The Nation : Huge Forest Fire Skirts Mt. Rushmore

A roaring forest fire veered away from Mt. Rushmore after chasing hundreds of residents and tourists from the area, while another huge grass fire was stopped 10 miles short of the Alaska pipeline. “When we told them it was burning 1,000 acres per hour . . . and it was three miles away, they kind of believed us,” said Sgt. Howard Brunner of the Pennington County Sheriff’s Department, who helped evacuate the town of Keystone, S.D., late Wednesday. Visitors were allowed to return to Mt. Rushmore on Thursday morning, but it was accessible only from the west. In Alaska, 72 firefighters gained the upper hand after a three-day battle to control a 126,000-acre fire in the center of the state.