Direct-authored thread on prairie fires: how fast they moved through the Missouri/Platte/Arkansas river bottoms.

When the Prairie Becomes a River of Fire

A prairie fire at night, as the book describes it: flames in ‘sparkling, brilliant chains of liquid fire hanging in festoons’ across the grass.

When the Prairie Becomes a River of Fire

These fires ran through the Missouri, Platte, and Arkansas river bottoms — dry grass burning fast enough to overtake a rider on horseback.

When the Prairie Becomes a River of Fire

There was no outrunning it on foot.

The only real defenses were rivers, bare ground, or a fire already burned through.

When the Prairie Becomes a River of Fire

Grass fire moves at the speed of its fuel and its wind, not the speed of the people trying to escape it.

That's the whole danger.

When the Prairie Becomes a River of Fire