Greg Ryhal, wrote a review of "The Bears of Blue River" in 2001 for Amazon.com.   Today we find him working and living here in Bloomington.  He mentioned the book's version of the Blowout, that being the "Fire Bear" falling off a cliff and exploding. Greg wrote, "A settler had been burning brush and caused one of those pockets (of natural gas) to explode, creating a deep hole (Blowout Hole) where the Flat Rock River and Conns Creek flow together (South of Waldron).  Both streams flowed backwards for a week, and the windows on houses were shattered for miles around.  In fact, a childhood friend of mine lived in one of the nearby houses and it still exhibited a crack from foundation to roof from the mighty explosion."