From the Monday, July 31, 2006 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
High winds sent a wildfire howling out of Glacier National Park and onto the Blackfeet Reservation, with flame lengths as high as 200 feet early Sunday morning.
By daybreak, the Red Eagle fire had burned 22,000 acres and forced the evacuation of St. Mary on the eastern edge of Glacier Park.
“If you look at a topo map of Glacier Park, everything funnels southwest to northeast - and when the wind aligns with that, it can really howl through there,” said fire information officer Shannon Downey. “We were seeing torching and 200-foot flame lengths at 12:30 last night. That's extreme fire behavior.”
Not until about 3 a.m. did the fire die down at all, only to pick up again Sunday afternoon as a cold front moved into western Montana, stirring up wildfires in the Bitterroot Valley as well.
With forecasters warning of 50 mph gusts, the National Park Service evacuated the Cut Bank Creek campground, all Cut Bank area trails and Glacier Park's backcountry campground Atlantic Creek. The Blackfeet Tribe asked residents near Cut Bank Creek to be ready to evacuate.
U.S. Highway 89 between Browning and St. Mary remains closed, and visitors cannot enter Glacier Park from the eastern entrance.
Going-to-the-Sun Road is open from the west entrance to Rising Sun. Then visitors must turn around and go back over Logan Pass to exit the park.
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