The next eruptive period, the Pillow Ridge period, occurred when the MEVC was still overlain by an ice sheet. Subglacial volcanism at the northern end of the Big Raven Plateau injected basaltic lava into the base of the ice sheet where the molten basalt was quenched in a meltwater cavity. Accumulation of this quenched lava resulted in the formation of a pillow mound under glacial ice between 300 and 930 m (980 and 3,050 ft) thick. As the volcanic activity progressed, it became more energetic and created a subglacial cone of tuff breccia at least 300 m (980 ft) in height. Formation of the cone was accompanied with Surtseyan explosions which may have been caused by a change in eruption rate, a change in confining pressure, or a change in the nature of the magma being erupted. Breaching of the ice surface, upwards growth of the pillow mound, or the draining of meltwater may have contributed to a drop in confining pressure. This stage of the eruption was followed by the effusion of two pillow lava units under at least 300–600 m (980–1,970 ft) of water or ice; a relative episode of quiescence took place between the emplacement of these two units. The final stage of volcanic activity, which resulted in the creation of Pillow Ridge on the northwestern flank of Mount Edziza, involved the effusion of two other overlying pillow lava units.
Another pulse of subglacial volcanism during the Pillow Ridge period created nearby Tsekone Ridge. Interaction with the surrounding ice and meltwater created pillow lava interbedded with tuff breccia which was likely fed by a fissure. This north–south elongated ridge formed in a similar environment to that of Pillow Ridge and is considered to be a subglacial mound, a glaciovolcanic landform created when a volcano does not build above the surrounding meltwater during a subglacial eruption. The basaltic magma that issued during the Tsekone Ridge eruption may have been left over from the volcanism that formed Pillow Ridge.
The eruptions during Pillow Ridge time were much less voluminous than those of the Ice Peak eruptive period, depositing only 2.9 cubic kilometres (0.70 cubic miles) of volcanic material; this makes the Pillow Ridge Formation the least voluminous geological formation of the third magmatic cycle. Fission track dating of alkali basalt from Pillow Ridge has yielded ages of 0.9 ± 0.3 million years and 0.8 ± 0.25 million years, potentially making Pillow Ridge the best documented example of where the Cordilleran Ice Sheet reached a regional high point during the middle Pleistocene.


The Edziza eruptive period constructed the symmetrical stratovolcano of Mount Edziza after the regional ice sheet had retreated from the MEVC. Growth began on the upper northern flank of Ice Peak with the eruption of viscous trachyte flows and steep-sided lava domes; dome formation was punctuated by vent-clearing explosions which ejected volcanic blocks and lava bombs onto the slopes of the growing stratovolcano. Formation of the stratovolcano was followed by collapse of the original summit, creating the 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter crater that truncates it. The cause of this collapse may have been a violent, climactic eruption that deposited parts of the original summit onto the flanks of the volcano. Prior to collapse, the summit of Mount Edziza was at least 610 m (2,000 ft) higher than its current elevation of 2,786 m (9,140 ft). Part of the eastern crater rim was destroyed by a small phreatic explosion which provided a new passageway for the venting of volcanic gases. Individual lava flows range from 1–5 m (3.3–16.4 ft) to as much as 150 m (490 ft) thick; this variation in thickness may have been due to changes in viscosity as volcanic gases escaped the erupting magma. The trachyte erupted during this period straddles the pantelleritic trachyte and comenditic trachyte boundary.
The Edziza eruptions deposited 18 cubic kilometres (4.3 cubic miles) of volcanic material; this makes the Edziza Formation the second most voluminous geological formation of the third magmatic cycle. Most of the volcanic activity during Edziza time occurred from the summit of Mount Edziza, but at least a few vents were active on the flanks of the volcano. Volcanism on the southeastern rim of the summit crater created Nanook Dome; lava from this dome flowed down the exterior flanks of the stratovolcano and also into the summit crater to form lava lakes. Triangle Dome and Glacier Dome formed on the western and northeastern flanks of Mount Edziza, respectively; Triangle Dome may be the product of subglacial volcanism. A trachyte flow from Glacier Dome travelled around the base of the older Pyramid Dome into the head of Pyramid Creek. Lava from a small pyroclastic cone on the northwestern flank of Mount Edziza nearly engulfed Tsekone Ridge and partially buried Pillow Ridge; this lava and the associated pyroclastic cone may have been products of volcanism during the latter stages of the Edziza eruptive period. Edziza trachyte of comenditic composition has yielded a potassium–argon date of 0.9 ± 0.3 million years.

Volcanism of the Mount Edziza volcanic complex


The fourth magmatic cycle took place between 0.8 and 0.2 million years ago during the Pleistocene. Like the previous three magmatic cycles, it was characterized by three distinct eruptive periods. The first eruptive period created the Arctic Lake Formation which underlies much of the Arctic Lake Plateau near the Spectrum Range. Alkali basalt flows and related pyroclastic rocks comprise the Arctic Lake Formation. The second eruptive period is represented by the Klastline Formation along the Kakiddi and Klastline valleys; thick alkali basalt flows are the main features of this geological formation. The third eruptive period produced thick trachyte flows and pyroclastic rocks of the Kakiddi Formation which occupy valleys on the eastern flank of Ice Peak.


The Arctic Lake eruptive period 0.71 million years ago created at least seven basaltic volcanoes on and adjacent to the Arctic Lake Plateau. Lava fountaining at the extreme northern end of the Arctic Lake Plateau created the Outcast Hill cinder cone which blocked westerly flowing streams to create a temporary lake against its eastern side. Lava from Outcast Hill flowed into the lake, but most of it travelled to the northwest towards the Mess Creek Escarpment. Tadekho Hill, a cinder cone 4 km (2.5 mi) to the south, formed on top of a 180 m (590 ft) high remnant of Spectrum trachyte. Outcast Hill and Tadekho Hill both formed when the Arctic Lake Plateau was relatively free of glacial ice.


The Arctic Lake Plateau was subsequently covered with ice as glaciers advanced from the neighbouring Spectrum Range. Subglacial volcanism at the height of this glacial advance created Wetalth Ridge, a subglacial mound near the middle of the plateau. This was followed by the eruption of four other volcanoes on the Arctic Lake Plateau during the waning stages of glaciation. Two small mounds of quenched pillow lava informally called Knob 1 and Knob 2 formed subglacially about 4 km (2.5 mi) south of Wetalth Ridge. The third volcano, Source Hill, is a cinder cone that was created about 3 km (1.9 mi) to the northwest during a massive eruption of lava when only the central part of the Arctic Lake Plateau contained a thin lobe of glacial ice. Late-stage volcanism during Arctic Lake time formed Thaw Hill, a cinder cone about 7 km (4.3 mi) east-southeast of Source Hill on the eastern side of the Arctic Lake Plateau.
The Arctic Lake eruptions were much less voluminous than those of the Edziza eruptive period, depositing only 2 cubic kilometres (0.48 cubic miles) of volcanic material; this makes the Arctic Lake Formation the least voluminous geological formation of the fourth magmatic cycle. Alkali basalt of this eruptive period mainly rests on Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks of the Stikinia terrane, although it also locally overlies rhyolite of the Spectrum Formation. Nearly all of the basalt was erupted at elevations greater than 1,000 m (3,300 ft), but at least one basalt flow descended into Mess Creek valley. Subaerial alkali basalt flows are large in areal extent and have thicknesses of 2 to 3 m (6.6 to 9.8 ft). Arctic Lake Formation alkali basalt has yielded potassium–argon dates of 0.71 ± 0.05 million years and 0.45 ± 0.07 million years.


The Klastline eruptive period 0.62 million years ago was characterized by minor lava fountaining and the effusion of massive basalt flows from at least three vents along the northern flank of Mount Edziza. The basalt flows travelled adjacent to Buckley Lake on the northwestern side of the Big Raven Plateau and into the Klastline and Kakiddi valleys north and east of the plateau. Explosive interaction between lava and meltwater from an alpine glacier formed the Klastline tuff cone higher up on the plateau whereas eruptions on the lower slopes of the plateau created subaerial pyroclastic cones. Lava from Klastline Cone entered Kakiddi Valley where it blocked Kakiddi Creek and then flowed north across dry gravel bars to the confluence with Klastline Valley, temporarily damming the Klastline River to form a large shallow lake. Most of the lava continued to flow westward through Klastline Valley and reached the Stikine River.


Lava of the Klastline eruptive period continued to flow 55 km (34 mi) downstream along the Stikine River from its confluence with the Klastline River. As the lava advanced it buried glacial and nonglacial sediment along the Stikine and Tahltan rivers; isolated remnants of this lava are preserved along the river canyon walls and are subdivided into two geological members. The Junction Member is characterized by swirly jointed basalt whereas the overlying Village Member consists of regular columnar basalt jointing. At least five distinct lava flows comprise the Village Member which collectively reach a maximum thickness of 100 m (330 ft) and are vesicular in texture. The Klastline lava along the Stikine River had travelled some 83 km (52 mi) from the MEVC.
The Klastline eruptive period deposited 5.4 cubic kilometres (1.3 cubic miles) of volcanic material, making the Klastline Formation the second most voluminous geological formation of the fourth magmatic cycle. Potassium–argon dating of Klastline alkali basalt has yielded ages of 0.62 ± 0.04 million years and 0.33 ± 0.03 million years. The first date is from a lava flow remnant in Klastline Valley whereas the second date is from a Village Member basalt flow on the Tahltan River. Argon–argon dating of Village Member basalt about 2 km (1.2 mi) downstream from the mouth of the Tahltan River on the east bank of the Stikine River has yielded an age of 0.30 ± 0.10 million years.


The Kakiddi eruptive period 0.3 million years ago involved the eruption of a massive trachyte flow that reaches almost 1 km (0.62 mi) wide and 60–90 m (200–300 ft) thick. It advanced 7 km (4.3 mi) down the eastern flank of the MEVC into Kakiddi Valley where it spread out into a more than 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) terminal lobe near Kakiddi and Nuttlude lakes. The source of this lava flow remains unknown, but it may have originated from Ice Peak and possibly Nanook Dome at the summit of Mount Edziza. Another possible source is The Neck which lies at the western end of the inferred maximum extent of this lava flow. However, this possibility cannot be confirmed until additional age-related data are provided for The Neck.


