Wildfire Burns Harriet Hageman’s Family Homestead, More Evacuations Ordered
A 25,000-acre wildfire raging through the Haystack Hills of eastern Wyoming burned Harriet Hageman’s family homestead. She fought back tears talking about the “devastating” fire. Meanwhile, more evacuations were ordered late Friday.
Pat MaioAugust 03, 2024
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, was teary-eyed and fought back her emotions talking about her family’s loss this week of her childhood home, which went up in flames when Wyoming’s largest wildfire roared through the Haystack Range.
The Hageman homestead, a rustic cabin-like structure with plastered walls and built into the side of a hill near McGinnis Pass, Wyoming, was destroyed by an uncontained wildfire in rough terrain littered with huge granite boulders and tinder fueled with juniper pinions woodland and sagebrush.
“It’s been pretty devastating,” Hageman told Cowboy State Daily.
Back in Washington, D.C., doing what she does there, Wyoming’s lone U.S. House member was preoccupied with upsetting late-night telephone conversations with her brother Hugh and older sister Julia in Torrington, who lives closest to their 100-year-old mother, Marion, in a local nursing home.
Matriarch of the family, Marion Hageman, hasn’t fully grasped the family’s devastation.
“I just saw her a couple of days ago when I was home. I’m not even sure she even knows about this fire yet,” said Hageman of her mother.
“It was a very old log house, with very thick walls because they didn’t split the wood. It was very cold in the wintertime,” she recalled. “We had one woodburning stove, and we would take Montgomery Ward catalogs when we were younger and put them on the stove and heat them through, and then wrap them in fabric and take them to bed to stay warm.”
Wind Shifts, More Evacuations
Meanwhile, by Friday evening the wind had shifted, prompting an urgent notice from Platte County officials for residents in the tiny town of Hartvilleand nearby Whalen Canyon to evacuate, their second in less than a week.
“Attention!!! Residents of Hartville and Whalen Canyon Evacuate Now!” reads a Platte County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post. “The winds have changed and the fire is advancing west. Pleasant Valley residents begin evacuation process.”
The evacuation notice also came with the announcement of local road closures, specifically for Highway 270, Whalen Canyon Road and Pleasant Valley Road.
As of 9:06 p.m. Friday, “Fire crews have been able to regain control of the fire at this time,” the sheriff’s office reported.
Among those who were quickly evacuated were the staff, volunteers and animals at the Kindness Ranch Animal Sanctuary.
“This evening we had to make the difficult decision to evacuate Kindness Ranch,” the sanctuary posted to its Facebook page. “The fire was picked up by the wind and headed our direction.”
All the people and animals were hustled out safely, and the “large animals (are) houses safely in metal buildings with lots of food, water and a dedicated small number of staff staying back and caring for them,” the ranch says. “We are all safe, the animals and humans.”
The wildfire as of late Friday was also upgraded from a little over 23,000 acres to 25,000 acres burned in a huge swath of flatland and hills leading into the Haystack Range.
The fire is stuck to the north of U.S. Highway 26 in the Haystacks with no containment, according to a statement issued Friday afternoon by Tyson Finnicum, a spokesman for the Wyoming State Forestry Division. …
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/08/03/wildfire-burns-harriet-hagemans-family-homestead-more-evacuations-ordered/