The Big Burn

By Jeanette Ingold

Winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Teen Fiction from the author of Hitch and Paper Daughter. “A must-read for adrenaline junkies.”—VOYA

On a hot summer day in 1910 a teenage soldier assembled his rifle. A girl argued to save trees on a mountain homestead. A young man set out to fight fire. None knew that soon the many blazes burning across northern Idaho would blow up and send a wall of flame racing their way.

Portraying a natural disaster that would dictate how the United States would fight wildfire in the 20th century, The Big Burn brings to life a turning point in fire science, forestry, and history. Richly drawn characters doing their best against gigantic odds will grip your heart. The realistic depiction of wildfire will make you feel you were there.

With non-fiction Field Notes and an Afterword about firefighting today, it’s a novel that moves from the 1900s into the 21st century. Whether you’re an adult or young adult reader, you’ll come away with a new understanding of nature and a “heighten[ed] appreciation for the courage and sacrifice of firefighters and settlers” (Publishers Weekly).

Montana Book Award Honor

“Historically accurate and dramatically engaging.”—Teen Reads

“Presents a vivid picture of a natural disaster while skillfully conveying in fluid prose the individual stories of the three young people.”—Horn Book

“Fascinating and harrowing . . . for any kid whose tastes run to disaster and survival, mixed into a coming of age story.”—Richie’s Picks

“A solid adventure story with a well-realized setting.”—Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 1, 2002
• ISBN: 9780547745947

Jeanette Ingold

JEANETTE INGOLD, the author of six young adult novels, has been writing since she worked as a reporter on a daily newspaper many years ago. Her novel Hitch was a Christopher Award winner. She lives in Missoula, Montana.

Book preview

title page

Contents

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Title Page

Contents

Dedication

Copyright

Map

Introduction

Part One

Washington State

Homestead off Placer Creek

Avery

Homestead off Placer Creek

Cool Spring Ranger Station

Avery

Washington State

Cool Spring Ranger Station

Homestead off Placer Creek

Cool Spring Ranger Station

Homestead off Placer Creek

Washington State

Cool Spring Ranger Station

Placer Creek

Homestead off Placer Creek

Placer Creek

Part Two

Wallace

Graham Creek

Homestead off Placer Creek

Graham Creek

Cool Spring Ranger Station

Wallace

Washington State

Homestead off Placer Creek

Graham Creek

Wallace

Wallace

Wallace

Wallace

Wallace

Wallace

Wallace

Homestead off Placer Creek

Wallace

Wallace

Cool Spring Ranger Station

Homestead off Placer Creek

North of the St. Joe River

Avery

Homestead off Placer Creek

North of the St. Joe River

Part Three

Wallace

North of the St. Joe River

Avery

Wallace

Wallace

North of the St. Joe River

West of Wallace

North of the St. Joe River

Wallace

North of the St. Joe River

Wallace

Avery

Wallace

North of the St. Joe River

Wallace

Avery

West of Wallace

Avery

Avery

Avery

Avery

Avery

Avery

West of Wallace

Wallace

Avery

Avery

Avery

Wallace

Wallace

Avery

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading

Reader Chat Page

Chatting with Jeanette Ingold

Look for Jeanette Ingold’s

Other Books by Jeanette Ingold

Pictures, 1918

Airfield

About the Author

Connect with HMH on Social Media

For my son, Kurt,

and for all the men and women

who fight wildland fire

Copyright © 2002 by Jeanette Ingold

All rights reserved. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Harcourt, Inc., an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2002.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhbooks.com

Although the events and some of the people mentioned in this book are drawn from the real-life fire of 1910, this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to actual people, living or dead, is coincidental.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Ingold, Jeanette.

The Big Burn/by Jeanette Ingold.

p. cm.

Summary: Three teenagers battle the flames of the Big Burn of 1910, one of the century’s biggest wildfires.

1. Forest fires—Idaho—History—Juvenile fiction. 2. Forest fires—Montana—History—Juvenile fiction. [1. Forest fires—Fiction. 2. Wildfires—Fiction. 3. Idaho—History—Fiction. 4. Montana—History—Fiction. 5. Frontier and pioneer life—West (U.S.)—Fiction. 6. United States—History—1909–1913—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.I533Bi 2002

[Fic]—dc21 2001005667

ISBN 0-15-216470-7

ISBN 0-15-204924-X (pb)

eISBN 978-0-547-74594-7

v2.1119

The wildfires had been burning for weeks.

They’d been born of sparks thrown from steam-driven trains and from the machinery of backcountry logging. They’d started in the working fires of homesteaders and miners and in the campfires of hoboes and in the trash-burning fires of construction camps and saloon towns. They’d begun when lightning had coursed down from an uneasy summer sky to ignite the towering snags of dry forests.

The wildfires lay behind a brown haze that was beaming to shroud mountaintops and drift like dirty fog through the forests of the Idaho panhandle. Thought no one then knew it, they were fires that would join ranks and run in a vast wall of flame.

