Environmental Setbacks
Environmental setbacks
Burke is said to have the longest winters around. The snow piles and piles up.
Back when Burke was young, people over logged the mountains.
This was a fast & easy recipe for disaster- a disaster known as snowslides.
Burke canyon has had multiple devastating snowslides, one of which- the snowslide of 1910- killed 17 people and left the canyon buried in snow well into July. It destroyed the church, as well as a few houses and other buildings.
People assess the snowslide
Fire in Burke
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Burke was also susceptible to fires. It was a town made mostly of wood, after all. In 1923, a fire burnt down the entirety of Burke Canyon, including the church.
Fun fact- the great fire of 1910 didn’t actually get to Burke. It was probably affected by all the smoke and ash, but it wasn’t harmed by the flame.
When the mines were open, they would consistently dump silt into the river. This made the river very shallow, and susceptible to flooding.
One notable flood was the one in 1964, as it destroyed a lot of Burke. It most likely kick-started the end of Burke canyon, as a lot of the buildings weren’t rebuilt after they were destroyed. (at that point, there wasn’t really a point.)
Man fishing on a pole