Because, despite the many great advantages that today's firefighters have over those of earlier years, when they go on a fire, they go in harm's way. Fire fighting remains a very hazardous job, and hardly a year passes that wildfire doesn't claim at least one life.
That more aren't lost is in large part due to lessons learned, sacrifices made, and memories forged, going back to the Big Bum and coming forward to today. It's a heritage renewed every time a firefighter goes out to meet fire.
Jeanette Ingold
Missoula, Montana
August 20, 2001
Acknowledgments
I'm indebted to many people for helping me understand the forces—fire, weather, people, institutions—that combined strengths or collided when the disastrous forest fires of 1910 swept across northern Idaho and western Montana. I was also fortunate in having a wealth of written material to draw upon in my research, and I've put into the suggested readings list several of the published sources that I found especially helpful and that might be good starting places for anyone interested in learning more.
One wonderful source, not readily available in its entirety, is the four-volume Early Days in the Forest Service, a collection of memoirs of early foresters compiled by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1940s and selectively republished in "I'll Never Fight Fire with My Bare Hands Again": Recollections of the First Forest Rangers of the Inland Northwest. The section contributed by William W. Morris contains "The Great Fires of 1910," a piece about his experiences as a young ranger that fateful summer, beginning with his trip up Striped Peak, an account that I drew on to begin this book. Another Forest Service publication, When the Mountains Roared: Stories of the 1910 Fires by Elers Koch, supervisor of Montana's Bitterroot National Forest that summer, recounts the experiences of several rangers caught in the blowup and places them within the framework of the fire season's progression and aftermath.
Among newer publications, Stephen J. Pyne's Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 brings together a huge amount of information about the 1910 fire season and the events of the blowup, and examines them within a larger context of fire and Forest Service history.
Contemporaneous local newspapers are always one of my favorite sources for the historical details and voices of a particular time and place, and in researching this book I found the July through September 1910 issues of the weekly Idaho Press invaluable. I'm grateful to the Wallace Public Library for making them available on microfilm. Great help also came from the librarians and collections at the University of Montana Mansfield Library and at the public libraries in Missoula and in Spokane, Washington.
I'm indebted to Dr. Richard Hutto of the University of Montana for sharing his knowledge of the regeneration that occurs in burned forests.
Forest Service people have been generous with their help, and I'd like especially to thank David Asleson, Amanda Burbank, Cort Sims, and David Stack. And thanks go, too, to those who helped me with historical details—John Amonson, Kermit Edmonds, Jason Patent, and L. J. Richards.
Others that I'm very grateful to for their guidance and cm ical reading are my good friends Wendy Norgaard, Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Peggy Christian, and Dr. Ted; my son, Kurt; and my husband, whom I can always count on to bring fresh eyes to a project.
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE AND FIREFIGHTERS, YESTERDAY AND TODAY
Books
Beil, Karen Magnuson. Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Item. San Diego: Harcourt, 1999.
Guthrie, C. W., ed., with additional material by C. W. Guthrie, Jean Liebig Soldowski, and Don Bunger. The First Ranger The Stories of Frank Liebig and Fred Herrig. Huson, Mont.: Redwing, 1995.
Rothman, Hal K., ed. "I'll Never Fig/it Fire with My Bare Hands Again ": Recollections of the First Forest Rangers of the Inland Northwest. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
Taylor, Murry A. Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire. New York: Harcourt, 2000.
Internet Sources
Idaho Panhandle National Forests home page.
http://www.fs.fed.us/ipnf
Lolo National Forest main page. Describes forest life after a fire.
http://www.fs.fed.us/ri/lolo/wl-fire-ecology/firei.html
National Interagency Fire Center (Boise, Idaho) homepage.
http://www.nifc.gov
U.S.D.A. Forest Service home page.
http://www.fs.fed.us
1910 FIRES
Books
Cohen, Stan, and Don Miller. The Big Burn: The Northwest's Great Forest Fire of 1910. Rev. ed. Missoula, Mont: Pictorial Histories, 1993.