When they did, it would be called the big blowup, the great burn, the Big Burn.

Once the dead had been counted, and once the awfulness was far enough behind that people could put pretty words to what had happened, August 20, 1910, would be remembered as the day the mountains roared.

But in mid-July that year, thought fire conditions were worrisome, that orange hell was still mostly unimagined as folks went about their lives.

A ranger guided a botany professor on a field trip. A peacetime soldier assembled his rifle for a training exercise. An aunt and her niece on a wilderness homestead argued about the money its timber might bring in.

And a young man went after a fire, believing fire was something he could stop.

Part One

FIELD NOTES

A fair day followed a night brightened by dry lightning streaking to earth. Ranger William Morris set out from Coeur d’Alene Forest headquarters in Wallace, Idaho, to accompany a university professor on an expedition to look at mountain vegetation. They headed south along Placer Creek and then angled off to climb Striped Peak. A stiff wind kept them comfortable as the day heated up.

The Coeur d’Alene National Forest stretched out around them, a million and a half acres of pine and Douglas fir, of larch and hemlock and cedar. Needled treetops locked together to line canyon bottoms and cover furrowed slopes in unbroken sheets of green. In the distance, when jagged, bare peaks rose from layered tiers of rough mountains, the green turned to hazy blue.

They were eating lunch atop the sixty-three-hundred-foot summit when Morris noticed smoke in the southwest. He took a compass bearing and went back to his meal. But then a second, quickly ballooning smoke appeared in the southeast and was soon followed by the wispy track of a third fire.

He plotted their locations on his map, and then he and the professor returned to Wallace to report them.

The next time Morris climbed Striped Peak, he would find that all the land’s greenness was gone, replaced by a blackened tangle of burned trees. He would write that they reminded him of jackstraws more than anything else.

Washington State

July 13, Morning

Private Seth Brown, seventeen, of the all-black Twenty-fifth Infantry (except for the white officers) slid the bayonet blade onto his rifle and jammed its keyhole fitting into place. Everyone else in the squad was long done cleaning up from the morning’s training and preparing for the afternoon’s, but Seth—his fingers fumbling through still unfamiliar tasks—was keeping them all from going to lunch.

Hey, Junior! one of the men said. You break that U.S.A. government property, and you’ll be buying it out of your pay.

Shut up, another said. You want to slow him down more?

Seth bent over his last task, which was to fit the required gear onto his belt for the afternoon march. He hurried as best he could, but trying to remember how to attach it all. . . . And his canteen! How could he have forgotten to fill it? Even if he didn’t need the water, Sarge would notice the canteen swinging empty and get on him about that.

A hand held out a filled one, and Seth looked up to see the new guy on the squad.Abel that was his name.

I got here with an extra, Abel said, shrugging to make light of his help.

Thanks, Seth told him. I owe you.

I’ll collect, the other said with a smile.

Seth had seen how fast Abel had got all his own gear squared away, arriving less than an hour earlier and already fitting in. He was the kind of soldier Seth wanted to be, only the harder Seth tried, the more he seemed to mess up. Seth had thought that maybe when his company left its garrison outside of Spokane, he’d get a chance to show how he could at least stick to a hard job longer than anybody, but it hadn’t happened. So far, bivouac was proving as much a disaster as anything else in the months Seth had been in the army.

Sometimes he wondered why he’d signed up—even lied about his age so he could—and then he remembered how he’d believed he could do his father proud. Join his father’s old outfit and pick up where his father had left off, fighting wars and stopping riots. Those had been his father’s favorite stories, told over and over those last days before sickness made his leg gangrene and then killed him.

Anger surged through Seth. It wasn’t right for his father not to have told him the whole of it, how the army also meant learning a hundred new jobs and a hundred right ways to do them.

The army had a right and a wrong even for campfires, it seemed. Just that morning Seth had got up before reveille to make one, thinking the other men might welcome a way to ward off the early morning chill. Only, Sarge had yanked him to his feet and loudly demanded to know what Seth thought he was doing. You want to burn this whole place down?

Like I didn’t have sense to handle a simple fire! Seth thought. He smarted all over again, remembering the disgusted voices of his awakened tent mates. Brown, of course. No one else dumb enough to find trouble even before wake-up.

Now, finally, Seth attached the last item to his belt, tightened the gaiters that wrapped around his trouser legs from foot to knee, and made sure he’d buttoned the four pockets of his uniform jacket. Cut for a man, it was too full for Seth’s slender body, but he couldn’t do anything about that. He reached for his wide-brimmed felt hat.

Hey, looks like you got it, the new guy, Abel, said. Come on. Let’s get some chow, and then you can tell me what’s what around here.

Homestead off Placer Creek

July 13, Afternoon

Don’t start, Lizbeth’s aunt told her.

