A Tribute to Montana's Brave Smokejumpers: Remembering the Mann Gulch Fire

While boating on Holter Lake, we passed by the Mann Gulch memorial. 12 smokejumpers perished in this gulch in 1945. This is a remembrance to those brave men.

On August 5th, 1945, 15 smokejumpers parachutes into the ignited canyon in efforts to contain the blaze. Suddenly, unexpected high winds caused the blaze to expand rapidly, 3,000 acres in ten minutes.

This cutoff the smokejumpers only exit and within moments the men were engulfed and taken from this earth.

Two managed to escape through a deep fissure in the rock, and one built an escape fire in the center, which actually saved his life.

One survivor told the story that the hot gusts of wind from the fire were so extreme that it "picked him up and shook him like a dog with a bone."

13 other firefighters died in the same fire.

In Remembrance

Robert J. Bennett, age 22, from Paris, Tennessee
Eldon E. Diettert, age 19, from Moscow, Idaho, died on his 19th birthday
James O. Harrison, Helena National Forest Fire Guard, age 20, from Missoula, Montana
William J. Hellman, age 24, from Kalispell, Montana
Philip R. McVey, age 22, from Babb, Montana
David R. Navon, age 28, from Modesto, California
Leonard L. Piper, age 23, from Blairsville, Pennsylvania
Stanley J. Reba, from Brooklyn, New York
Marvin L. Sherman, age 21, from Missoula, Montana
Joseph B. Sylvia, age 24, from Plymouth, Massachusetts
Henry J. Thol, Jr., age 19, from Kalispell, Montana
Newton R. Thompson, age 23, from Alhambra, California
Silas R. Thompson, age 21, from Charlotte, North Carolina