Minor tristanite and a relatively small but thick trachyte flow issued from a vent on the western flank of Ice Peak where it advanced onto the Big Raven Plateau. Breccia and spatter agglutinated around the vent area to create Punch Cone, a roughly 1 km (0.62 mi) long, steep-sided ridge projecting through Mount Edziza's ice cap. Pyroclastic rocks erupted during Kakiddi time are exposed on the eastern flank of Mount Edziza where they take the form of scoria and blocky explosion breccia.
The Kakiddi eruptions deposited 8.3 cubic kilometres (2.0 cubic miles) of volcanic material; this makes the Kakiddi Formation the most voluminous geological formation of the fourth magmatic cycle. Potassium–argon dating has yielded ages of 0.31 ± 0.07 million years for Kakiddi mugearite and 0.30 ± 0.02 million years, 0.29 ± 0.02 million years and 0.28 ± 0.02 million years for Kakiddi trachyte, suggesting the Kakiddi eruptions may have been coeval with those of the Klastline period. Kakiddi trachyte likely erupted more fluidly than trachyte of the Edziza eruptive period, but its mineralogical composition is nevertheless similar to Edziza trachyte. The Kakiddi eruptive period was short-lived as suggested by the small error and close clustering of the potassium–argon dates.


The fifth magmatic cycle, which may still be ongoing, commenced at least 20,000 years ago with the onset of the Big Raven eruptive period. It was marked by the eruption of subglacial volcanoes, cinder cones and lava flows along the entire length of the MEVC, as well as a single eruption of pumice from the southwestern flank of Ice Peak. Most of the Big Raven eruptions took place on the western flank of Ice Peak and on the northern flank of Mount Edziza where lava flows from several vents accumulated to form the Desolation and Snowshoe lava fields. Volcanic activity in the two lava fields most likely overlapped in time and display similar surficial features. The exact timing of Big Raven volcanism is unknown, but it may have initiated during the Last Glacial Maximum between 23,000 and 18,000 years ago. At least 1.7 cubic kilometres (0.41 cubic miles) of volcanic material has been deposited by the Big Raven eruptions.
The rocks deposited during the Big Raven eruptive period comprise the Big Raven Formation. This geological formation consists mainly of alkali basalts and hawaittes, but it also contains a small volume of comenditic trachyte assigned to the Sheep Track Member. More than 29 eruptions took place during this eruptive period, most of which resulted in the creation of cinder cones. These cones are of Holocene age and occur on Mount Edziza, in the Snowshoe and Desolation lava fields and adjacent to the Spectrum Range. Eruptions during Big Raven time continued within the last 2,000 years, but the exact age of the latest one is unknown; it may have occurred between 450 and 160 years ago. Holocene eruptions of the MEVC have been mainly characterized by the effusion of basaltic lava flows, but at least one explosive eruption has also occurred.
Volcanism during the fifth magmatic cycle may have deposited the Finlay tephras. These are two 5-to-10-millimetre-thick (0.20-to-0.39-inch) tephra layers of phonolitic to trachytic composition in the Dease Lake and Finlay River areas of northern British Columbia. Radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant macrofossils directly overlying the youngest tephra layer suggest an Early Holocene age for this volcanic material. MEVC volcanic deposits of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene age are largely basaltic in composition, but their exact ages and chemical compositions are not well-known. Therefore, the MEVC has been suggested as a potential source for these two tephra layers along with Hoodoo Mountain, Heart Peaks and Level Mountain.


One of the first volcanoes to erupt during the Big Raven eruptive period was Tennena Cone which formed high on the western flank of Ice Peak. It issued basaltic magma under an ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum, under an expansion of Mount Edziza's ice cap during the Younger Dryas between 12,900 and 11,600 years ago or during a more recent glacial advance. As the molten basalt accumulated around the erupting vent, it was quenched by the overlying ice to form the steep-sided, pyramid-shaped pile of pillow breccia and tuff breccia that comprises Tennena Cone. A meltwater channel thawed from the base of the cone provided the pathway for a thin lava flow. As the lava flow reached the western edge of the ice, it caused a violent interaction with meltwater which spread onto the Big Raven Plateau. Two unnamed volcanoes also in the Snowshoe Lava Field formed subglacially south of Tennena Cone.
After the ice retreated from lower elevations, renewed volcanism in the Snowshoe Lava Field constructed Cocoa Crater, Coffee Crater, Keda Cone and other subaerial cinder cones by lava fountaining. Their construction was accompanied by the eruption of very large lava flows that travelled west into the valleys of Sezill Creek and Taweh Creek at the southwestern end of the Big Raven Plateau. A fissure eruption from The Saucer south of Tencho Glacier issued lava flows that travelled west into Taweh Creek and east into Shaman Creek; this was one of the most recent eruptions in the Snowshoe Lava Field.


At least three eruptive centres were active on the deeply eroded eastern flank of Mount Edziza during Big Raven time. Cinder Cliff in the northern fork of Tenchen Creek valley formed when an eruption of basaltic magma ponded against an ice dam and engulfed debris such as moraine and talus. The other two eruptive centres, Icefall Cone and Ridge Cone, consist of bombs and agglutinate; they have been glaciated and are poorly exposed. Both cones produced lava flows but they are also poorly exposed, having been almost completely buried under glacial ice and debris. A more than 10 km (6.2 mi) long lava flow occupying a narrow, wedge-shaped valley on the eastern slope of Mount Edziza may have originated from Icefall Cone, Ridge Cone or an undiscovered vent inside the valley. Its terminus lies between Kakiddi and Nuttlude lakes where it is well exposed for 2 km (1.2 mi).
Two Big Raven centres formed at the southern end of the MEVC. The southernmost eruptive centre, Nahta Cone, erupted about 7 km (4.3 mi) southwest of the Spectrum Range near the northern edge of the Arctic Lake Plateau and produced a narrow, 3 km (1.9 mi) long basaltic lava flow that travelled northward into the head of Nahta Creek. Extending roughly 500 m (1,600 ft) west and 700 m (2,300 ft) north of Nahta Cone are two tephra deposits; their distribution suggests the volcano was in eruption at least twice during two differing wind directions. The other eruptive centre is a now-destroyed cinder cone that formed on the unstable southern flank of Kuno Peak at the southwestern end of the Spectrum Range. It produced a basaltic lava flow that travelled onto the Arctic Lake Plateau, but subsequent landsliding on Kuno Peak removed much of the original cone and buried the associated lava flow.

Arctic Lake Plateau and east slope centres


The first cones to form in the Desolation Lava Field were Sleet Cone and Storm Cone, which are about 4 km (2.5 mi) apart and produced lava flows that travelled over glacial till. Later volcanism created the three Triplex Cones 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Storm Cone which issued a 12 km (7.5 mi) long series of lava flows extending northwesterly to near the south shore of Buckley Lake. Renewed eruptive activity formed Sidas Cone and Twin Cone 8 km (5.0 mi) apart, both of which are products of simultaneous lava fountaining from more than one vent. Lava flows from these cones travelled to the northwest and northeast, respectively. The subsequent eruption of Moraine Cone 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Sidas Cone produced a roughly 14 km (8.7 mi) long lava flow that travelled northeast into the Kakiddi Creek and Klastline River valleys; both streams were temporarily dammed by the lava flow. Eve Cone and Williams Cone were created 5 km (3.1 mi) apart by the latest Desolation Lava Field eruptions, which issued lava flows more than 10 km (6.2 mi) long that reached Buckley Lake and the Klastline River, respectively. Willow twigs preserved in ejecta from Williams Cone have yielded a radiocarbon date of 610 CE ± 150 years.
The Mess Lake Lava Field northwest of the Spectrum Range issued from three cinder cones adjacent to the edge of the Mess Creek Escarpment. Lava flows from the two oldest cones travelled to the west and most likely cascaded down the escarpment into Mess Creek valley, but no evidence of this phenomenon has been found on or below the escarpment. The youngest cinder cone, The Ash Pit, formed at the south end of the Mess Lake Lava Field on the northern side of Nagha Creek. The Ash Pit eruption, which may be the most recent of the MEVC, issued mainly pyroclastic ejecta in the form of ash and cinders; much of this material was blown to the north-northeast by a strong, uniform wind during eruption and deposited onto the Kitsu Plateau. Some lava did, however, flow to the northwest through Nagha Creek valley towards Mess Lake in Mess Creek valley.


The Kana Cone eruption about 18 km (11 mi) north of Mount Edziza was characterized by the effusion of basaltic lava flows and the build up of volcanic ejecta around the erupting vent. Several lobes of lava were produced during this eruption, some of which flowed around eroded remnants of lava produced during the Klastline eruptive period and engulfed Klastline Valley where they temporarily dammed the river. The lava dam formed a new route for the Klastline River along the northern valley wall where it still flows to this day, although some of the lava may have flowed further downstream where it potentially reached the Stikine River to form another temporary dam. Several episodes of lava effusion occurred during the Kana Cone eruption, each resulting in the formation of new lava channels.
Two small Big Raven cinder cones formed in Walkout Creek valley about 18 km (11 mi) southwest of Mount Edziza, both of which produced basaltic lava flows. The larger cone is about 120 m (390 ft) high and was constructed on top of a slow-moving landslide originating from the northern side of the valley. Bombs and agglutinated spatter of the smaller cone about 3 km (1.9 mi) to the east are exposed north of Walkout Creek where they overlie colluvium deposits. Deep dissection has occurred at both cones, the larger cone having been segmented into arcuate, step-like slices from continued movement of the landslide.