"You didn’t buy any? Lizbeth unlatched the wagon’s backboard and pushed aside sacks of flour and beans in hopes they hid a roll of fencing. Celia, you promised. You promised."

I did not. I said I would think about it on my way to town, and I did. I found nothing to change my opinion that it would be a waste of our money.

"Keeping sheep might actually make us some."

Lizbeth got no answer from her aunt, who was unhitching Trenton and Philly. Ridiculous names, in Lizbeth’s opinion, for two hardworking horses that deserved to be called something that matched their lives. Just more of Celia’s denying the realities of her and Lizbeth’s wilderness homestead several miles south of Wallace, Idaho.

Lizbeth wanted to shove herself in front of Celia and make her listen, so that next spring they could put a few lambs out to forage in the forest undergrowth. Bum lambs cost practically nothing, and fattened up for a few months they’d bring in six, maybe even eight cents a pound.

But Lizbeth could tell from the way her aunt’s thin face was set that explaining it all again wouldn’t be any use. Celia shut her ears against any idea for making their place go.

The truth was, Lizbeth thought, Celia was scared of hearing one that might work.

Hang on. Just hang on one more year. Celia had said it so often that the words themselves hung in the air even on the days she didn’t voice them. Just hang on one more year, until they got full title to their homestead and could do with it what they wanted. Once their claim was proved up, they could sell off every scrap of wood, and that was Celia’s plan.

…

Leaving Celia to clean up from supper, Lizbeth went out to do her chores, still seething with frustration. There were just ten years between them, Celia’s twenty-six to her own sixteen. Enough of a difference for Celia to be her legal guardian, which had been Lizbeth’s choice as much as Celia’s, but not enough difference to keep them from arguing more like warring sisters. At least like Lizbeth imagined sisters might argue.

She chopped wood for the next day’s cooking fire, hauled fresh water from the creek, and shut their rooster and five hens into the chicken house. She secured the door latch with an iron clip, something she’d been doing since the night a weasel got in and killed several chicks.

Then determined to end the evening peacefully, she returned to the log cabin where she and Celia lived. It wasn’t all that much bigger than where the chickens roosted, and, except for a horse shelter and the outhouse, it was the only other structure in the small clearing.

She found her aunt sketching guidelines for a new watercolor, squinting because it was late enough that there wasn’t much light coming down the lantern skylight cut in the roof. Just skylight, Celia called it. The way people out West talked seemed like one more thing that made Celia uneasy, their terms meaning different things from what she thought they should.

Lizbeth watched her carefully copy a magazine picture. It showed an orderly New England town where neatly dressed women visited on street corners. Lizbeth thought how different their tailored suits and large decorated hats were from her own plain gingham dress and long rough apron. Although it wasn’t their clothes that set these women’s lives apart from hers and Celia’s as much as the way they appeared not to have things they needed to be doing. Lizbeth tucked a strand of light brown hair into the braid she wore in a loose coil above her neck.

You know that going back, we wouldn’t find it nice like that, Lizbeth said. You married Tom Whitcomb so he’d take us away!

We’ll find it better, Celia answered, not bothering to deny Lizbeth’s accusation. They both knew the charge was true, and Tom Whitcomb hadn’t deserved more. Our timber money will see to that

"Cel, I wouldn’t want to go back if we had all the money in the world.This is my home, and I love it here. You would, too, if you weren’t so set on closing your eyes to everything good."

You’re blocking my light, her aunt said.

I don’t want to go, Lizbeth repeated.

You don’t have a choice.

I’ll find one.

FIELD NOTES

Moisture through the winter of 1909–1910 had been close to normal, and on the Coeur d’Alene Forest, it had appeared for a while that avalanches might be 1910’s worst problem.

Then, in the northern Rockies, mountain grasses barely greened up in the warmest April on record. They turned brown as a dry May gave way to a drier June and then to a July in which many weather stations reported no rain at all. The fire season roared in early. New fires began springing up daily, and the U.S. Forest Service, five years old and thinly staffed, began taking on extra fireguards and crew.

Owners of private woodland took steps to protect their interests, too. Mining and logging companies shifted their employees to fire duty when needed, and railroads hired spotters to walk the rights-of-way, where many fires started. All it took to ignite one was a lightning strike or a glowing cinder from a train’s stack landing in slash left from clearing and construction.

Sometimes all it took to put one out was a man wielding a shovel—as long as he got to the fire before it grew.

Avery

July 13, Afternoon

Less than fifteen miles south-southeast of the Whitcomb homestead, though a mountain divide away, Jarrett Logan was finishing the first day on his new job. At sixteen, he was younger than the railroad generally hired, but Pop had fixed it with Mr. Blakeney in the front office.

So far Jarrett had walked his assigned section of track without seeing so much as a hot cinder or glowing cigar butt to stomp out. He figured he had it easy because of how near his section was to Avery. Approaching engines were already slowing for the last bend before town, and engines leaving the rail yards hadn’t gotten up to full, spark-throwing speed. Crews were careful, too, so close to where blame could be assigned and positions lost.

