In The Worst Hard Time , Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with The Big Burn , the largest-ever forest fire in America, a tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy. On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping hundreds of small blazes into a roaring inferno ...
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In The Worst Hard Time , Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with The Big Burn , the largest-ever forest fire in America, a tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy. On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping hundreds of small blazes into a roaring inferno that destroyed towns and timber in an eye-blink. Forest rangers assembled nearly 10,000 men - college boys, day workers, immigrants from mining camps - to fight the fire. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them. Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of President Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of national forests as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen. The robber barons fought them, but the fire saved the forests even as it destroyed them: the heroism shown by the rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, even as it changed the mission of the Forest Service, with consequences felt in the fires of today. The Big Burn tells an epic story, paints a moving portrait of the people who lived it, and offers a critical cautionary tale for our time.
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From the beginning, this is a story of out-sized characters and immense events that had a profound effect on the US, both in the immediate aftermath and the long-term. It is the story of Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot; how they carved out millions of acres to protect for our posterity and how a raging inferno (that burned over 3 million acres) got the attention of the populace to protect that which remained.
This is Teddy and Gifford's story of how they outsmarted the lumber conglomerates, wealthy industrialists and crooked Senators to create millions of acres for all Americans, instead of a few rich men earning more profits. Their goal was to create a renewable resource for the ages through conservation. Some may see this first third of the book as slow; I feel it was critical information about how the vision of 2 men has given us a treasure beyond value. The political scene at the time of the beginning of the forestry service is important to understand.
When Teddy retired from the presidency, the special interests waged war against the forestry service and their employees. The crooked senators and their allies cut and belittled the service until little more than the "little GP's" (Gifford Pinchot's specially selected and trained foresters) remained. Then the crippled agency was ordered to put out wildfires! No additional money was offered to do this; 'little GP's' usually gave out of their own nearly-empty pockets to hire firefighters and buy more supplies and food.
Egan's prose drives the reader faster-and-faster through the horror of the raging fires. Whether people lived or died was capricious; the stories of heroism under fire (pun intended) were amazing. The Buffalo Soldiers of the Army's 25th Infantry served their country proudly under appalling conditions. The foresters and the Infantry created their own miracles because neither President Taft nor Congress lifted a finger to help.
During the last third of the book, I had to read in measured doses; my blood pressure stayed in the stratosphere. The only downside with listening to a talking book was the fact that the photos were not available. I'll have to check out a copy of the text to see the photos accompanying this remarkable story.
BruceHH
Oct 28, 2011
Conservation Early Years
An interesting, exciting read. Though this work is about the major forest fire of 1910, it is also the story of the beginnings of the conservation movement, such as it is, in the US. Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot were instrumental in setting aside millions of acres of forest despite corrupt politicians and robber barons. The politicians and robber barons attempted to starve the forest service to death but then came the big burn and the heroic stories that came out of it. The forest service received more funding to build roads and lookouts to better respond to forest fires. However, the ending of this work is somewhat depressing because the national forests were opened to robber barons who denuded the slopes of trees with their clear-cutting operations using the roads built by taxpayer money. Though now I think the major lumber companies have seen the light because they need trees and clear cutting without reforestation would mean they would lose their resource.