A small but violent VEI-3 eruption occurred from a vent on the southwestern flank of Ice Peak near the end of the Big Raven eruptive period. It deposited granular trachyte pumice of the Sheep Track Member which fell over an area of about 40 km2 (15 sq mi). Larger, snowball-sized chunks of this pumice fell near the vent area whereas smaller, pea-sized fragments landed around the perimeter of the deposit. All of the Snowshoe Lava Field flows and cones are covered by Sheep Track pumice with the exception of The Saucer which likely postdates the Sheep Track eruption. The location of the vent that ejected the pumice is unknown, but it may lie under Tencho Glacier, the largest glacier of the MEVC. Fission track dating indicates the Sheep Track pumice was erupted in the last 7,000 years, most likely around 950 CE.


Volcanism of the MEVC produced at least 10 distinct flows of obsidian, some of which were used by indigenous peoples in prehistory to manufacture projectile points and cutting blades. The obsidian was widely traded throughout the Pacific Northwest; it has been recovered from archaeological sites in Alaska, Yukon, western Alberta and along the British Columbia Coast. It occurs over an area of more than 2,200,000 km2 (850,000 sq mi), making MEVC obsidian the most widely distributed obsidian in western North America. Obsidian from the Hidden Falls archaeological site in Alaska has yielded a hydration date of 10,000 years; this suggests the MEVC was being exploited as an obsidian source soon after ice sheets of the Last Glacial Period retreated.
Obsidian from the MEVC occurs in at least four geological formations, the largest occurrence being centred on Goat Mountain of the Spectrum Formation. The Armadillo Formation contains five flows of obsidian that are more widely distributed throughout the MEVC; locations include Cartoona Peak, Coffee Crater, Destell Pass, Artifact Creek and the Artifact Creek–Fan Creek confluence. The Ice Peak and Pyramid formations each contain two flows of obsidian that occur on Sorcery Ridge and The Pyramid, respectively.


Volcanism of the MEVC is glaciologically significant because some of its volcanic deposits have recorded evidence of ice presence and thickness in a region that has received insignificant field research on ice conditions before the Last Glacial Period about 115,000 to 11,700 years ago. The earliest recorded evidence of ice presence at the MEVC is preserved in the 4.4-million-year-old Nido Formation, which contains glacial deposits that are interbedded with lava flows. A record of Early Pleistocene glaciation is preserved by a sequence of diamictites between basaltic lava flows of the approximately 1-million-year-old Ice Peak Formation.
The lowermost basalt flow of the Ice Peak Formation contains basal pillows; it also directly overlies hyaloclastites and is brecciated and deformed, suggesting it may have been extruded onto a glacier or an ice sheet. The thicknesses of Ornostay Bluff of the Ice Peak Formation and Triangle Dome of the 0.9-million-year-old Edziza Formation suggest that they were extruded when the MEVC was covered with at least 225 m (738 ft) of glacial ice. Glacial sediment under a 0.3-million-year-old basalt flow of the Klastline Formation in the Stikine River valley corresponds with marine isotope stage 10 of the Middle Pleistocene.


The possibility of renewed volcanism of the MEVC cannot be ruled out since it is one of the most recently active volcanic complexes in Canada. It is also generally regarded to be dormant rather than extinct, having undergone several pulses of eruptive activity over the last 2,000 years. Any renewed volcanism of the MEVC would possibly be similar to what has occurred throughout its long volcanic history, potentially producing explosive eruptions and damming local streams with lava flows. Glaciovolcanism is also a possibility since the MEVC contains an ice cap that covers an area of about 70 km2 (27 sq mi). Explosive volcanism could disrupt parts of northwestern Canada; ash columns can drift for thousands of kilometres downwind and often become increasingly spread out over a larger area with increasing distance from an erupting vent.


Eye (Spring/Summer 2000) was the fifteenth collection by British fashion designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. It was inspired by the culture of the Middle East, particularly Islamic clothing, as well as the oppression of women in Islamic culture and their resistance to it. The collection crossed traditional Middle Eastern garments with elements drawn from Western fashion such as sportswear and fetishwear. Jeweller and frequent McQueen collaborator Shaun Leane provided the collection's best-known design: a yashmak made from chainmail.
The runway show for Eye was staged at Pier 94 on 16 September 1999, during New York Fashion Week. In the days leading up to the runway show, Hurricane Floyd was threatening New York City, and although numerous other designers cancelled shows, McQueen decided to go ahead with Eye. Despite the weather, more than 1,000 guests attended. The show was presented on a runway flooded with several inches of water, dyed black to resemble oil. Sixty-eight looks were presented in the main show, after which a bed of nails rose up from the water on the floor for the show's finale. Strobe lighting played while acrobats dressed in robes descended from the ceiling suspended from wires. When McQueen walked out for his final bow, he dropped his trousers to display boxer shorts styled to look like the American flag.
Critical response to Eye was mixed. While some reviewers enjoyed the theatrical approach, others found that it overwhelmed the clothing. Many critics found that the designs lacked innovation. The frock coats and dresses were consistently deemed the strongest part of the collection. Critical analysis has typically interpreted Eye as a statement about the contrast between the sexual and political values of the Western world and the Middle East. Accessories from Eye appeared at both stagings of the retrospective exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and clothing from the collection appeared in the 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse.


British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was known throughout his nearly twenty-year career for his imaginative, sometimes controversial designs. His fashion shows were theatrical to the point of verging on performance art. As a British designer, McQueen presented at London Fashion Week for much of his career, although he had reprised his early shows Banshee (Autumn/Winter 1994) and Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996) in New York City at the behest of fashion promoter Derek Anderson.
McQueen drew inspiration for his clothing and shows from a broad range of sources, including history, world religions, art, and his own life. He often used his work to explore themes of female victimisation, resistance, survival, and empowerment, although his aggressive, sexualised designs sometimes drew accusations of misogyny. He examined religious ideas throughout his career: religious motivations for warfare in Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996); martyrdom in Joan (Autumn/Winter 1998), and religious persecution in In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692 (Autumn/Winter 2007). He often played with notions of clothing as armour and vice versa.


Eye (Spring/Summer 2000) was the fifteenth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. Inspired by Turkish music McQueen heard in a taxi as well as the London Arab community, the collection explored the culture of the Middle East, particularly Islamic clothing. McQueen stated that he wished to examine the oppression of women in Islamic culture and their resistance to it.
To this end, the collection took traditional Middle Eastern and Islamic garments such as harem pants, baggy trousers fitted to the ankle; Islamic veils including the yashmak and niqāb; and the burqa, which fully covers the body and the face, and infused them with elements drawn from Western fashion styles such as sportswear and fetishwear. There were also frock coats and low-rise trousers with keyhole cutouts or scooped hems. Fetishwear concepts included face masks, body-conscious silhouettes, and leather harnesses. Sportswear was presented in the form of football jerseys bearing red crescent moons, and boxing shorts with McQueen's name in faux-Arabic script.
The collection's primary palette was red, black, and white, with metallic and embroidered elements. As was typical for McQueen, tailored items featured heavily, including coats and suits. There were also a number of draped dresses in lightweight jersey. Many items were made from brocade fabric and embroidered leather. Some items had prints resembling traditional Islamic art. The designs were cut to either conceal the body, in the Middle Eastern tradition, or reveal it, in a more Western manner. Garments were decorated with sewn-on coins, bells, and ribbons, reminiscent of belly dancing costumes. Accessories included headdresses made from coins, provided by milliner and frequent McQueen collaborator Philip Treacy. Pieces using diamonds were created by winners of an international jewellery competition.
Another longtime associate, jeweller Shaun Leane, created a yashmak made to look like chainmail, consisting of aluminium plates inset with red Swarovski crystal cabochons. According to Leane, McQueen showed him an antique belt made of filigree metalwork, set with red jewels, which Leane has variously recalled as Ottoman or Moghul, and asked him to produce something inspired by the belt which covered the entire torso and head. That was the extent of the creative brief: McQueen trusted Leane to produce something suitable, and McQueen did not see the finished item until three days before the show. The nose and eyebrow pieces for the yashmak were hand-carved by sculptor Annika Hellgren.


Eye was the first show McQueen had premiered outside of London. The decision was somewhat controversial in the British press, as McQueen's departure left London Fashion Week without one of its largest-drawing names. Lisa Armstrong at The Times of London speculated that McQueen might have been feeling spiteful toward the British Fashion Council, as he believed they had "never properly recognised his part in transforming British fashion over the past few years".
McQueen stated the move to New York was a business decision intended to showcase the Alexander McQueen brand to fashion industry personnel who did not attend London Fashion Week. He viewed this as a step toward developing the brand internationally, and was clear from the outset that he intended to return to England the following season. The move resulted in his show being nearly a week and a half earlier than it would have been in London, prompting a rush for his employees to ensure the collection was ready in time.


The show was staged in a Pier 94 warehouse at 9:00 p.m. on 16 September 1999, during New York Fashion Week. McQueen had initially requested permission to stage the runway show for Eye on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, but the New York City Police Department declined for safety reasons. In the days leading up to the runway show, Hurricane Floyd was threatening New York, prompting closure of schools and businesses. Several other designers cancelled shows, but McQueen decided to go ahead with Eye. Announcing McQueen's decision not to cancel, his publicist, Pierre Rougier, reportedly claimed that the storm "will add atmosphere". Some joked that McQueen had arranged for the hurricane to coincide with his show for the effect. Jeanne Beker of the Ottawa Citizen speculated that he had enjoyed the opportunity to inconvenience "snooty" industry figures. Despite the weather, more than 1,000 guests attended, including several major fashion industry figures: Anna Wintour of Vogue, Kim Hastreiter of Paper, Katherine Betts of Harper's Bazaar, Hal Rubenstein of InStyle, and Patrick J. McCarthy, editorial director of Fairchild Publications.
The show was unusually expensive. Estimates of the budget varied widely; pre-show rumours projected that it would cost anywhere from £500,000 (US$800,000) to £1 million (US$1.62 million). McQueen told The Times in January 2000 that it had cost roughly £460,000 (US$750,000), while Harper's Bazaar reported in December 1999 that the show had cost £500,000 (US$800,000). Sponsor American Express, in their third year as McQueen's backer, contributed approximately £600,000 (US$970,000) to the show's budget. De Beers contributed an unspecified amount of funding, and lent a 1,220-diamond necklace and a 407-diamond pin for the runway show. These items were reportedly worth £1.24 million (US$2 million). Other backers included Onward Kashiyama, Swarovski and MAC Cosmetics.
McQueen typically worked with a consistent creative team for his shows. Joseph Bennett, who had designed all of McQueen's runways since No. 13 (Spring/Summer 1999), returned to handle set design. Overall styling was handled by Katy England, while Gainsbury & Whiting oversaw production. Hair and make-up were handled by Guido Palau and Val Garland, respectively.