Koch, Elers. When the Mountains Roared: Stories of the 1910 Fires. Missoula, Mont.: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, 1944.
Morris, William W. The Great Fires of 1910. Vol. 1 of Early Days in the Forest Service. Missoula, Mont: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, 1944.
Pyne, Stephen J. Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires 0/1910. New York: Viking Penguin, 2001.
Spencer, Betty Goodwin. The Big Blowup: The Northwest's Great Fire. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1956.
Newspaper
The Idaho Press. Wallace, Idaho. July-September, 1910.
1910 LIFE BETWEEN THE ST. JOE AND COEUR D'ALENE RIVERS
Books
Crowell, Sandra A., and David O. Asleson. Up the Swiftwater. A Pictorial History of the Colorful Upper St. Joe River Country. Rev. ed. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: Museum of North Idaho, in cooperation with Sandra A. Crowell and David O. Asleson, 1995.
Johnson, Stanley W. The Milwaukee Road in Idaho: A Guide to Sites and Locations. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: Museum of North Idaho, 1997.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY
Books
Bailey, Linda C. Fort Missoula's Military Cyclists: The Story of the 25th U.S. Infantry Bicycle Corps. Missoula, Mont: The Friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, 1997.
Meyer, Bette Eunice. Fort George Wright: Not Only Where the Band Played: A Historical Geography. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1994.
Nankivell, John H., comp. and ed. Buffalo Soldier Regment: History of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, 1869–;1926. 1927. Reprint Fort Collins, Colo.: Old Army Press, 1972.
Sorensen, George Niels. Iron Riders: Story of the 1890s Fort Missoula Buffalo Soldiers Bicycle Corps. Missoula, Mont: Pictorial Histories, 2000.
Internet Source
US. Army Center of Military History home page.
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/
READER CHAT PAGE
Why is Lizbeth so drawn to this land?
Is it fair for Samuel to chastise Jarrett for leaving their father when Samuel, himself, had left two years earlier?
The season for burning permits has passed, yet Celia sets a brush burn anyway. What are her motives?
Why does Celia refuse to evacuate—even when Samuel strongly urges her to leave? Would you want to stay?
Is Mr. Blakeney right in firing Jarrett for leaving his section of fire duty at the railroad? If you had been in charge, how might you have handled this situation?
Why does Seth feel so inadequate as a soldier? Is he being fair to himself? Why did he join up in the first place?
Why does Seth go along with Avery's schemes?
What reasons might Sarge have for not telling Seth what he really thinks of him?
CHATTING WITH JEANETTE INGOLD
Question: How long have you been writing? Was there a moment when you chose it as your life's work?
Jeanette Ingold: I've been writing as long as I've been reading, in the sense that all readers help complete a book by using their own experiences and understandings to flesh out the author's words. Writing became a career when a newspaper job taught me the excitement of searching out and interpreting a story.
Q: What is your writing process? Do you work certain hours or days?
JI: When I research, I hunt out prima
ry source materials, go to where my books take place, and try to learn what my characters must face. When I'm writing, I keep a pretty set routine, getting up early and working for several hours five or six days a week.
Q: Do you show your work in progress to anyone?
JI: I tend to keep my initial efforts—the character sketches and first drafts—to myself. But then I rely on my writers group—a half dozen good friends and fellow writers—to tell me what I'd better work on next.
Q: How do you come up with story ideas?
JI: It's more a matter of being open to them. Ideas lie in bits of history, in newspaper stories, unexplained pictures, overheard conversations. They're in the why and who and what did it mean questions that all sorts of things present.
Q: Do personal experiences or details ever end up in your books?
JI: Sure. And even when I don't write them directly into a book, they're my best reference for checking that I'm telling a valid story, with characters that think and behave the way real people do. Bits and pieces of many people I know often join together in my characters.
