12. The Crevice

The photo at the top of this page was taken from Reba's cross. CLICK HERE to see a larger version of the photo .

B: Silas Thompson's cross

C: Sylvia's cross and rock

D: James Harrison's cross

X: where Dodge set his escape fire according to Maclean

Z: where we found (on July 18, 2009) the 4 x 4 piece of wood that supposedly marks where Dodge set the fire

S-1: the saddle described by Maclean as he looked up in July of 1979

R-1: to R-2 the reef (rimrocks) where Maclean thinks the crevice had to be

S-2: the second saddle described by Maclean in 1979

Sallee: the location of the crevice identified by Bob Sallee and Walt Rumsey when they came to the gulch with Norman Maclean in 1978 and Sallee when he returned with Norman's son (John) in 2003

The smoke lifted only twice, but they saw a crevice and steered by it even after it disappeared again.

Confusing, mysterious, controversial . . .
Maclean describes a crevice that Rumsey and Sallee went through to escape the fire. Maclean mentions this "slit in the rocks", and later states that "Sallee was in the lead and was first through the crevice." Maclean thinks the crevice had to be in the rimrocks above Sylvia's cross (C on the photo above) in order for Sallee to have seen Dodge light his escape fire. Although I have examined the outcroppings above Sylvia's cross, I have not been able to locate a distinct crevice. It is possible that it has crumbled away. In a few places there are large angular pieces of rock that look as though they have broken off of the rimrocks recently (no lichens growing on them yet).

In the photo below, a friend of mine looks for the crevice in the area above Sylvia's cross. The left edge of the photo corresponds to R-1 on the photo at the top of this page. CLICK HERE to see a larger version of the photo below.

The location and descriptions of the crevice are confusing and mysterious to those who seek them . . . not only because of the absence of a distinct crevice, but also because Bob Sallee and Norman Maclean do not agree on it's location. In fact, when Sallee and Rumsey visited the gulch in 1978 with Maclean, Sallee picked a crevice (shown below) in the rimrocks above Diettert's cross, much farther upgulch (100-150 ft) than where Maclean eventually determined it must be. It was a year later (1979) when Norman Maclean returned to Mann Gulch with Laird Robinson that he concluded Rumsey and Sallee had identified the wrong crevice during their 1978 visit to the ridge.

Below: Sallee also returned to Mann Gulch with John Maclean (Norman's son) in 2003. Again he identified this crevice as the one that he and Rumsey had gone through. A photo of the crevice appeared with the article in the Autumn 2004 Issue of Montana, The Magazine of western History. CLICK HERE to see a larger version of the photo below. CLICK HERE to see a photo taken from the other side of this crevice.

Below: This photo was taken from atop the chest of the "Sleeping Giant" (Beartooth Mountain), 3-4 miles northwest of the gulch. The head of the giant and a portion of the Missouri River can be seen in the foreground. The "10" marks the place where Rumsey and Sallee found a rockslide in Rescue Gulch. They survived there as the fire swept through that gulch also.