This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/wNHBAIB/2900 Message Board Post: Arkansas City Traveler, November 3, 1886. Reported Prairie Fires. Advices from the Indian Territory, the first of last week, were to the effect that destructive prairie fires were sweeping over millions of acres of rich pasture land, the area burnt extending from Vinita on the north to Muscogee on the south, and on both sides of the M. K. & T. Road as far as the eye could see. It was further reported thatt large numbers of cattle were burned to death, and also immense quantities of hay, baled and loose, the destruction of fodder being so complete that cattlemen would be compelled to drive their cattle elsewhere to save them from starvation. This looked gloomy enough for the parties affected, but later word comes from Tahlequah, on the authority of C. S. Shelton, a stockman, who had journeyed to that city by way of Vinita and Muscogee, declaring the story of this extensive prairie fire all a hoax. He says only small burns have been made, and those in the vast expanse of pasture that meets the eye are hardly discernible. Mr. Shelton reports plenty of grass on the range, and that cattle will go into winter with better prospects for grass and more of it this winter than for years.