So when Jarrett finally smelled smoke, he was surprised. He moved quickly, anxious to find its source.

And then the wind shifted and blew stronger, and he realized the pungent odor wasn’t coming from along the tracks but instead from the steep hills nearby. They weren’t his to patrol, but a fire could blow down to the rail line. And if one did, by the time it got to him, it might be too big to handle. He wished he’d asked what he should do if fire threatened from off railroad land, but he hadn’t. Come right down to it, he hadn’t gotten any instructions at all, except to see the right-of-way didn’t catch.

With no one in shouting distance and no way to signal for help, the decision was his: go or stay.

Shouldering his shovel, he set off toward the smoke.

…

Twenty minutes of hard hiking and a frightening jump across a rock-filled gully took him to a low ground fire wedging up from a lightning-struck snag. A long black wound marked where the snag had been hit, and now the dead tree seemed to be burning on the inside. Smoke seeped out from jagged cracks in the wood and puffed from woodpecker holes.

It must have caught fire last night and been smoldering all day, Jarrett thought, as he tried to figure out how best to go about things. Although the ground fire didn’t look to be very large, he thought that it probably posed more danger than did the burning snag, which he had no way to attack anyway. He wished the ground fire were creeping downhill instead of up, so that it might put itself out in the creek that ran just below. Shrubbery hid the stream, but Jarrett had fished its length and knew it was there.

A breath of acrid smoke set him coughing. He should have thought to ask somebody just how you do put out a fire when you can’t get water to it But he hadn’t.

Smother it with his shovel, maybe, the same way he’d step on a spark popped out the open door of a stove.

Jarrett angled his way around one side of the fire, climbing until he was above the fire’s wide, leading edge. Then he slammed the flat back side

Reviews for The Big Burn

[mlleehreen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

THE BIG BURN satisfies on all counts. It's beautifully written and wonderfully informative, shifting in scope from the forest rangers and firefighters on the ground during the "big burn" of 1910 all the way to the White House. Timothy Egan tackles some big ideas, charting the birth of conservation and of America's national parks, but he never loses sight of his story.

Egan's prose is a pure pleasure to read, as beautiful as it is clear. The whole book is brimming with elegant phrases, like when Egan writes about "stapling railroads along every river" or the "snapping horsetail of blazes". He builds on a solid foundation of research and peppers the book with little anecdotes and curious quotations.

The way the whole green movement has taken off lately, it's fascinating to go back to a time when the idea of conservation was radical. I didn't expect to find much in common between my own views and those of Teddy Roosevelt and his nature apostle, Gifford Pinchot. One hundred years is a long time. To my surprise, I understood them perfectly. There's a lot of inspiration to be found in their love of nature, and even today it would be difficult to match their achievements.

THE BIG BURN is a gorgeous book, and if the subject matter sparks even the tiniest bit of interest, it's absolutely worth your time.

[jepeters333 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On the afternoon of August 20, 2010, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. This is partly the story of overmatched rangers against the implacable fire and partly the story of president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen.

[amberthehuman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What an intense book! This was a gift from my fiancé, since he knows I am interested in reading about disasters. And the Big Burn of 1910 certainly is one. This book gives you a lot of context, but doesn't give a lot of opinion, which is nice, allowing the reader to create their own thoughts. There are parts of this book you don't want to read while you eat ... people did die in the fire, after all ...

[dypaloh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Death by forest fire is not pretty. Timothy Egan, author of The Big Burn, relates, “When he started to burn, his hair and clothes aflame, his voice turned into a murderous cant, the sound of life at its end…when, days later, the man’s body was found, it was mistaken for a burned-out log.” The behavior of people facing forest fires was not always pretty either. When the “Big Burn” threatened Wallace, Idaho in 1910, a brave cast of volunteers did everything they could to save the town, but many men the mayor had known since he was a kid, “bankers and business owners, insurance brokers and builders, families who had names on sides of buildings,” did not. They “elbowed, shoved, and bullied their way onto the exit trains…almost taunting” the mayor to try making them behave like honorable men. One wonders what lies these heels told later to impress their sycophants.By contrast, “Buffalo Soldiers” (Negro troops) earned much praise after saving the town of Avery, though peculiarly expressed praise it was. One citizen said, “They were black, but I never knew a whiter set of men to breathe. Not a man in the lot knew what a yellow streak was . . . They never complained. They were never afraid. They worked, worked, worked, like Trojans, and they worked every minute…my attitude toward the black race has undergone a wonderful change since I knew those twelve heroes.” The Big Burn’s accounts of the fires raging in the northern Rockies read as breezily as an action novel yet carry the gravitas of terrible fatality. The fury of the firestorm is brilliantly detailed. We learn (yet again) that the American West operated differently than did a lot of other places. For example, Taft, Montana had an estimated 500 prostitutes among its 2,500 citizens—clearly a busy citizenry and one taking care to be adequately provisioned. Egan examines the politics of natural resources and free enterprise, and attends to the ethnic bias directed at anyone not of northern European descent. The burgeoning conservation movement is central to the story, with Gifford Pinchot (who had an exceedingly odd relationship with a former love) and Theodore Roosevelt figuring prominently in that effort.