Q: Your son, Kurt, works on a Forest Service fire crew. Did his job spark your interest in the Big Burn of 1910?
JI: A bike ride through the Idaho mountain wilderness where the 1910 fires raged was what first caught my interest, but I also wrote to understand my son's work and the conditions facing the men and women who fight wildfire today.
Q: How long did it take you to research the field notes for The Big Burn? JI: Writing The Big Burn took about a year, and I started research for the field notes well before I started the writing. Then I continued researching as the characters and plot began dictating what more I needed to know.
Q: Did the characters of Jarrett, Lizbeth, and Seth take shape before or after you did the research?
JI: They first took shape during the research, as I looked for representative characters to tell the stories of the homesteaders, firefighters, and soldiers caught up in the Big Bum. Once I started writing, they came to life as individuals I knew and cared about.
Q: The Big Burn demonstrates that one event can influence countless people. How do you hope your novels will influence readers?
JI: I write about young people learning to see the world from new perspectives, developing the confidence to think for themselves and the courage to act on their beliefs. And those are the things that I want for my readers, too.
LOOK FOR JEANETTE INGOLD'S
Mountain Solo
A love of music links two young people.
Sixteen-year-old Tess's life has been shaped by her violin.
From the moment she picked up the instrument, it's been clear she isn't like other kids. She is a prodigy, and her life is that of a virtuoso-to-be: constant training, special schools, and a big debut before an audience of thousands. When she blows her moment in the spotlight, she throws it all away and moves from the big city to small town Montana, where she joins her father and tries to lead a normal life—whatever that is.
But Tess has hardly arrived before she is drawn into a mystery: a hunt for the wilderness homestead of a lost pioneer who played violin himself—or fiddle, as he called it. Maybe, through his story, Tess will find the strength to pick up her violin again.
OTHER BOOKS BY JEANETTE INGOLD
The Window
A room with a view ... to the past.
Mandy survived the terrible accident that killed her mother, only to be left blind and alone. Now she lives with relatives she never heard of, attends a new school, and tries to make friends—all the while struggling to function without sight.
Her unpredictable life takes its strangest turn when she realizes that, although she can't see, she hears more than other people do. But what Mandy hears through the dark window of her attic room isn't normal. In fact, what she hears—and seems to "see"—are things that happened years ago, before she was even born....
AN ALA BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS
AN IRA YOUNG ADULTS' CHOICE
"A sensitive and well-told story,
inhabited by appealing and believable characters."
—Kirkus Reviews
"[Teens] will enjoy this well-written, realistic story."
—VOYA
"A strong and satisfying work."
—Booklist
Pictures, 1918
Gaining focus
Asia McKinna may live in rural Texas, but she's not out of the reach of World War I. The strain of the raging war infects her town, her family, and her own life. She's doing her part for the war effort, but she feels overwhelmed. Each day her beloved grandmother grows more frail. Each day her friend Nick's departure—either to college or to war—nears. And the entire town is on edge from a rash of mysterious fires. Only through her growing passion for photography can Asia hope to gain perspective on the times—and on her place in the world.
A TEXAS LONE STAR READING LIST BOOK
* "An innovative novel [with] believable characters
and complex, evolving relationships."
—Kirius Reviews (starred review)
"Riveting."
—The Bulletin
"Endearing."
—VOYA
Airfield
An aerobatic adventure
In the early days of aviation, Beatty and Moss hang out around the airport Beatty's uncle manages. Beatty is hoping to see her father when he flies in—and quickly out again—on a mail flight And Moss is hoping his mechanical skills will help him to support himself. Neither anticipates their crucial roles in the airfield's survival—or in saving Beatty's father's life.
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK
FOR THE TEEN AGE
"Engrossing."
—The New York Times Book Review
"Beatty ... is a heroine of vim and vigor."
—The Bulletin
"Excellent."
—School Library Journal
The Big Burn Page 19