks working at Sunlight RS to square dances. Smoke and embers filled the air as I rode into their camp. It was obvious that the fire was heading our way. The party’s guests were getting very nervous. I called the Fire Cache and requested that the park helicopter head our way. It was the only helicopter working in the park at that time. Some of the helitack crew were working on the trail below Cold Creek Cabin. The helicopter responded from the southern part of the park where the Red Fire was kicking up and threatening heavy visitor use areas. Chief Ranger Dan Sholly was on board. I let the 7D party know the helicopter was heading our way and they should prepare to get the guests and stock heading east up Miller Creek Trail towards Hoodoo Basin away from the fire. There was no time to pack their gear on the pack stock and hopefully we could get it slung under the helicopter to a safe place out of the fire’s path where they could retrieve it. They could not account for a couple of the guests and said they had ridden down towards the Lamar River. I said I would ride down towards the Lamar and the fire to look for them, and the helicopter should be to their camp soon. As I got to the Lamar River the fire had reached the other side and spotting across. I yelled for the guests but no response. I rode farther up the river looking for them. Then the fire jumped the river and I was cut off from going back to the camp. The helicopter flew overhead. I headed up the Lamar and by this time the fire had spotted on both sides of the trail. Stringbean, Slim and I made quick time up the trail with fire on both sides. Once we were past being surrounded by the fire, I stopped and snapped a couple pictures of the boys with the fire raging behind us. Then hightailed it up to Cold Creek Cabin. The missing guests did show up to the camp shortly after I left to search for them. Lively times on the Lamar. A week later I would be burned over at Cold Creek as I defended it alone. But that is a story for another day. I filmed Miller Creek in the summer of 2022 after the Big Flood. This is some of that footage.