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book--described the great fire of 1910 in Idaho, Washington and Montana. I wish I'd paid more attention to history while I was matriculated at the University of Idaho in Moscow during the 1970s. The book connected the beltway fiction world to the world of the forests of Northern Idaho. I especially enjoyed the discussion of Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the USFS...his job must have been very tough. Also, I used a "Pulaski" while working in the USFS as a youngster. The pulaski is a axe/hoe designed by Ed Pulaski; one of the heroes of the fire. Supposedly, something over 100 persons of mixed background died during the fighting of the fire. It must have been a very interesting time to live in.

[punxsygal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps Teddy Roosevelt’s greatest legacy is his acting to set aside land for the masses. He set aside millions of acres for national parks and national forests. And he started the National Forest Service for the lands’ protection under its first chief, Gifford Pinchot. The Big Burn is its story. And it is the story of the worst wildfire this country has seen in August of 1910. Over 3.2 million acres were burned in the course of a weekend. And it is the story of the many brave souls who tried to tame the fire with its hurricane strength winds.

I’ve driven out west and seen miles of mountains covered in black. It gives you a real respect for the power of Mother Nature and for the people who try to tame her. The burn of 1910 laid open many questions about conservation in this country, with many of those still being debated today. And lest we think the acrimonious politics of today are anything new, the book will show that much remains unchanged

[delphica · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh, this was a great read. I think I must be turning into my father, because more and more I find myself riveted to books that describe severe weather or other natural disasters. This is a great story (true story) about the serendipitous timing of the the 1910 fire that took out most of Idaho -- coming at a time when Theodore Roosevelt's proposed National Forest system was being undermined by Congress and big business, especially mining and timber.In essence:Before the fire:TR: You know what we need? A system of national forests with forest rangers.Big Business: OH NO WE DO NOT.Everyone else: Um, we don't really know what that is.After the fire:Everyone: OMG, we need forest rangers!TR: Uh huh.Okay, some of that is my fascination with TR. The book is just as much (maybe more) about his appointee as the first director of the forest service, Gifford Pinchot. John Muir makes a cameo.The chapters about the fire itself and the impact on the small towns in its path, and the individuals charged with fighting it, are edge-of-your-seat amazing. It's a great look at the natural American landscape, as well as the development of Deadwood-esque communities. And a cast of (real life) wacky characters to round everything out. The book closes by talking about how the fire rallied a lot of support for a well-funded forest service with the intention that the rangers would prevent all fires, and then of course it turns out that forests need fires to replenish themselves -- this seemed a bit rushed, or maybe the author felt it was not central to the primary focus of the book, I don't know. Or maybe he felt it was obvious, what else do you say?

[esswedl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This excellent book brings alive the magnificent horror of the massive wildfire a century ago, and does so through great characterization of the people involved. I wonder at the stark contrast between heroes and villains, but they're so vividly drawn that I was completely taken. I have a newfound respect for Teddy Roosevelt and the odd Gifford Pinchot.

[lindap69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

found it slow in parts, but overall an interesting look at a time period I am not that familiar with; includes some great quotes by Teddy Roosevelt that are as timely today as when he said them

[mks27 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Egan gives readers an in-depth and all-encompassing look at the great fire of 1910, which burned though Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington. He examines the issue from both a large and a small persepective. He reviews political issues, politicians, personalities, and businesses that had a stake in the forests as well as the lives of individual foresters and various others brought on to work that summer. His accounts of these days are heartbreaking and inspirational. His writing about the area around Wallace, Idaho during those days is moving and heartwrenching. I have added the names of heroes to my memory, those whose example I will look to in times of crisis. One particular hero was Ed Pulaski whose story is inspirational, but bitter. Egan expertly details the amazing lives of both Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt, their work and friendship, which in itself would make this book well worth reading. Perhaps that might have been the end of the story, but Egan continues to tell the forests' story up until the recent past. I might add that, in truth, Egan is slightly biased, although especially with Pinchot, offered a well balanced view. Indeed, he painted the opponents of the Forest Service as greedy and short-sighted, and who could blame him in the case of men like Senator William Clark from Montana. Overall, very well written, very well researched and a very important story we all should know.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read the final chapters of this book while driving through the still-smouldering, fire-ravaged acres in the Alpine, Arizona region. With that backdrop it would have been hard not to be riveted by Egan's powerful account of the massive wildfire of 1910, but I was already hopelessly enthralled even before I got there. I have to admit I usually find history books a bit tedious, but this author has made me a zealous convert. This justifiably acclaimed author provides a riveting and detailed account of a nation-changing event that is still possible, and probable, even with the advancements we've made in firefighting during the past 100 years. By recalling the events from the vantagepoint of everyone from on-the-ground firefighters, ordinary citizens, forest rangers, soldiers, politicians and policy makers the story truly comes to life. Educational, action-packed, and (dare I say it?) entertaining. I'm not sure the details of the fire-related deaths would be suitable for teen readers--although it might make them mind their campfires and fireworks a bit closer--but I'd definitely recommend this to any and every adult who isn't a pyromaniac. Egan's work is truly a historical and environmental masterpiece.

