HARLOW FIRE & MARIPOSA COUNTY Part -1- Another Perspective The HARLOW FIRE started in MARIPOSA COUNTY and burned south and east to the top of DEADWOOD MOUNTAIN at COARSEGOLD. Approximately 250 homes were destroyed. The little town of NIPINNAWASEE, about nine miles above OAKHURST on Highway 49, was leveled except for the school and one house. The school, first opened in 1912, was named after Craig CUNNINGHAM who was the Superintendent of Schools of MADERA COUNTY at the time the school was built. I went to school there in 1916. This school has more recently been moved to OAKHURST to the SIERRA HISTORIC SITES MUSEUM.. The Harlow Fire started coming southeast. Instead of backfiring in front of it, the firefighters backed off and tried to build a fireline to hold it. The State didnt believe in backfiring then so the fire got such a start they just couldnt stop it. When they finally did stop it, it was in the area of the top of DEADWOOD and Highway 41, on the south side of DEADWOOD MOUNTAIN.. My brother, Ned, and I had a sawmill at AHWAHNEE and I had a sawmill at AHWAHNEE and the fire burned it, along with all the lumber, all the logging Equipment, and our house. Bill HULL and the KISER boys saved the school; the boys were high school age. Some of the personal suffering can be described like this: I couldnt get any news about my mother or brother and it wasnt until the next day that I learned they had gone near a pond until they could get to OAKHURST to spend the night. My mother lost her house and everything else. My brother had a pressure system on the well; he had lots of water in the well, but when the power line burned through and dropped down, that was the end of the power. He never knew where it came from, but there was a big piece of tarpaper roofing that came through on the wind. It was on fire and landed on the roof of his house. Everything was so hot that when it hit that roof-- woof!!! They were lucky to save themselves! They came down to the old reservoir across the road from the ROUNDHOUSE. Lots of people went to that reservoir; if it got too hot, they could wade into it and save themselves.