Residents and ranchers in Canadian, Texas, are still recovering a year after the Smokehouse Creek Fire

Heavy smoke crossing a road on the Smokehouse Creek Fire on Feb. 27, 2024. (Wikipedia photo)

It has been a year since the Smokehouse Fire burned millions of acres across the Texas Panhandle. The blaze took the lives of three people, killed thousands of cattle and left a trail of scorched earth that was once bucolic lands.

In Canadian, Texas, a town of 2,300 residents in the Panhandle's northeast corner, where the fire decimated thousands of acres, residents are still working through the disaster's trauma and what the town's future might look like, reports Jayme Lozano Carver of The Texas Tribune. "As resilient as Canadians are, they are coping through trauma — and have been for a long time. The latest fire challenged residents to once again find a way to recover — mentally, physically, and financially."

Wendie Cook, a Canadian council member, told Carver, "It feels as if there’s a shadow. We all know it’s coming. Some days it’s just harder to take in than others.” Carver adds, "It’s difficult to focus on the future when you’re haunted by the past. Black scorch marks cover the splintered trees for miles. . . .Bundles of melted chairs and broken glass are scattered outside what was a community center."

Most of the time when communities are hit by natural disasters, they can begin clean-up and recovery processes immediately. That's not an option for Canadians. Carver explains, "Visitors can't go to Lake Marvin Lodge, a community center that once sat in the Black Kettle National Grasslands Park. The damage from the fire hasn’t been cleaned up. . . . It’s federal property, and local officials are not allowed to rehabilitate it."

Even as life goes on, it isn't the same Canadian. It was "business as usual two weeks ahead of the one-year anniversary of the wildfires," Carver writes. "Ranchers in the Panhandle were getting ready for the annual bull sale. . . There were about 217 people there, but a big portion of the usual customers were absent. James Henderson, a Memphis rancher told Carver, "Our customers lost a lot. So they weren’t here to buy bulls. They don’t need bulls, they don’t have any fences.”