[ebt1002 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Big Burn is nonfiction and is about the creation of the US Forest Service and a huge fire in eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana in 1910. The chapters about the fire itself were gripping. The horror of men (and women) caught in the conflagration is clear but Egan is not writing for shock-value. His bias (he likes the rangers) is apparent, but he only gives in to some preaching about the importance of healthy forests and preserved wilderness in the last 20 pages or so. I live in Seattle and spent many years in Oregon, so the territory is familiar and beloved. I continue to learn about Teddy Roosevelt -- I still don't think I'd want to have dinner with him, but I think he was truly a good guy and possibly one of our better presidents (i.e., willing to take risk, willing to lead, committed to something greater than the next election). The book chronicles the importance of Gifford Pinchot, Ed Pulaski, and other early players in the setting aside of wild lands in the US. Very readable.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Teddy Roosevelt, national parks, wild fires, this nonfiction book offers a fascinating glimpse into America at the beginning of the 20th century. A huge wild fire in Idaho changed the nation’s view on protecting our country’s beautiful landscapes. Roosevelt and a man named Pinchot were the driving force behind the change.

[moekane_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating discussion of Gifford Pinchot and the beginnings of the conservation movement in the US told from the perspective of the event that Pinchot made into the USFS "creation myth," the forest fire of August 1910 that engulfed Washington state, Idaho and Montana. This is a bio of Pinchot, a political history of the TR years and efforts to initiate conservation including the creation of the Forest Service, and an account of the individuals and events surrounding the event referred to by the title. I listened to this book unabridged on CD and the narration added immensely to my enjoyment.

[shadowbarbara · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men to fight the fires, but no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them. Egan recreates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, and the larger story of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, that follows is equally resonant. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. Even as TR's national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by his rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service in ways we can still witness today

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my second book by Timothy Egan. I think he does a really great job of making me angry with government bureaucracy but it was also a great read about life in America in 1910 and Teddy Roosevelt and other big names in the early years of Conservation, Forest Rangers and the battle between private versus public use of land in America’s wilderness. Presidents: Teddy Roosevelt; 26th president. I think he was the youngest president at the time. Teddy loved to box and wrestle and do athletic and outdoor activities. A republican was the man who birthed conservation and environmental protection. President Taft: 27th president, Teddy groomed in for the presidency because he thought Taft would carry on Teddy’s designs. Taft was a weak individual who was easily influenced by big business interests over the interest of conservation or public use of land. Gifford Pinchot: the man Teddy appointed to start the Federal program of Forest Rangers. Edward Pulaski; a man who worked for the forest service and was poorly treated by the U.S. Government after he gave his money, his health in service during the fire of 1910. What a shame. He invented the Pulaski axe but was unable to get patent. Unable to get health care, unable to receive any recognition for his service during the 1910 fire. Woodrow Wilson, 28th president; Democrat, defeated Teddy RooseveltFranklin Roosevelt: cousin of Teddy, 32nd president, president during the depression, his work programs actually helped finally to establish forest service, public lands. As a young person, I was in love with the Forest Ranger and read lots of books about forest rangers. Now I have a better picture of the historical roots of forest service. In the end, the early conservation ideas were faulty and it took some time before there was an understanding that fire could not and should not be prevented altogether, Our lands do require careful tending to preserve them. Forest industry and conservation can work together. Thankfully, we the public can enjoy our country in many recreational ways because of the foresight of people in 1910. A great book, this author does a wonderful job of researching and writing so that it is enjoyable and emotional experience.

[smiley_13 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Didn't live up to the brag. When Egan is writing about the Bitteroot Mountains or the actual fire of 1910 he is spot on. The weakest parts of the book are his attempt @ a capsule biography of Gifford Pinchot and trying to set the fire in a national political context. In addtion, the final chapter is not only a soapbox, but feels like padding. I didn't learn much that I didn't already know as folktales growing up in the area.The publishing industry's lust for lurid subtitles continues undiminished, "Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America" is completely overblown. The fire may have saved the US Forest Service but even Egan admits in the final chapter that big business returned to the woods with a clear cut vengence less than 25 years later.

[bookswoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the kind of history book I love to read. The author spends the time to get as many actual quotes as possible and then weaves them into the story as narrative rather than as statements. Egan brings alive Teddy Roosevelt, his "forester" Pinchot and the many people in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho/Montana who were there in August of 1910 when the entire forest burned in a couple of days. The ones who survived tell compelling stories of what it was like when the fire came at them pushed by hurricane force winds.