Models walked down a 100-foot (30-metre) catwalk filled with several inches of water, dyed black to resemble crude oil, a major Middle Eastern resource. McQueen had previously used liquid runways in Bellmer La Poupée (Spring/Summer 1997) and Untitled (Spring/Summer 1998). The primary make-up look was heavy black eyeliner. The models had their skin darkened with fake tan lotion. Many of the models were styled with headdresses which covered their whole face except their eyes. Others wore black wigs.
Sixty-eight looks were presented in the main show, with an additional nine looks presented during the finale. The show's soundtrack was described by Alex Kuczynski at The New York Times as "ominous disco"; it also included drums and sounds of screaming. The show opened with a black frock coat with heavy silver embroidery, worn with only black underpants beneath. Look 2 combined a black face covering with a black tailored trouser suit, a classic McQueen ensemble. The chainmail yashmak was presented in Look 13, styled with red and silver underpants. For Look 15, Gisele Bündchen wore a bodysuit covered with metallic paillettes and an embroidered headdress. McQueen referenced the burqa in Look 22, a black robe which concealed the face but was cut short in the front, revealing embellished black underwear.
For the show's finale, a bed of nails rose up from the water on the floor. Strobe lighting played while acrobats dressed in robes resembling burqas descended from the ceiling suspended from wires, floating, gyrating, and dancing. Following this, the lights came back up and the models took their final turn. Finally, "Can You Handle It" by Sharon Redd played while McQueen walked out for his final bow in blue jeans. At the top of the runway, he dropped his pants to display boxer shorts styled to look like the American flag. The show reportedly received a standing ovation.


Eye drew a varied reception from contemporary critics, and retrospectives differ in their assessment of the critical consensus. Author Andrew Wilson reported that the show earned "rave reviews", albeit more for the performance than for the clothes. In contrast, author Katherine Gleason and curator Kate Bethune each reported that reception was mixed, with Gleason writing that critics felt McQueen had "overdone the theatrics".


A number of reviewers regarded the clothing and show as an overall success. Rebecca Lowthorpe at The Independent called Eye "the highlight of the week" and predicted that it would draw the attention that McQueen was looking for. Michael Quintanilla of the Los Angeles Times wrote that with Eye, "The bad boy did good." Fiona McIntosh, also at The Independent, said that McQueen's theatrical presentation had "managed to upstage Hurricane Floyd".
Lisa Lenoir of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "fashion meets theater". For The New York Times, Cathy Horyn called Eye "a great show, as circus goes", describing it as "art for fashion's sake". Libby Callaway of the New York Post agreed that the show mostly existed for the performance rather than for the fashion, but in a positive way, saying "Let's see Ralph [Lauren] or Donna [Karan] pull that off." Beker, in an article that contended that "fashion is pretty much over", took the finale as a visual metaphor for "ris[ing] above the dangerous inanity of the scene".
On the other hand, many reviewers felt the theatrical presentation had eclipsed the clothing it was intended to display. Several compared the show to a circus. Hilary Alexander at The Daily Telegraph called the show a "war on the senses". The staff writer at Women's Wear Daily (WWD) and Robin Givhan of The Washington Post remarked on the irony of staging a fashion show that involved purposely dragging expensive high-end clothing through water. Marisa Fox of the Chicago Tribune could not decide whether it was "poetic justice" that models had to walk through water during a hurricane or "merely a sensationalist gimmick." Colin McDowell, writing for The Sunday Times, dismissed Eye as a retread of things McQueen had done before. WWD ultimately concluded that they would have preferred to see "more fashion innovation" and less bombast. Similarly, Givhan wrote that McQueen had created not fashion but "a collection of costumes for a fascinating theatrical event".
Suzy Menkes, writing for the International Herald Tribune, gave "high marks for showmanship" but wrote that McQueen had "missed the magical fusion of function and fantasy" that characterised his earlier shows. Writing for The Detroit News, Nicola Volta Avery said that "McQueen pushed it up and over a scary edge". Lowthorpe felt the seizure-like movement of some of the dancers in the finale "had a nasty pointlessness to it", while Givhan found these movements disturbingly like "death throes". McDowell called the finale a "sinister and dreary" attempt to distract from the "mediocre" clothes.
Several reviewers commented on McQueen's stunt at the final bow. Horyn took it as an affectionate gesture, while Lowthorpe regarded it as affectionate but defiant. Lowthorpe thought the gesture might shock the American audience more than the disturbing finale. Fox was not sure whether Americans would appreciate the gesture but noted that it had guaranteed him publicity. Walton Scott of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution felt it indicated that he had "undoubtedly come to conquer". McDowell described it as a "cheap stunt" and said he could not imagine other designers needing to resort to such tactics. Alexander took it to mean that McQueen was suggesting the show was "all in fun".


Most reviewers highlighted the frock coats and dresses as the strongest part of Eye. Quintanilla felt that most of the clothes were "pure fantasy" but found the coats and dresses to be "standout pieces". Lisa Armstrong suggested these concepts could be "easily interpreted into store-ready versions" and called the collection overall a "tailoring coup". WWD found the dresses and coats "highlighted the designer's brashness as much as his technical skill". Both Givhan and Menkes appreciated these more commercial pieces, but felt that the more dramatic garments in the collection overwhelmed them. Callaway highlighted the dresses and pantsuits as her favourites. Laura Craik of The Guardian complimented the "witty" sportswear items, which Avery said provided a "hint of Americana". Lenoir highlighted the costumes worn in the finale, saying that they "might not be Academy Award night material, but they rose above anything else seen on the runway".
Not every reviewer was impressed with the designs. Horyn found the clothing less impactful than the runway show, remarking that "the clothes didn't break new ground" but that one had to respect McQueen's vision nonetheless. John Davidson for The Herald of Glasgow was ambivalent, saying that, although the clothing featured "clever cutting and magical decoration", it lacked McQueen's usual "finesse". Armstrong worried that McQueen's interest in increasing sales in the United States might lead him to undercut his creativity in pursuit of commercial gains. Scott found that the runway items "defied description, if not reasoning" but noted that McQueen's retail clothing was usually "more realistically wearable". Alexander appreciated the "precision cutting and elaborate detail", and felt that the loose harem-style trousers and tops "showed his softer side". However, she was strongly opposed to the fetishwear, calling it "grotesque and unnecessary".
Some critics questioned the commercial viability of the designs for Eye, particularly of the fetishwear shown on the runway. Jean Fraser of the Edmonton Journal enjoyed the performance but wrote of the designs: "As fashion that might actually sell, it's dubious." Mimi Spencer of the Evening Standard sarcastically said that "leather restraining hoods are not top of my shopping list for spring". Similarly, David Graham of the Toronto Star remarked that "there was very little to wear to the office".


Critics have typically interpreted Eye as a statement about the contrast between the values of the Western world and the Middle East. Writing in retrospect, authors Judith Watt and Andrew Wilson both regarded Eye as a commentary on contemporary American foreign policy in the Middle East and the resulting cultural conflict. Others felt it was an exploration of the way Islamic and Western cultures choose to conceal or reveal the female figure, respectively. Kate Bethune wrote that the appearance of traditional-looking tunic tops cut unusually high to reveal the midriff were a "comment on the concealment of the Middle Eastern female body", while the breast-exposing fetish harnesses "attested to Western liberalization".
Most contemporary reviews were unconvinced by McQueen's attempt at social commentary. Givhan's review called it a "tormented and often muddled commentary" on female sexuality. WWD dismissed the collection's narrative as "the defiant self-indulgence of a major talent intent on leaving his audience talking". Speaking of the outfits that concealed the face but exposed the nipples and buttocks, Armstrong wrote: "In every McQueen collection, there's always an element that makes you wonder if he likes women at all." Alexander had similar thoughts, saying "There are times when McQueen reveals more than we need to know about his attitude to women." Fox asked if he was making a point about Islamic oppression or women or "merely going for the jugular?" Conversely, Holly Hanson of the Detroit Free Press argued that McQueen had backed up the shock value of Eye with "an intriguing point of view".
Author Ana Finel Honigman wrote that the collection's sexualised niqāb designs "carried the poisonous sting of cultural appropriation and desecration". She compared Eye with Between (Spring/Summer 1998), a collection by Turkish Cypriot designer Hussein Chalayan which similarly explored women, clothing, and sexuality in Islam, but "from an insider's perspective".
Textile curators Clarissa M. Esguerra and Michaela Hansen criticised the way McQueen mixed and matched ideas from various cultures into one "sensational vision", calling Eye a form of turquerie, an 18th-century European trend for a romanticised version of Turkish culture and fashion. They found that despite McQueen's goal of exploring religious repression of women, the collection "offered no clear commentary on women's agency", in part because the pieces actually sold in stores lacked the religiously provocative stylings included in the runway show. Esguerra and Hansen compared Eye to McQueen's Scottish-inspired Autumn/Winter 2006 collection, The Widows of Culloden, because of the way both collections drew from history. They argued that Widows succeeded where Eye failed because of McQueen's "intimate knowledge of and personal attachment to" the subject matter. They also contrasted Eye with Between, finding that Eye lacked "cultural sensitivity" in comparison to Chalayan's personal experience with the culture he was examining.
Critics have noted the ambiguity of Shaun Leane's chainmail yashmak. It can be viewed as both armour and jewellery; Leane described it as "jewelry covering the body to create this formidable structure". It combines a reference to the armour worn by Christian soldiers of the Crusades – a series of religious wars in which Christians fought against Muslims – but also the traditional dress of Muslim women. Curator Soyoung Lee wrote that the yashmak "signals mystery and forbiddance" by concealing the wearer's body and face yet possesses a "sensuous fluidity" in its movements.


