In 1845, Mr. Johnson, a cook on an English ship sailing along the Columbia River, deserted and traveled down the Willamette Valley. Establishing a land claim in Champoeg, he began removing brush and that summer set off a burn to clear debris. The Champoeg Fire got out of control and spread eastward. Unfortunately, the wind then reversed direction and strengthened, blowing the blaze around the previous burn and fanning it into the dry Coast Range, where it burned in the Yamhill basin for weeks, consuming 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) of old growth forest – the largest such area destroyed in a single forest fire in the United States.[4] Settlers did not live west of the Coast Range, but the small tribes of Native Americans in the area, already depleted by 80% due to malaria and other epidemics from 1830 to 1841, were driven from their lands.