Smokejumpers fought fires in
the Applegate: 1972 was a bad year
Applegater Summer 2018
3
Farewell Rat Race,
hello Applegate Open!
BY MAUREEN FLANAGAN BATTISTELLA
BY DAN WELLS AND KATE VANGELOFF
The summer of
1972 was a long, hot,
dry summer with
temperatures reaching
108 degrees in the
“Applegate District” of
the Rogue River National
Forest. There was no rain
for weeks on end, and dry
lightning sparked fires in
the Siskiyou, Klamath,
Six Rivers, Rogue River,
Winema, Umpqua, and
Shasta-Trinity national
forests. All summer
long the Siskiyou
Smokejumper Base sent
crews throughout the Fire
District 8 region chasing fires.
Smokejumpers parachute into remote
areas as an early and fast response to contain
forest fires. The Siskiyou Smokejumper
Base, at the Illinois Valley Airport west of
Cave Junction, Oregon, was one of the
first bases in the country to be established
because it was a central location for Pacific
Northwest wildfires.
“We launched and just followed the
lightning strikes around, looking for
smoke,” recalls Gary Thornhill, who
jumped that year into the Applegate
District. That summer there were 22
lightning fires in the Applegate District
alone, in timbered areas like China Gulch,
Billy Mountain, Dutchman Peak, and
Sheep Camp.
By late summer, Siskiyou Smokejumper
Base crews were exhausted. Some
smokejumpers had returned to college
or winter jobs. When lightning strikes
began on August 30, Siskiyou requested
reinforcements from the North Cascades
Smokejumper Base (NCSB) in Winthrop,
Washington.
The jump log for August 30, 1972, is
telling: “We requested reinforcements and
received 16 NCSB Smokejumpers; they
were needed for the new lightning storm
on the Rogue River Forest. The Applegate
had been hit hard. A DC-3 was launched
to drop on small fires. Ewing and Kwarta
in N344 made the flight with McMinimy
and Buck as spotters.” Spotters would
stay in the plane, scanning for smoke and
figuring out the movement of the wind
and fire, and identify the best approach for
smokejumpers to go into a fire. Spotters
were critical to safety and operations.
“Most of them [fires] didn’t get very big
because we were just on them. We were
jumping in to get the fire lines set and then
the ground crews would take over. We’d
pack out, get back to the base, and get on
another airplane,” Thornhill says.
Smokejumper Gary Buck remembers
that summer, saying “The Applegate has
big trees, but it always seemed there was a
place to land—a field or
on brush.”
Lightning strikes
continued that season,
and on September
3, 4, and 5, Siskiyou
jumpers were dispatched
to Klamath, Gasquet,
Pe l i c a n M o u n t a i n ,
Prospect, and the
Ap p l e g a t e . T h e l o g
reports, “September 5
was another busy day
with jumpers dropped on
9 fires on the Applegate
District. The DC-3 was
Smokejumper. dispatched with Sthor
and Gummer piloting
and Swift spotting.” That long day was far
from over with four more fires starting up
in the Applegate before dark.
Between March 16 and October 27,
1972, District 8 smokejumpers made a
record 384 jumps on 97 fires and five
jumps on three rescues. A small fire could
be contained quickly with a fast response
with two to four men jumping in teams.
That summer, DC-3, Twin Beech, and
Twin Otter aircraft dropped smokejumpers
into as many as 15 fires a day.
The US Forest Service decommissioned
the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base in 1981
and reassigned the crew. In 2006, the base
was named to the National Register of
Historic Buildings. Volunteers restored its
historic buildings and reopened the base
as a museum in 2007.
The Oregon Department of Forestry
(ODF) Division of Fire Protection reports
that in 1972, southwest Oregon (the area
served by the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base)
saw 215 fires that burned a total of 2,318
acres, an average burn of 10.78 acres. The
ODF reports that in 2017, District 8 saw
350 fires that burned 40,365 acres, of
which 1,003 acres were designated by ODF
as protected acreage.