The original chainmail yashmak by Shaun Leane was reworked for McQueen's The Horn of Plenty (Autumn/Winter 2009), where it was presented as part of Look 42, underneath a silk gown printed with milk snakes in red, black, and white. The Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A) in London owns a replica version of the yashmak made in 2015. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City commissioned a replica of their own in 2017, which stands in the museum's permanent collection.
Leane's yashmak was one of several items that appeared in the October 2001 Fashion in Motion event at the V&A, which served as a retrospective of their creative relationship. The yashmak also appeared at the 2006 exhibition Love and War: The Weaponized Woman at The Museum at FIT. Three of the coin headdresses from Eye appeared in the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, originally staged in 2011 at The Met. The V&A's replica yashmak appeared in that museum's 2015 version of Savage Beauty. The Met's replica appeared in their 2018 exhibition Jewelry: The Body Transformed. Several ensembles and coin headdresses appeared in the 2022 exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse.
When early McQueen employee Ruti Danan auctioned her personal archive in 2020, a pair of embroidered trousers from Eye sold for a reported US$1,875.
The Alexander McQueen brand returned to New York Fashion Week for Autumn/Winter 2022; it was their first show there since Eye.


The 1992 Fountain Fire was a large and destructive wildfire in Shasta County, California. The fire ignited on August 20 in an act of probable but unattributed arson, and was quickly driven northeast by strong winds. It outpaced firefighters for two days, exhibiting extreme behavior such as long-range spot fires, crown fire runs, and pyrocumulonimbus clouds with dry lightning. The fire was contained after burning for nine days, though work to strengthen and repair fire lines continued for more than two months.
The Fountain Fire consumed 63,960 acres (25,880 ha) and destroyed hundreds of homes, primarily in Round Mountain and Montgomery Creek along the State Route 299 corridor. In 1992, it was the third most destructive wildfire in California's recorded history, though it no longer features among the 20 most destructive California wildfires. At a suppression cost of more than $22 million (~$43 million in 2023), it was also for a time the most expensive fire to contain in state history.
At the time, the Fountain Fire was recognized not just as a major disaster, but also as a 'fire of the future'. The devastation the fire left as it moved through private timberlands interspersed with rural communities made it emblematic of the challenges residents and firefighting personnel both face in the wildland-urban interface. The Fountain Fire was surpassed by later California wildfires in metrics for losses, but it remains notable for its speed, its widespread destruction in multiple communities, and the long-term alteration of the landscape within its footprint.


The Fountain Fire burned in eastern Shasta County, part of the southern extent of the Cascade Range. The area was a secondary forest, having entirely regrown after logging in 1886–1923. The forest contained mixed conifers, comprising incense cedar, Douglas fir, sugar pine, and ponderosa pine, among other species. Most of the forest that the Fountain Fire burned—65 percent—was owned and managed by timber companies, including Roseburg Forest Products, Sierra Pacific Industries, and Fruit Growers Supply. Only one percent of the forest was owned by the state or the federal government; the other 34 percent belonged to smaller private landowners.


Both long-term climatic patterns and short-term weather conditions helped create an environment conducive to a large and uncontrollable wildfire in late August 1992. Between 1987 and 1992, California experienced a six-year drought of a duration and severity not seen in the state since the 1920s and 1930s. Four of these six years ranked in the driest 10 percent of years by runoff. The stress on forests led to widespread bark beetle infestations.
Several weeks of high temperatures—equal to or exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) for 22 days—also preceded the fire in Shasta County. There were also fewer firefighting personnel and equipment available than normal due to an already-active fire season in California; during the Fountain Fire's first day four thousand firefighters were deployed on the destructive Old Gulch Fire in Calaveras County.
Lastly, a critical fire weather pattern developed in Northern California. The influence of an upper-level trough moving onshore in the Pacific Northwest and a strong upper-level jet situated over Northern California created strong flow out of the southwest and Foehn winds on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada. Those winds also brought dry air, a result of the dry slot—a zone of clear, dry air which often accompanies low-pressure systems. The Northern California Geographical Coordination Center identifies this as a typical critical fire weather setup in northeastern California and the southern Cascades: "Pre-frontal conditions occur when strong, southwesterly or westerly winds are generated by the dry, southern tail of a rapidly moving cold front." In the Fountain Fire's vicinity on August 20, southwest winds were blowing at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h).


The Fountain Fire was first spotted by a fire lookout atop Hogback Mountain in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest at about 12:50 p.m. PDT on August 20. The lookout reported a smoke column behind a ridge, near a historic drinking fountain along Highway 299 (which gave the incident its name). They could not see the actual ignition point of the growing fire, which was confirmed by the Shasta Bear Mountain lookout's cross-check to be about two miles (3.2 km) from the fountain in dry grass off of Buzzard Roost Road, just west of Phillips Road and south of Highway 299. When a resident of Phillips Road spotted the fire shortly before 1:00 p.m., it was already 30 feet (9.1 m) across and it had climbed into the tree canopy.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (then CDF, now Cal Fire) dispatched numerous resources over the next 10 minutes; an observation aircraft arrived overhead by 1:07 p.m., reporting that the fire had already spread to 2–3 acres (0.8–1 ha) and was moving north quickly. Ground personnel arrived at 1:19 p.m., 29 minutes after the first report. The first two fire engines on the scene were forced to defend an under-construction house that was at risk from blowing embers. Firefighters saved multiple homes, but the fire still grew rapidly. By 2:17 p.m. the Fountain Fire had burned 40–50 acres (16–20 ha) in its first 90 minutes, and Cal Fire officials later marked this as the point where the fire exceeded the ability of the resources on scene to control it. By 2:50 p.m. these resources included 25 fire engines, ten air tankers, and three helicopters. At around 3:30 p.m., per a Roseburg Forest Industries brochure, fire activity intensified still further.
Officials initially hoped to hold the fire at Highway 299 outside of Round Mountain, keeping it under 200 acres (81 ha). They were nearly successful, but the high winds drove the fire into brush beneath power lines, which arced, starting multiple spot fires. Firefighters were unable to keep the Fountain Fire from continuing towards the community of Round Mountain. Round Mountain, Montgomery Creek, and the small subdivision of Moose Camp were all evacuated around 4:00 p.m. By 4:30 p.m., the fire had crossed Highway 299. This was also the approximate time that a new wildfire, the Barker Fire, began in Trinity County and further stretched firefighting resources in Northern California.
The Fountain Fire's northeastern push developed into an intense crown fire, with flame lengths of up to 300 feet (91 m) that kept ground crews from safely engaging. The wind helped embers ignite spot fires at least one mile (1.6 km) ahead of the main fire. The pyrocumulonimbus plume generated by the Fountain Fire reached at least 25,000 feet (7,600 m) in altitude, as detected by weather radars in Medford, Oregon, and generated numerous lightning strikes. The 50–70-mile-per-hour (80–113 km/h) jet stream blowing out of the west created a chimney effect when it met the billowing smoke plume, ventilating the fire and increasing fire behavior.


A Forest Service meteorologist speculated that, based on witness reports and debris, intense fire-generated vortices developed in the Fountain Fire. A National Weather Service meteorologist in Redding assigned to the incident concurred, noting that investigators found pine trees two to three feet (0.61 to 0.91 m) in diameter snapped in half by possible "fire tornadoes". Such vortices have been recorded in other Northern California wildfires, including the 2014 Eiler Fire near Hat Creek and the 2018 Carr Fire on the outskirts of the city of Redding.
As the fire swept through the community of Round Mountain, it burned at temperatures of up to 2,000 °F (1,090 °C), melting a cast-iron bathtub, stainless steel knives, chrome car bumpers, glass bottles, and even cooking potatoes growing underground. No one was killed or severely injured when the fire front pushed through the town, but multiple people drove out through the flames or left their properties just before the fire reached them.
By 5:00 p.m., fifteen people were trapped in an 80-acre (32 ha) meadow at the end of Frisby Road after flames blocked the way out to Highway 299. The McMillan family, ranchers and owners of the meadow property, had planned to go there in case of a fire and were able to wet the area down with water trucks and flood it by blocking irrigation ditches. The group remained there as the fire moved through with 200-foot (61 m) flame lengths, blowing the roofs off of nearby barns with the force of its passage. Two men put out spot fires with a bulldozer. A helicopter looking for people who had not evacuated eventually discovered the group, surrounded by flames. It was able to land and extricate two women and a two-year-old child, but could not return. Firefighters could not safely reach the remaining people and evacuate them until 10:00 p.m., five hours after they had taken refuge in the meadow.
Meanwhile, the fire continued moving north and east: by midnight, the fire had pushed further along the Highway 299 corridor and was south of Montgomery Creek. By then it had burned approximately 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) and forced 1,000–2,000 people to evacuate.


The following day marked the single largest day of growth for the Fountain Fire as similar weather conditions continued to fuel extreme fire behavior. At one point the fire burned 80 acres (32 ha) every minute and spread at a rate of six miles per hour (9.7 km/h). This growth was enabled by more long-range spotting, as wind-borne embers started spot fires between one-quarter mile (0.40 km) and two miles (3.2 km) ahead of the main body of the fire.
In the morning, fire crews focused on protecting Montgomery Creek by attempting to stop one branch of the fire's advance at Fenders Ferry Road off of Highway 299, south of the community and north of Round Mountain. While firefighters were able to protect many structures along the road, they were unable to prevent the winds (a combination of continuing gusts from the southwest and inflow winds towards the Fountain Fire's massive plume to the east) from pushing the flames across the road. This happened shortly after noon, and the fire then pressed towards Montgomery Creek. The fire entered the center of the community along Highway 299 by 3:00 p.m. Multiple homes were destroyed, but firefighters protected the local school, post office, and other major structures with assistance from aircraft.
Meanwhile, the larger head of the fire to the east continued advancing, forcing the communities of Big Bend, Hillcrest, and Moose Camp to be evacuated. The fire burned through Moose Camp—a community of 60 summer cabins and several permanent homes—later that day, leaving about 20 cabins standing. By 6:00 p.m. on August 21, the larger town of Burney was placed under a voluntary evacuation advisory. California Highway Patrol officers used bullhorns to warn residents, and the Red Cross shelter that had been established there was also forced to move.
The fire moved so quickly and fiercely that firefighters did not expect to be able to stop it short of where the conifer forests gave way to old lava beds east of Burney. By dusk, the fire had advanced all the way to Hatchet Mountain and Hatchet Mountain Pass, damaging radio equipment on the mountain's summit. Flames were visible from Burney. By 10:00 p.m., the fire front was within 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of the town, and had set a log deck on fire at Sierra Pacific Industries' mill on its western outskirts. However, once the Fountain Fire crested the hills west of Burney, it was no longer in alignment with the wind and up-slope terrain that had driven it along the Highway 299 corridor for the previous 36 hours. By midnight, the fire had burned more than 35,000 acres (14,000 ha) in total.


