The Big Burn (22 page)

The gutted core of the town of Wallace after the fire.
Barnard-Stockbridge Studio Collection, University of Idaho Library

An iconic photo of President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir atop Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park during their 1903 camping trip. Roosevelt was an immense fan of Muir's, and the naturalist felt a similar admiration for the president.
Library of Congress

President Roosevelt in his element, giving a stemwinder. Both he and Gifford Pinchot reveled in conflict with the foes of conservation.
Library of Congress

Young Gifford Pinchot, a close friend and personal aide of Roosevelt's and the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service.
Library of Congress

Teddy Roosevelt speaking outside a church in Rifle, Colorado, in 1905. At heart, he said, he was just as much a westerner as an easterner.
Library of Congress

After leaving the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot had a stint in Pennsylvania politics. Here, as a candidate for governor, he meets with two rangers. "I have been a governor now and then," he once said, "but I am a forester all the time—have been, and shall be, all my working life."
Library of Congress

A typical lookout tower of the type constructed all over the West. After the Big Burn, the Forest Service vowed zero tolerance for wildfire, a policy doomed to fail.
Library of Congress

A Forest Service fire patrol in 1914. The average ranger had to patrol 300,000 acres, usually on foot, but also on horseback or riding the rails.
Library of Congress

Gifford Pinchot with his family. Much of his private life was a well-kept secret—mystical and mysterious, even as he moved in the highest reaches of power.
Library of Congress

Grey Towers, the Pinchot family estate in Pennsylvania. Though Gifford Pinchot's grandfather made his fortune by cutting down trees, the family name later became synonymous with forest preservation.
U.S. Forest Service

Pinchot out for a stroll. Like Roosevelt, he came from wealth and privilege, but he found his life's purpose in Progressive Era causes on behalf of public land and "the little man."
Library of Congress

Roosevelt and Pinchot, political soulmates, on the deck of the steamer Mississippi during a tour of inland waterways.
Library of Congress