Thanks to funding from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the
Library Services and Technology Act,
Southern Oregon University’s Hannon
Library is digitizing many of the Siskiyou
Smokejumper Base Museum’s historic
photographs and documents. These
materials, including a series of images that
constitute “The Anatomy of a Jump,” are
found in the Stories of Southern Oregon
Collection at soda.sou.edu.
The Siskiyou Smokejumper Base
Museum is located at 30902 Redwood
Highway, just west of Cave Junction on
Highway 199. The Museum is open from
May to November.
For more information, visit facebook.
com/siskiyousmokejumpers.
Maureen Flanagan Battistella
mbattistellaor@gmail.com
Smokejumpers from the Siskiyou Smokejumpers Base in Cave Junction.
For the last 15
years, pilots from
around the world
have poured into
the Applegate Valley
to compete in the
prestigious Rat
Race Paragliding
Competition on
Woodrat Mountain.
This June, pilots will
be returning to the
valley to compete,
but this time they
won’t be attending
the Rat Race—this
time, they will be
competing in the
new Applegate
Open. Practice
day is June 9, with
races from June 10
through June 16.
After a fantastic
14-year run, event
o r g a n i ze r s Mi k e
and Gail Haley
announced early
last year that the
2017 Rat Race
would be the final
Top photo: Pilots on launch on Woodrat Mountain.
competition that
Bottom photo: Glider landing at LongSword Vineyard.
they would produce.
Immediately after
the announcement, a small group of pilots of details and logistics, this year’s event
from the Rogue Valley Hang Gliding and organizer, Dan Wells, is proud to announce
Paragliding Association (RVHPA) started that 130 pilots are currently signed up
meeting to see if it would be possible for the competition with more sign-
to continue the tradition of hosting a ups expected in the near future. With
paragliding competition in the valley. Not such a wonderfully large turnout for the
only is Woodrat known internationally as first year of the new competition, the
one of the premier flying sites in the US, Applegate Open is looking for all the
but the annual competition is also a great volunteers they can find. For instance,
boon for the local economy. After several local Applegate residents with their
planning sessions, the club voted to carry knowledge of the area make great retrieve
on the tradition and sponsor a new event. drivers. They are also looking for help
with event registration, photography,
The Applegate Open was born!
The next task was to find a venue that headquarters drink and snack monitoring,
could host such a large, ambitious event. water and ice delivery to the launch site,
Luckily, local winery LongSword Vineyard, and updating social media and event status.
a longtime supporter of RVHPA, was also Anyone interested in volunteering should
interested in seeing the tradition continue visit wingsoverapplegate.org/volunteers for
and offered to serve as headquarters. The more details.
Community members interested in
property at LongSword is a favorite landing
zone for pilots and is often used as a goal seeing the competition are invited to
visit LongSword Vineyard any day of the
during the competitions.
With the club’s approval and the venue competition during business hours to enjoy
secured, the Applegate Open is beginning some wine and watch the paragliders.
to take shape, but putting on a paragliding LongSword will be hosting viewing parties
competition is no small task. It takes a lot on Saturday, June 9, and Saturday, June
of intricate planning and hours of hard 16, to celebrate the competition. Guests
work to make a paragliding competition will enjoy live music, good food from food
a success. Fortunately, a number of the trucks, and the excitement of watching the
local club members have been competing pilots land at LongSword.
For more information about the
or volunteering in the Rat Race for years
competition, please visit facebook.
and were ready for the challenge.
After months of hard work, including com/WingsoverApplegate. For more
launching a website, creating a local information about public events, visit
rule book, obtaining a Bureau of Land facebook.com/LongSwordVineyard.
Dan Wells
Management special use permit, securing
Kate Vangeloff
event insurance and approval from local
treasurer2014@rvhpa.org
landowners, and untangling millions
Let’s “BELLABRATE” 30 Years
June 7 - 6:00 - 9:00 pm
• Complimentary Appetizers
• Champagne Toast and Birthday Cake
• Kick-Off Medford Beer Week
(featuring Walkabout Brewery)
• Live Music with The Brothers Reed
Restaurant & Saloon
19 88
2018
541 899 -1770 www.bellau.com
170 West California St. Jacksonville, OR