The Fountain Fire's behavior and growth over its first two days were sobering to firefighters. On August 22, the third day of the fire, Cal Fire deputy incident commander Bill Clayton predicted that the fire would grow to 100,000 acres (40,000 ha). A memo posted for crews read: "The fire has moved 7 miles in 6.5 hours the first day, faster the second day (Friday). Prepare for more of the same today. It is critically dry, fueled with variable winds, has produced rapid fire runs and heavy spotting which have ran out crews many times."
However, August 22 ended up bringing much more moderate weather conditions and fire behavior. Cooler temperatures and lighter winds allowed firefighters to gain ground. That morning, firefighters lit backfires off Highway 299 near Hatchet Mountain to prepare and strengthen control lines. This tactic was repeated in the afternoon as the fire closed to within one mile (1.6 km) of Burney. By the end of the day, it was clear that the head of the fire was progressing to the northeast of Burney and not towards it, and the Forest Service was calling the fire 30 percent contained.
During the 22nd and 23rd, the flanks of the fire remained problematic: the fire moved both northeast towards the Pit River and southwest towards Oak Run and other communities. Stopping the Fountain Fire from crossing the Pit River was a high priority, as officials cited the steepness of the terrain beyond it, dense fuels, and the high resource values (such as old-growth forests and endangered spotted owl habitat) that would be at risk if it crossed. In that case, officials feared a "whole new ball game" with "uncontrollable" fire conditions. Crews were aided on that side by strong winds from the north, though the same winds made containing the southern flank more difficult. Residents of Round Mountain and Montgomery Creek were briefly allowed to return to their properties.
Before dawn on August 24, low humidity and winds of up to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) prompted a red flag warning for much of Northern California and also caused the fire to briefly become more active, jumping the fire line into the drainage of Cow Creek. Some evacuation orders were re-issued, including for Oak Run and Mill Creek, but the fire did not burn any more structures and by that afternoon it was 40 percent contained in all.
The winds failed to re-materialize on the 25th, though the weather remained hot and dry. Firefighters constructed firebreaks by hand in the Pit River canyon, in terrain so rugged that bulldozers could not operate and described by a Shasta-Trinity National Forest spokesperson as "steeper than a cow's face." Big Bend, Moose Camp, and Hillcrest alone remained under mandatory evacuation orders. Firefighter reported re-burning and flare-ups of activity near unburned islands (ranging from 30–400 acres (12–162 ha)) of vegetation and structures within the fire. By midday on August 26 the fire was 75 percent contained. On August 27 it remained hot and dry but with calm winds.
On August 28, the Fountain Fire was declared 100 percent contained, having burned a total area just shy of 64,000 acres (26,000 ha). Firefighters continued to monitor 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) of unburned vegetation within the perimeter that risked reigniting, primarily on Hatchet Mountain and Lookout Mountain. The fire was officially declared controlled on November 1. Other fire suppression operations continued until mid-November.


A deadlock between the Democratic California state legislature and Republican governor Pete Wilson meant that the state was without a budget between July 1 and September 3 in 1992, and consequently forced to pay many state employees or contractors in official IOUs during that period. These included Cal Fire firefighters on the Fountain Fire, many of whom bought and wore T-shirts that displayed the names of major fires, a "beleaguered firefighter", and the words "All this for an IOU?"
On August 23 the Fountain Fire was reported to be short of 105 wildland firefighters (equivalent to seven handcrews) primarily because of resources taken up by the Old Gulch Fire in Calaveras County. There were also fewer replacements in part because the budget stalemate meant that fire departments throughout the state were in some cases unwilling to send their idle units, worried about potential budget cuts and the need to maintain their own operations in the face of uncertain funding and reimbursement.
At the peak of the suppression effort, around 4,464 personnel—of whom at least 600 were California Conservation Camp Program prison inmates paid one dollar per day—worked to fight the fire. Firefighters worked shifts as long as 24 hours. The Shasta County fairgrounds in the town of Anderson, south of Redding, served as the main base camp for firefighters. On Sunday, August 23 alone, air tankers dropped 212,000 gallons of fire retardant, a then-record for the Forest Service air attack base in Redding. Aircraft, including Grumman S2Fs and Lockheed P-3 Orions, dropped over 740,000 gallons of fire retardant in total and were joined by at least 15 water-dropping helicopters and more than 470 ground vehicles. A Cal Fire official described the air attack fleet as "larger than the Peruvian Air Force." When suppression was complete the Fountain Fire had become the then-most expensive wildfire to contain in recorded California history, at a total cost of more than $22 million (equivalent to about $43 million in 2023).


Many residents who lost their homes in the Fountain Fire afterwards expressed criticisms of the firefighting effort. They argued that the firefighters should have cut more and larger fire lines between the flames and Montgomery Creek, and that crews did not defend structures that could have been saved. They also contended that many resources stood idle without orders for too long before engaging the fire or refused to engage at all. Multiple residents believed their homes were destroyed in backfires set by firefighters to slow the main fire. A Cal Fire battalion chief was assaulted during the fire by a man who reportedly disagreed with the way it was being fought. Eventually, in November, more than 200 residents attended a meeting to air their disagreements over Cal Fire's efforts. Representatives for area politicians, including for U.S. House Representative Wally Herger, attended.
Fire officials pushed back on these criticisms, asserting primarily that fire behavior was so intense that losses were unavoidable: many structures lay at the end of long driveways adjacent to heavy vegetation and could not have been safely protected. They also argued that without the context of internal communications, firefighters running out of water and leaving to get more was likely misinterpreted as abandoning structure defense. Finally, they pointed to at least 228 buildings that had been saved as evidence of their success in the face of the adverse conditions. One firefighter noted the challenges posed by the Fountain Fire burning largely in privately-owned forests: firefighters could have built fire lines and conduct firing operations wherever they chose in national forests, but not on land under private ownership and with power line.
The Rural Fire Protection in America Steering Committee interviewed fire officials, though not local residents, and produced a report analyzing Cal Fire's initial mobilization for the Fountain Fire. The report was favorable, though it noted that during the fire's early stages radio frequencies were overloaded and firefighters generally lacked good information on which homes were or were not defensible.
In March 1993, about 400 people attended a hearing on the fire held in Redding by the California State Senate Committee for Natural Resources and Wildlife. In the same month, Cal Fire also released its own internal report on the Fountain Fire. Issued by a four-member committee of Northern California fire chiefs and officers, it relied on interviews with 24 different fire officials (but no victims). The Cal Fire report was again mostly favorable to the agency, but listed several areas for improvement. It concluded that during the first 48 hours of the fire there were too few managers for the amount of equipment (the result of budget reductions and fires elsewhere), as well as serious communications issues. During the fire, 72 amateur ham radio operators had coordinated closely with Cal Fire and other agencies in the absence of telephone access. The report also criticized private firefighting equipment operators who showed up to the fire in hopes of being hired on the spot, causing confusion among officials who did not want responsibility for potentially unqualified operators. On the other hand, the committee report noted that 60 percent of the homes in the area of the Fountain Fire fell short of state standards for wildfire safety, including construction, brush clearance, and water access. The fire could not have been stopped given the windy conditions, most of the homes destroyed were indefensible, and the area was "a disaster waiting to happen", the report concluded.


In 1994, Cal Fire Director Richard A. Wilson ordered a series of audits of the agency's spending on wildfires, prompted by that year's expensive fire season. The first audit focused on the Fountain Fire. Some news articles seized on purchases made during the fire deemed extravagant, such as an order for more than 1,800 pounds (820 kg) of honey, as well as large bills for coffee, hotel rooms for firefighters, paperwork, and other goods and services. More systematically, the audit criticized the use of large and expensive helicopters and air tankers, and the disparity in compensation between very low-paid inmate firefighters (who did much of the difficult and dangerous physical labor on the fire line) and their correctional officers/supervisors.


Investigators pinpointed the precise spot where the fire started, using forensic techniques that even included examining the "pattern of charring on cow patties". They used satellite data to confirm that there had been no recent lightning strikes nearby, and traffic patterns to rule out a sparks from a vehicle's exhaust or a hot catalytic converter. No downed power lines were found at the site; nor indeed was any ignition source found at the fire's origin location, including matches, cigarette butts, or a "trace of exhaust carbon from machinery".
These methods led investigators to announce on August 25 that the cause of the Fountain Fire was probable arson. A Cal Fire spokesperson declared that "the probability is that someone used a match or cigarette lighter to ignite the fire and took it with them." Secret Witness, a non-profit organization, offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the responsible party. Cal Fire investigators followed about 50 leads, with none leading to an arrest. The statute of limitations for prosecuting the presumed act of arson expired three years later in 1995, though Cal Fire said then that it would continue investigating, with a spokesperson noting that "If a person has ignited one fire, they may have lit them before or they may light them later." A new California arson statute with harsher penalties and a longer statute of limitations was enacted in 1994 but did not apply retroactively.
No precise motive or perpetrator was ever determined, though one federal prosecutor told The Sacramento Bee in 1994 that he believed it was economic arson committed by someone intending to make money from the fire suppression effort. This was a motive linked to several other fires in Northern California at the time, some of which resulted in indictments.