The back story of how the U.S. Forest Service was established and so underfunded that it almost ceased is fascinating although not as compelling as the story of the fire. It is necessary so you understand how something that destroyed so much was responsible for saving an agency and establishing a firm foothold for our National Forest system today.

Highly recommended.

[ebnelson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highlighting the founding of the American conservation movement, Egan describes the movement primarily as TR and the new forestry department’s battle against the gilded barons and their crooked politicians. The book details the fascinating politics before people had a sense of conservation (in a 1909 speech, the Interior Secretary said, the American West should be given over to big businesses who have a proven track record of knowing how to make the most of the land). Can you imagine a society where that attitude can be shared so publicly? Egan also introduced me to the details of Gifford Pinchot’s life, a figure I was largely ignorant of, but for whose work as a conservation pioneer I am very thankful for. Although I found the description of the political struggle (the clash of personalities, interests, a bull moose, and elements beyond anyone’s control) to be the most enjoyable aspect, Egan weaves within that narrative the story of the blue collar (mostly) men who fought the fires and the young Yalies who comprised the unfunded Forest Service. It’s prose is inspiring—begging the question, Why don’t we have any more Teddy Roosevelts, and how long can America survive without one?

[marshapetry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent. Good story, great narrator ... told well. This is (was) an excellent book for a long car trip because it keeps you engrossed and time flies by. I knew the basic story but this brought the story to life for me. Highly recommend.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The central section, which details the fire and its aftermath is really, really compelling. The first and third sections, which are essentially about presidential cabinet politics, are less so. And I like presidential history!

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A history of early park rangers, the corrupt oligarchs who opposed them, and the people in the new western towns growing out of logging and mining. Many of the debates are eerily familiar: demands that all resources be opened up to private exploitation; deliberate underfunding and constraining of government; then complaints that government workers aren’t doing a very good job. The fires seem almost incidental.

[rightantler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The amazing story of a fire which set the course of American conservation, even if took decades to realize it! So many individual tragedies and triumphs wrapped in terror and sorrow this book you be read by everyone and anyone interested in the distruction of the environment.

[co_coyote · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating true story by one of America's best storytellers. As someone who spends a lot of time in our National Forests, I had no idea how hard Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot and all the early forest rangers had to work to make it happen. Our country would be a whole poorer without the far-reaching vision of these incredible men.Anything you read by Timothy Egan is thoroughly researched, extremely well written, and immensely informative. This is another terrific book.

