The Blackwater Fire and the Men Who Fought It

At 3:30 p.m. on August 21, 1937, the Blackwater Fire "blew up" west of Cody, Wyoming, on the Shoshone National Forest. Fifteen firefighters perish in the conflagration and more than forty are injured. Travel back in time to the horse and mule days of a frontier state and engage a forest fire in the rugged Absaroka Mountains. Gain the upper hand then see it all go so terribly wrong in a matter of seconds.

How do we as individuals and organizations respond to disaster when tragedy strikes? Do we investigate to study and draw conclusions? Do we analyze the situation and file a report to be forgotten? Is that enough? Or do we say, "No! There has to be more." There must be a new beginning. The fallen cry out for it.

Soon, young men will parachute from airplanes to hang up in trees and attack forest fires before they become the next tragedy. They will call themselves smokejumpers, and they will be the first to get there, and they will carry the Blackwater with them in the "crack of silk" as they jump the big sky over our western forests.