No deaths were directly caused by the fire. However, three loggers—Melvin Bentley, Donald Hendrickson, and Steve Horton Tyler—were killed in separate incidents during salvage logging operations in the burn area; they are commemorated on a Fountain Fire historical marker. On October 15, Bentley was killed when he was struck by a partially-burned limb that fell from a tree as he took a break beneath it. On November 2, Hendrickson, a skidder operator, was hit by a falling snag and died after being airlifted to a Redding hospital. Tyler died almost a year later, on July 15, 1993, after being run over by a tractor he was operating. At least two other workers were seriously injured during Fountain Fire salvage logging, both of them struck in the head by trees that snapped back after being pinned down by other falling trees.
There were also at least 11 firefighter injuries during the fire itself. One firefighter was struck by a falling branch, and another broke an ankle. At least three state prison inmates were also injured, including one who suffered a broken leg. One firefighter was forced to deploy their fire shelter when overcome by flames while trying to protect a house. There were also substantial livestock losses, with entire herds of swine and cattle killed.


The fire caused Highway 299 to close from Oak Run in the west to Four Corners in the east, and Highway 89 to close from Highway 44 in the south to Interstate 5 in the north. Highway 299 reopened on August 29, following the removal of hazardous trees and the replacement of around 300 burned guard rail posts. McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, home to Burney Falls, was closed when the evacuation warning for Burney was issued and thereafter used as a camp for firefighters. In total, about 7,500 people were forced to evacuate because of the Fountain Fire. The majority of these evacuees were able to return to their homes on August 22, leaving 2,000–3,000 still displaced from Moose Camp, Montgomery Creek, Hillcrest, and Round Mountain. Some residents of burned areas were able to access their properties on August 23 and 24. By August 25, Big Bend, Moose Camp, and Hillcrest were the only communities still under mandatory evacuation orders, and almost all evacuees were able to return by August 28. At least two Shasta County residents were convicted of burglary for looting an evacuated home in Oak Run.


The Fountain Fire destroyed 636 structures. Homes accounted for 330 of them, with the remainder being commercial structures or outbuildings such as barns or sheds. Another 78 homes were damaged. The fire burned part of the elementary school in Round Mountain, including its auditorium and library. The Hill Country Community Clinic also burned down, leaving the nearest physician 30 miles away in Redding. The California Office of Emergency Services preliminarily estimated the cost of the Fountain Fire's damage to private property at $105.6 million (equivalent to about $205.9 million in 2023). This estimate—made the day the fire was contained—included almost $18 million in residential losses, almost $2 million in commercial losses, and $86 million in timber losses. At the time, the Fountain Fire was the third most destructive wildfire in recorded California history (after the Oakland firestorm of 1991 and the 1990 Painted Cave Fire in Santa Barbara), though it no longer ranks among the top 20 most destructive California wildfires.
The communities affected were economically vulnerable before the fire; as much as 90 percent of the populations of Round Mountain, Montgomery Creek, and nearby areas relied on some sort of public assistance. Jobs were often seasonal or dependent on tourism. The Red Cross estimated that 3/4ths of all those who lost their homes in the fire lacked insurance.
The fire also damaged much of rural Shasta County's basic infrastructure. All of eastern Shasta County lost power when the Fountain Fire burned the Cedar Creek PG&E substation in Round Mountain. More than 150,000 feet (46,000 m) of telephone cable operated by Citizens Utilities was burned. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) was forced to replace 45,000 feet (14,000 m) feet of electrical distribution lines, repair 150 miles (240 km) of transmission lines, and replace approximately 300 wooden power line poles that had burned.
At the time, fire officials highlighted the Fountain Fire as a "fire of the future", connecting the destruction of the wildfire to California's growing population, particularly in the wildland-urban interface. A Cal Fire spokesperson called fires like it "the price we pay for living where we choose to live". By 1992, more than 1,000 building permits were being issued every year outside of cities and towns in Shasta County. Firefighters recalled the first two fire engines on the scene being forced to defend a structure in the path of the Fountain Fire instead of suppressing the fire directly, and emphasized the lack of sufficient vegetation clearance around most structures.
An article ran in the Paradise Post two weeks after the Fountain Fire, noting that the city of Paradise, California was susceptible to a similar wildfire, with its comparable geography, fuels, and climate. In 2018 most of Paradise burned to the ground in an urban firestorm when the wind-driven Camp Fire blew through, killing 85 people and destroying more than 18,000 structures to become California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire.


The smoke plume from the Fountain Fire gradually drifted southwest over the Bay Area and California coast, including Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Napa counties; it prompted hundreds of calls to fire departments in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and elsewhere on August 22 and 23 from people who thought the smoke came from a local fire.
Various local flora and fauna were threatened by the fire. The fire approached critical habitats for the endangered and protected northern spotted owl and California spotted owl. The fire also threatened the only known populations of the Shasta snow-wreath, a rare deciduous shrub only recognized as an undiscovered species by botanists in May 1992, just months before the Fountain Fire—but the plants survived. A biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game predicted potential major impacts on local fish populations.
In a report for the Forest Foundation that advocated for thinning forests and post-fire replanting, retired forestry professor Thomas Bonnicksen used a Forest Carbons and Emissions Model (FCEM) to calculate that more than 13 million tons of carbon dioxide were released through combustion and decay in the Fountain Fire—equivalent to more than 17 percent of annual passenger vehicle emissions in California in 2005. However, the report received pushback: it was never peer-reviewed, and California Air Resources Board and Forest Service officials critiqued it as probably overestimating the amount of emissions. Other critics noted Bonnicksen's alignment with the timber industry.


Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope declared a local emergency on August 21, the day after the fire had begun and burned through Round Mountain. On the same day, Governor Wilson declared a state of emergency in Shasta County. On August 22, U.S. House Representative Wally Herger toured the disaster area and called for a federal disaster declaration from President George H. W. Bush. President Bush then authorized federal relief for Shasta County on August 29. Shasta County and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) agreed to drop all fees for fire victims seeking to rebuild their homes, and FEMA funded an additional building inspector for rebuilding efforts in the fire area for 18 months. Democratic Party U.S. Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein visited Redding on September 1 for her campaign, receiving a briefing at the incident command post in Anderson and a tour of the fire's footprint via helicopter.


Before the Fountain Fire the predominant forest cover type in the area was Sierra Nevada mixed conifer, with Pacific Ponderosa pine cover at lower elevations. Tree species included ponderosa pine, sugar pine, Douglas fir, white fir, incense cedar, and California black oak, while the understory was dominated by manzanita and Ceanothus species. The fire largely burned at a high severity, and killed much of the vegetation within its footprint.
In the weeks after the fire, Cal Fire conducted reseeding operations via helicopter, spreading 42 tons of native grass seeds over more than 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) judged prone to erosion. Timber companies built stream buffers and check dams in vulnerable waterways. Erosion concerns were borne out when a large autumn storm at the end of October brought rockslides and debris down onto Highway 299 in the burn area, temporarily blocking it. The following spring, rain on the hydrophobic soil (ash leaving it unable to absorb water) carved deep gullies, carried off topsoil, and washed roads out across the county.


The vast majority of the area burned by the Fountain Fire was privately owned. Of the nearly 64,000 acres (26,000 ha) burned, 41 percent (more than 25,000 acres (10,000 ha)) belonged to Roseburg Forest Products, 15 percent (more than 9,000 acres (3,600 ha)) to Sierra Pacific Industries, and nine percent to Fruit Growers Supply. Thirty-four percent belonged to small private landowners, and one percent belonged to the state or federal government. In total, 41,300 acres (16,700 ha) of the burn area were under industrial ownership.
California's Forest Practices Act permits timber companies to quickly harvest burned trees without first submitting thorough timber harvest plans to the state, in a practice called salvage logging. Salvage logging is an environmentally controversial but profitable enterprise for timber companies. After the Fountain Fire, Roseburg was able to keep multiple sawmills in Northern California open to process the salvaged wood, temporarily saving hundreds of jobs and prolonging the mills' lives by months when they had previously been slated to close over new environmental restrictions on logging public lands. By the end of the salvage logging effort in 1993, 600 million board feet of timber had been harvested from the burned trees, as well as 913,000 tons of wood chips for biomass power plant fuel.
In 1977, 10 families belonging to the Pit River Tribe of Native Americans had occupied Smith Camp (a defunct logging camp), claiming ancestral rights to the surrounding land. Roseburg Forest Products, which acquired the land in 1979 from another logging company, left the group undisturbed in the hopes that they would eventually leave. When the Fountain Fire burned through the area, it also destroyed the structures at Smith Camp, and Roseburg refused to authorize FEMA to place trailers there for the Native group to live in while they rebuilt. Roseburg also sought to conduct salvage logging operations on the land, and was resisted. The Native Americans demanded the legal title to the Smith Camp property, supported by the Pit River Tribal Council.


Roseburg and the other timber companies sprayed the land slated for replanting with herbicides, such as hexazinone, intended to suppress brush growth that might compete with replanted conifer saplings. Local residents organized a rally at a creek in the proposed spraying area with more than 100 attendees, worried about potential environmental contamination and side effects from the herbicides. Company officials dismissed concerns, arguing that the chemicals were known to be safe.
Logging companies began to replant in the spring of 1993, about seven months after the fire, and those efforts continued for five years. Roseburg planted "a combination of ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and white fir with 10-foot spacing." The scale of the replanting was significant: Roseburg Forest Industries planted 10 million seedlings, Sierra Pacific Industries planted three million, and Fruit Growers Supply Co. and W.M. Beaty and Associates planted the remaining four million, for a total of 17 million seedlings replanted in the burn area. The replanted trees are estimated to reach maturity at 100 feet (30 m) in height by 2065, although the growing forest is less varied than the second-growth forest that burned in the fire.


