The effect of frequent burning on the landscapes of eastern Oklahoma is a constant theme in Nuttall’s journal. Fire influenced not only the prairies, but also uplands and forests. On June 15, making his way back to Fort Smith through the Ouachita Mountains from the Red River area, he crossed the “Kiamesha” River, “running nearly due west, and very low…[and] we passed and repassed several terrific ridges, over which our horses could scarcely keep their feet, and which were, besides, so overgrown with bushes and trees half-burnt, with ragged limbs, that every thing about us, not of leather, was lashed and torn to pieces.” (Lottinville pp. 180-181).