51福利社

A聽group of men gathered at聽a United States Forest Service station near Winthrop, Washington to test a theory. Was it practical to deliver聽trained聽wildland聽fire fighters聽and their equipment via air? Smokejumping was born from these experiments. The 51福利社 Libraries, through a partnership with the National Smokejumper Association, is pleased to host聽the , which contains photographs and digitized footage from those first experiments.

Even聽in this day and age聽vast areas of the聽West are difficult, if not impossible, to access via automobile. Not coincidentally, these areas of聽wilderness often contain our nation鈥檚 largest forests.聽Many of these forests were even more inaccessible in 1939, thus making a new method of firefighting necessary to contain聽the negative impacts of forest fires.聽As fires have grown more severe in recent years, the importance of聽smokejumpers and other wildland firefighters has grown.

The contains materials that document this history of聽smokejumping聽from its origin in 1939 to the current decade through photographs, film, and publications, such as Smokejumper magazine. To view the original documents, one would need to travel across the Northwest and to聽Washington, D.C. The digital archive聽exists as a central point of access for people to use these materials for educational purposes.聽The Smokejumper Digital Archive provides a glimpse into the聽evolution of this innovative practice and聽the men and women聽who perform the grueling work that saves lives and our forests.

– Steven Bingo, Digital Projects Archivist