About a decade ago, I read the above book, and like many people, for some reason, became obsessed with the story of 13 young men who lost their lives in 1949 in Mann Gulch about 20 miles north of Helena, MT. These were smoke jumpers, just three years after the inception of the program, who jumped out of a plane around 4PM one August afternoon and by 5:45PM were dead because the fire overtook them as they ran up the slope trying to escape the fire. 3 men survived, two because they actually managed to outrun the fire and 1 man, who because he set a fire in front of him, and thereby denied fuel to the Mann Gulch fire itself, survived. Because of this tragedy, fire science was made a priority and a research lab, such as the one I visited in Missoula, came to be.
Mann Gulch is located on the Missouri River in an area called Gates of the Mountains. This gorge was named by Lewis and Clark during their Corps of Discovery. They say these high walls and believed them to be the "gates" to the Rocky Mountains. I boarded a tour boat and went on a two hour ride into the Gates of the Mountains.
At the downstream end (Northern end) of the Gates, on the East side is Mann Gulch. A one and a half mile hike from the sign takes one to the two headstones and crosses that mark the location of where the majority of these men perished. The thirteenth is near the top of the Northern ridge line where one of the men nearly outran the fire. Only one of the three remaining survivors of the Mann Gulch tragedy still lives.
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