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| Camp sign at the Nine Mile base, 1940s |
The feasibility of dropping firefighters by parachute to combat forest fires had been under consideration by Forest Service fire control officials for a number of years. With the rapid improvement of aircraft in the 1920s and early 1930s, the dropping of supplies and equipment proved to be practical means of supplying firefighters.
The actual idea of parachuting men to fight fire is attributed to a forest ranger in Utah, T.V. Pearson, who experimented with the idea in 1934. After a few demonstrations by a professional jumper, J.B. Bruce, the idea was abandoned as being too risky. The few men who pioneered parachute jumping were considered to be publicity crazy or just plain crazy.
Using parachutes to drop supplies and the potential for dropping men onto a fire could not be ignored, however, and a man appeared on the scene who would be the guiding light for the future smokejumping program. David Godwin was the assistant chief of fire control in the Washington office of the Forest Service and head of the Aerial Fire Control Experimental Project. This was a program begun in California to study the feasibility of dropping chemicals or water from the air to retard forest fire movement.
In the early summer of 1939 Godwin transferred his experimental project from California to the Forest Service's Intercity Airport, located between Twisp and Winthrop, Wash., in Region Six (Chelan National Forest).
When it was decided that bombing fires from the air was impractical, Godwin shifted the project to developing a safe, practical method of dropping men from the air to fight fires.
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| Distended canopy of an Eagle parachute showing details of design Nov.1939 |
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| Leather football helmets and wire cages were used for years for head and face protection | |
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| Fully dressed smokejumper, Aug.1945 |
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| Frank Derry, Chet Derry, Harrold King and Allen Honey at Winthrop, Wash., 1939 |
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| Smokejumpers prior to take-off from Missoula for Washington, D.C. | | | |
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| The pionneer Alaska jump crew in 1959 |
Smokejumpers Go Hollywood
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| "Red Skies of Montana" |
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| A still shot from the movie "Red Skies of Montana" |
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| Certificate presented to President Eisenhower |
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| Civilian Conservation Corps felt patch |
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| Forest Service Patch |
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| Forest Service Volunteer Patch |
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| Contemporary Smokejumper |
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| Smoke jumper ready to jump |
