In 1929, a disastrous fire swept over this area and left it a wasteland. Of late years, however, thousands of small fir and pine trees have sprung up and are rapidly hiding the fire-swept earth. Mingled with the evergreens are serviceberry, elderberry, and chokecherry shrubs. In the spring, they brighten the landscape with their swaying, white-tipped branches, and in late summer, when their fruit is mature and ripe, they are alive with chattering sparrows and nervous bullfinches in search of food. In the lowlands toward the Little Spokane River are groves of willow and alder and quaking aspen, whose leaves quiver and whisper with the slightest breeze. A striking feature of the landscape is the large number of huge granite boulders. Here and there along the highway are well-cultivated farms and stump ranches.