“I won’t die here in this creek… [I’m] getting out of here.” - Pinkie Adair, homesteader and camp cook

During the 1910 Fires, perseverance often meant the difference between life and death. At 26 years old, Ione “Pinkie” Adair could ride, shoot and cook. She lived about 10 miles from where you are standing. When a fire crew set up camp nearby, Adair hired on to cook for the 74 men, including 60 prisoners released from jail to fight the fires.

On August 20, heavy smoke descended into their camp. The ranger ordered everyone to take blankets into the river and cover their heads. They all did as ordered and ran for the water as the fire roared and trees crashed to the ground around them. But Pinkie would not stay. She scrambled up and over the riverbank and disappeared.

Thirty miles away, Pinkie finally staggered into Avery, Idaho, as the last train was leaving. The engineer spotted the exhausted young woman with singed eyebrows and tattered clothes and told her to climb aboard. Clinging tightly to the caboose, Pinkie rode to safety.

Erected 2010 by Lolo National Forest.