"Got the fire under control. My knees have scabbed over and feel
pretty good today, but my hands are in a hell of a shape. Damned if
I'll ever fight fire with my bare hands again."
Typical of turn-of-the-century forest rangers in the Inland
Northwest-northern Idaho, western Montana, and eastern
Washington-this diarist faced fire and other tribulations far from
civilization, often alone on foot or horseback, with little
equipment and no means of communication.
In this engaging collection, Hal Rothman has selected and
provided context for the best and most informative letters written
by early foresters. Highly literate and perceptive, the writers
illuminate how they were forced to balance the agency's regulatory
impulses with the needs of rural communities that depended upon
forests for their livelihood. They reveal much about the challenges
they met-autonomous decision-making; fire fighting and prevention;
opposition and pressure from local residents; occasional corruption
or incompetence; and changing technology and agency expectations.
Family life, isolation, and loneliness, they show, could also be
challenging. "It got so lonely my dog couldn't stand it," wrote
Edward G. Stahl. "He went down to the Kootenai River and howled
'til the ferryman from Gateway came over and took him across to
town."
Facing bitter cold and heavy snow in the winter and often flames
in the summer (1,700 fires in 1910 alone blackened millions of
acres and killed 80 fire fighters) foresters managed to persevere
with limited resources, Rothman shows. They surveyed land, enforced
regulations, evaluated homestead claims, inventoried resources,
organized timber sales, let grazing permits, built infrastructure,
and handled many unusual situations that came their way.
O. O. Lansdale became judge, jury, and undertaker upon finding
two dead men on the trail. "It was up to me, acting as coroner, to
hold an inquest and bury them. Being all alone, the inquest was
easy-just a case of dispensation of Providence. The burial was not
so easy. Digging two graves with a piece of cedar board; then, with
a rope around their feet, dragging them to their graves with the
rope around the saddle horse."
As the century progressed and technology advanced, the writers
show, the Forest Service evolved. Locals, who constituted the early
organization, were gradually replaced by college-trained foresters,
and tourism became more prevalent as primitive conditions were
overcome.
"My first realization of this change came one day when I was
walking along the road toward the nursery," wrote David Olson. "A
large black sedan drew up from behind and stopped. A liveried
chauffeur asked if I wanted a ride. Looking into the car, I saw two
elderly ladies sitting in rocking chairs. They smiled and one of
them said they were seeing the wild West."
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