A Nun’s Courage: The Miraculous Rescue During the 1910 Big Burn

During the time that the 1910 Big Burn forest fire was approaching Wallace, the railroad tracks in the foreground of this picture, became involved with one of the provident events of the fire. A train was sitting on these very tracks waiting for the nuns in the hospital to evacuate their patients and load them onto the train that would take them towards Missoula, MT and safety from the approaching fire. However, a nun, Sister Antioch, cried out, “Wait, we have three more patients in the basement!” She rushed back into the hospital to rescue them. When she returned to the train, the tracks, as in this picture, were empty. The train had departed. So what does any person of religious persuasions do? She prayed, along with the stranded patients, that the fire would skip over the hospital saving both them and the building. Those prayers were answered, and the building and the people were saved from the fire. Later a memorial statue was erected on the grounds to commemorate the answer to their prayers.
(Page 177 of “The Big Burn” by Egan)
(Submitted by Bruce Flohr)