This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Missoula Smokejumper Records Preserve Century of Jumps
At the Missoula Smokejumper Base, yellowed ledgers chronicle nearly a century of jumps by every smokejumper since 1940. Early 1940s entries are handwritten with names ages and weights, dates, aircraft, forests and fires, plus practice jumps. Some pages note the final leaps of those who did not return, including Silas Thompson and the 1949 Helena fire. The Mann Gulch disaster was Thompson’s first fire jump of the year, killing 13 smokejumpers from Missoula.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Butte
Missoula
Thompson
Silas
Helena
Mann Gulch