[stretch_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Over 3-million acres burned to the ground over a 2-day period in August 1910. It’s mind boggling to think about a fire so hot and intense that an area the size of Connecticut could go up in smoke over a long weekend. A once in a century fire that caught the country by surprise. By late August of 1910, the drought stricken national forests spanning Washington, Idaho, and Montana were a tinderbox ready to burn. With only a hand full of underfunded forest rangers of the newly minted United States Forest Service and guided by a wrongheaded philosophy standing in the way of firestorm of unimaginable scope.The Big Burn is an account of the formation of the National Forest Service and the experiences of this untested group of men charged with fighting the largest wildfire in American history. At the turn of 20th century, America and American industry were expanding into the west at an unpressecentdated rate. It was also, a time of progressive policies to curb the power of industrial trusts and the promotion of fair and safe labor laws. Two forces in almost constant tension with one another. At the head of this progressive era was the ever-enigmatic Theodore Roosevelt, whose personality and toughness was a force of nature in itself, and seemed unstoppable when it came to pushing his progressive agenda through congress. Early on in his political career Roosevelt a great lover nature befriended a young and equally enthusiastic Yale forester by the name of Gifford Pinchot, along with the influential works of John Muir, they hatched a plan to save as much of the natural west as possible for generations to come. (The birth of the conservation movement is anti-climatic, but its ramifications have helped define America’s legacy in a way that will outlast our contributions to democracy.) Once taking the highest office in the land, Roosevelt and Pinchot wasted no time in using executive power to carve huge tracks of land in the still coming of age west for conservation. Over the next 7.5 years, the president and the country’s first forester were able to set aside an additional 16 million acres to the already large 45 million acre National Forest System and form the United States Forest Service to manage this new experiment. In the process, Roosevelt and Pinchot created lifelong enemies that would do anything and everything in their power to undermine the National Forests. On one hand the preservationist, like John Muir, were disappointed in the new organization whose mission was not to preserve the forest as they are, but to manage the forest in way that allows for reasonable commercial exploitation and saving they’re wild nature as much as possible (the early days of conservation was full of high-minded idealism, short on practicality). At the same time there was industry and its bought members of congress who opposed all forms of conservation. The first rangers of the forestry service were all graduates of Yale, and were influenced by the good and bad optimistic philosophies of the early 20th century, especially the idea that with enough knowledge humans could control nature. With that came the false notion that a handful of determined men armed with the latest scientific knowledge could go up against any size wildfire and win. Gifford Pinchot became so enamored with this idea that he made absolute fire suppression one of the primary missions of the forestry service. The little GP’s (the rangers nicknamed for their hero worship of the 1st ranger) didn’t question Pinchot mission and set off into some the most hostile terrain of the west, the towns of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and did their best to manage the vast amount of land that made up the 1st national forests. By 1910, underfunded, hated, and stretched to the breaking point forced the forestry service dealing with serve drought conditions and an outbreak of fire in the Bitterroots into one of the toughest battles in its hundred year history.What started out as hundreds of small fires started by an electoral storm on August 19, 1910 turned into a massive firestorm when strong winds blew in form the west. Exhausted after months of fire the duty the little GP’s could not contain the smaller fires fast enough before it turned into beast that would consume anything in its path. At this point in the season the rangers were paying for supplies and the wages of volunteer firefighters, mostly immigrants and out of work mine laborers, out of their own meager salaries. Demoralized and running out of cash all they had were empty promises and guts to fight the coming nightmare. On August 20th, the rangers were clearly losing the fight, desperate for a work force the rangers tried and mostly failed to enlist the townspeople living in the forest to stay and fight for their own homes. Most migrants to the region were only looking to turn a quick buck from the abundant resources and the railroad; they had no intention of saving the very thing they wanted to exploit. So, it was left up to a hand full of rangers, forge in immigrants, broken and used mine/timber labor, and a division of black buffalo soldiers to fight a monster of a fire. They lost. The night of August 10th was a night of shear panic, some heroic moments, but mostly it was a night of destruction.Once the fire had burned itself out on August 21st, what was left was utter destruction. Eighty-seven people were dead or dying, many missing, hundreds of firefighters disabled from the flames, and whole towns burnt to the ground. Sadly, little to no government support was offered to the now scarred and disabled firefighters. It was left to the rangers to continue paying for the medical bills for themselves and their crews. It would be decades before sacrifices of these crews were formally recognized. Many men and their families were left dissolute and broken. Death and destruction were not the only lasting effects of the “the Big Burn.” The fire galvanized the public and with the help of some political stumping by Teddy and Pinchot, the national forest system and the United States Forestry Service was not only saved but was expanded into the east, many more millions acres were to be conserved. The enemies of the forestry service were soundly defeated and routed from the public sphere. Thanks to the men that braved the fire of 1910 and some dramatic changes in the timber market we now have a growing national forest system, much of it set aside as nature preserves. The conservation and preservation of nature is now firmly a part of national identity. However, we are still practicing an absolute fire suppression methodology resulting in larger and hotter fires that continue to threaten large population centers. The US Forestry Service still has the uphill battle of striking a balance between conservation and commercial interests that aren’t always in sync with the smart thing to do.

[st5croixsue · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very engaging history of the big fire of 1910 and everything that led up to it along with the background politics of creating the National Forest system. Fascinating and easy to listen to.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book tells the story of the 3 million acre fire in Montana and Idaho in 1910 as well as the creation of the forest service 4 years prior. On the whole the book was interesting but the first half is a bit slow detailing more than you would ever need to know about president Teddy Roosevelt who created the Forest Service and Gifford Pinchot who was the first to run the department. What the firemen who fought this fire faced was horrific and the treatment they received from the U.S. government was almost worse. A sad state of affairs from our government. One thing I found surprising was that with all the wealth both Gifford and Roosevelt had, neither one of them ever compensated the forest service workers for doing the work these two men expected of them, knowing full well the government also did not help them. I found this fact to be equally shameful.

[eilonwy_anne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The kind of history you can't believe could be forgotten -- but it routinely is. Timothy Egan's journalistic researching serves him in good stead here, allowing him to paint a detailed picture of the fire and the individuals' stories. The structure, starting at the fire then jumping back to give lots of background, is somewhat teasing, but the background does eventually pay off as the events and their political aftermath unfold.I got quite attached to the dedicated foresters and plucky citizens of the tale, and even found myself engaged by the portraits of Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, which I did not expect. Come for the amazing stories of survival and inferno, stay for the perspective on the history of the American West, the Forest Service and conservationism!

[bnbookgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoroughly enjoyed this story about the wildfire of 1910. There was really no one at this time trained to fight these terrible firestorms. The forest service were just getting a start so the service was hiring anyone who they could. So many men went into this firestorm with no training, doing the best they could, to save their families, their towns, their forests. Timothy Egan is a great storyteller and he has hit a homerun with this saga as well. This story has many familiar characters as well, from Teddy Roosevelt to William Taft. This is a story of true heroism in the face of horrifying odds. A very detailed account of the Big Burn of 1910; the people who were lost, the towns that were lost, and the many who were injured and permanently damaged.

[addunn3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent telling of the origin of the national forests during the Roosevelt era. Well written and informative.