Preparing to fight the fire . . .
Sometime around 3:10 p.m. the crew of 15
smoke jumpers landed near location
#11 on the photo. (The numbers
used will coincide with those used in Norman
Maclean's book, "Young Men and Fire".) When
they landed the fire was burning in area
#14 on the photo. The men collected
and organized their equipment (#12),
and had a bite to eat before starting toward the
fire. The temperature in Helena (20 miles to
the south) was 97 degrees with strong SW
winds and a relative humidity of only
3%.
Move your cursor over the image below to make labels appear.
Above: I compared this Google Earth image to the map in Young Men and Fire and then added the numbers as best I could. To see the numbers, move your cursor over the image (above).  Above: This
photo shows the opposite view, looking toward the river from the head of the gulch. As the men landed in area 11, they would have seen the fire on the ridge
toward the south.
"Young Men and Fire". . .
The book titled "Young Men and Fire" by
Norman Maclean is the most complete
account ever written about the Mann Gulch
Fire. Maclean, who grew up in the Missoula
area, also authored "A River Runs Through It".
I relied heavily upon Maclean's version of the
disaster in creating this "virtual field trip".
"Montana, The Magazine of Western History" . . .
John N. Maclean (Norman's son) wrote an article called "Fire and Ashes, The Last Survivor of the Mann Gulch Fire." The article appeared in the Autumn 2004 issue of Montana, The Magazine of Western History. Since his father's book had contradicted some of the details that Bob Salle remembered about the disaster, John wanted to give Sallee an opportunity to respond. In the article, John tells what he learned from Sallee during interviews and a trip that the two of them made to the gulch several years after Young Men and Fire was published. The 15-page article, which includes several black and white photos, sheds new light on Norman Maclean's account.
NEXT: The Final Journey Begins
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