Did you know the Perseid Meteor Shower carries special passengers? On the night of August 11, 2000, the body of fallen firefighter James Burnett was brought off the mountain after a blow up of the Kates Basin Fire at 2:00 that afternoon. For several hours that fateful day hell was on that mountain. The wind at 10:00pm was still hot and tasted bitter. It was full of ash and blowing, glowing cinders. Tens of thousands of rolling, rugged acres displayed millions of tiny burning sage stumps. Cathedrals of orange glowing smoke columns continued to rise up out of still burning greasewood and cottonwoods down in deep draws across the landscape. Firefighting vehicles which had all been ordered off the mountain earlier in the day had for days, pounded the dirt roads into a throat clogging talcum fine dust a foot deep in places. Here and there, cattle, confused but quiet, could be seen in the darkness wandering back up the blackened mountain in search of patches of good grass left unburned. Above this scene of death and fire, in the crystal clear sky, were a trillion stars. Among them was was a Perseids display like few people have seen. I know without a single doubt that Jim Burnett left Mexican Pass on one of those meteors that night. His body rests in Hatfield, Arkansas, but his spirit will forever ride among the Perseids. Jim returns each year to ride once more over Mexican Pass where things went so wrong. He rides over just to let the living know he is okay. Lest we forget, James Burnett, every August, when the Perseids Meteor shower lights up our sky.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:33:26 +0000
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