Wildfire concerns in the Fountain Fire's footprint also helped sink a contentious large wind farm project proposed for timberland property west of Burney and north of Highway 299. Known as the Fountain Wind project and proposed by energy firm ConnectGEN LLC, the project would have included up to 71 wind turbines, 679 feet (207 m) tall, with the capacity to generate 216 megawatts of electricity. The project's location within a high wildfire hazard zone, as evidenced by the Fountain Fire, was cited by opposing residents as a reason to deny approval to the project. They argued that the turbines could ignite fires (either by malfunctioning or by attracting lightning), would require significant vegetation clearance, and would make aerial firefighting more difficult. Officials with the Fountain Wind project argued that it would serve as a large-scale fuel break between the communities along Highway 299. A report by Shasta County's fire chief noted that the turbines would present an obstacle to aerial firefighting operations, but would not totally prevent them. It also described the help that the access roads cleared of vegetation would provide to crews. In 2021, the Shasta County Planning Commission voted unanimously to reject the project's use permit, followed by an appeal to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors that was denied in a 4–1 vote to deny the appeal. Wildfire risks and firefighting challenges, among other issues, were given as a primary reason for the rejection.


Free and Candid Disquisitions is a 1749 pamphlet written and compiled by John Jones, a Welsh Church of England clergyman, and published anonymously. The work promoted a set of specific reforms to both the Church of England and its mandated book for liturgical worship, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Through these proposed changes, Jones hoped that the more Protestant independent Dissenters – who had largely broken with the Church of England in 1662 and been legally tolerated since 1689 – could be reintegrated into the church.
Free and Candid Disquisitions followed a failed attempt at a revised Book of Common Prayer in 1689 and other unsuccessful efforts towards reintegrating the independent Protestant Dissenters. Jones's proposals included combining and abbreviating the Sunday liturgies, removing latent Catholic influences from several rites, and providing improved hymns and psalms. He also challenged the requirement that clergy subscribe to the doctrinal statements of the Thirty-nine Articles. The text included an appendix of statements from historical figures and Jones's contemporaries supporting his positions.
The pamphlet's contents were the subject of significant discussion, with several responding texts both lauding and criticizing Jones's work. Despite a positive reception by Thomas Herring, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jones's proposals were generally not accepted by the Church of England. However, his suggested alterations to the prayer book and advocacy of privately published liturgies were influential upon several Dissenter liturgical texts – including Theophilus Lindsey's liturgy and successive Unitarian prayer books – and the first editions of the American Episcopal Church's prayer book. Until the beginning of the Tractarian movement in the 19th century, Free and Candid Disquisitions remained a major influence on proposed liturgical changes in the Church of England.


Following the collapse of the Protectorate – a republican government which had been established after the 1642–1651 English Civil War and favoured the more Protestant practices of Puritanism – and the re-establishment of the monarchy with the 1660 Stuart Restoration, Charles II came to power as the King of England. He elevated the Episcopalian party – members of the Church of England who favoured bishops and whose worship was more similar to Catholic practices – that had been marginalized during the preceding Interregnum. Charles had promised religious toleration to both Royalist Presbyterians – who did not approve of bishops and worshipped according to Reformed forms within the Church of England – and Episcopalians with the Declaration of Breda in 1660. He had disadvantaged the Presbyterian party by convening of the Savoy Conference in 1661 to consider the future of the Church of England's liturgical worship. Episcopalians supported restoring the previously forbidden Book of Common Prayer, forcing the Presbyterians to make a case against such a proposal. The Savoy Conference ended without compromise: Parliament rejected proposals from both Presbyterians and the surviving Durham House Group of Caroline Divines over sentiments that they were each responsible for the violence of the preceding 20 years.
Instead, the Church of England's Convocation produced the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The new prayer book's use was legally required with the Act of Uniformity 1662, and episcopal holy orders were mandated for all clergy. Some 2,000 Nonconformist clergymen who refused to submit were ejected from their benefices on St Bartholomew's Day, 24 August 1662. Anglican liturgical historian Ronald Jasper put forward that the 1662 prayer book "marked a firm rejection of the Presbyterian schemes for comprehension", with comprehension referring to the reintegration of the independent Protestant Dissenters into the Church of England.
In 1688, ire over King James II's personal and political favour of Catholicism spurred English Protestants towards forming a united opposition against the king, reviving Church of England interest in comprehension. William Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had advised bishops in July 1688 to enjoin their flock to be wary of Popery and to show affinity towards Dissenters. With the help of some other Anglican divines, Sancroft began crafting a plan that would revise the Church of England's liturgy towards comprehension.
The 1688 Glorious Revolution expelled James II and installed William III – a Dutch Calvinist – and Mary II as joint monarchs. While Sancroft was deprived of his benefice as part of the Nonjuring schism, William III supported comprehension and the new king established a commission in September 1689 to draft a comprehending liturgy. The resulting 1689 Liturgy of Comprehension was rejected by Convocation due to disinterest, preferring to discuss the fate of the nonjurors. As Dissenters enjoyed better legal standing, interest in comprehension waned. After the Toleration Act was passed in May 1689, Dissenters were free to worship outside of the Church of England and its prescribed prayer book. The manuscript for the Liturgy of Comprehension was kept from public view by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Tenison, who feared that the text would result in angst from those who felt its concessions were too great and could be used to "justify their nonconformity" by those who found its "concessions were too little".
In 1712, Samuel Clarke, the Church of England rector of St James's Church, Piccadilly, published The Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity. In the book, he challenged Trinitarian orthodoxy and suggesting alterations to the prayer book, such as excising the Athanasian Creed. Clark privately revised a copy of the prayer book in 1724 with his own manuscript changes to reflect these desires, removing or changing references to the Trinity and replacing the Nicene Creed with a psalm. John Jones, a semi-Arian Welsh Church of England priest who was the Vicar of Alconbury from 1741 until 1750, was referred to by Jasper as Clark's "foremost disciple". The essays that would comprise Free and Candid Disquisitions were presented to "a very eminent and worthy Prelate" in 1746, with the intention of their presentation to Convocation. Jones launched a campaign in 1748 to make the Liturgy of Comprehension publicly available. This effort failed, and it was not until the House of Commons ordered its publication in 1854 that the manuscript's contents were made public. Those interested in using the Liturgy of Comprehension for their own proposed revisions to the prayer book in the 18th century would rely upon distorted records of the 1689 commission's findings published by William Nicholls and Edmund Calamy. However, public discussion regarding revising the prayer book persisted.


Free and Candid Disquisitions was published anonymously as a 367-page pamphlet in an octavo printing by A. Millar of London in the first week of June, 1749. At least two further editions were published that year. The volume consists both of passages that Jones compiled from divines – many of whom were his contemporaries – and essays containing Jones's own suggestions. It is presented as a series of "queries and observations" on a number of issues, primarily liturgical, and is addressed to the Church of England, the state, and – most directly – Convocation. An appendix was included containing documentary evidence and quotations dating from between 1604 and 1748, starting with Francis Bacon and including Calamy's coverage of the 1689 Liturgy of Comprehension effort.
The text comprises 13 sections, an extended introduction, a postscript, and an appendix. Section I was concerned with a new Bible translation. The next sections described revising the prayer book: sections II–IV proposed alterations to the Sunday liturgies, section V addressed issues with the scriptural readings and psalters, section VI suggested the removal of the Athanasian Creed and revision of the catechism, section VII critiqued several rites, and section VIII proposed some additional rites for specific circumstances, including a rite for use during the visitation of prisoners. Section IX expressed a desire for printings of the Bible and prayer book to be correct and criticized limitations on when marriages were allowed to be held. Section X challenged requirements that clergy subscribe to the doctrinal statements of the Thirty-nine Articles.
Among the changes to the prayer book and its liturgies that Jones sought in order to effect comprehension were the removal of the Athanasian Creed (due to its complexity rather than any theological error), the deletion of excessive repetition of the Lord's Prayer and Gloria Patri, and the excision of anything not permitted by the Bible. The lectionary and liturgical calendar were scrutinized, with Jones suggesting that proper psalms be assigned to each Sunday. Jones's Puritan-like views were made evident in urging for the sign of the cross in the baptismal rite be made optional and private baptism abolished. The matters of the sign of the cross and ending the practice of sponsors at baptism were raised due to Jones's identification of these actions as vestiges of Catholicism that should be expunged. A similar grievance was raised about prohibitions on marriages occurring during particular seasons of the year. The only explicit doctrinal change suggested in Free and Candid Disquisitions was the alteration or outright cessation of infant baptism.


Jones contended that there was a pressing need for additional topical prayers and other new content in the prayer book, expressing a desire for prayers for families and use in prisons. He declared that introducing the proposed changes to collects from 1689 would bring them to "the utmost perfection". Jones also pressed for combining and abbreviating the Sunday morning liturgies. Finding that the Sunday recitation of Morning Prayer, the Litany, and the Ante-Communion rites was repetitive, Jones suggested they should be combined into a single, shorter rite. The 1637 Scottish Book of Common Prayer was suggested as a possible guide for revising the Communion rite. Should the Church of England fail to adopt these comprehending liturgical reforms, Jones argued, Dissenters should begin privately creating their own revisions.
Concern was also raised regarding the state of many parishes being such that no hymns were recited, with Jones writing, "neither psalm nor hymn can be had even on Sundays, much less on holy‐days and other days of prayer. So thin are the congregations, and so unskilled in singing." Jones praised Dissenter Isaac Watts's psalms and hymns – commenting on "the Christian instruction, and goodly solace and comfort" they provided – and called for further hymns to be written. Jones desired a better metrical psalter and targeted the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter commonly printed with the prayer book for removal.
Free and Candid Disquisitions also argued for other substantial reform in the Church of England, including reducing the number of tenets to which clergy would be required to subscribe. The pamphlet followed Clarke's example in its proposals challenging Trinitarian orthodoxy. Jones's work also challenged the requirement of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles for those who may not fully understand what teachings the articles affirm. He also questioned the relevancy of The Books of Homilies. He appraised the Reformation as an unfinished work and sought its completion, suggesting alterations to the Canons of 1604.