The Big Burn, or as it was called, “The Big Blowup” saw huge fires in the whole of the Northwest including Idaho, Montana and Washington. Although it wasn’t considered a part of the Big Blowup, that August a wildfire threatened to burn down the towns between Sandy and Government Camp.
For generations the native people would come each season from all directions between Spring and Autumn to stay and live their lives here on Mount Hood.
In 1947 a soldier that had returned from the war had the idea to set up a fort and to recruit Indians from Umatilla to come and setup and encampment and show tourists the ways of the Native American. He and his wife Virginia, with help from friends, put all that they had into building the Mt Hood Indian Pageant.
