Montana Yesterday

admin | November 17, 2009

If I understand correctly, Earl Cooley and the first smoke jumper class in the summer of 1940 did their ground training at the Seeley Lake Ranger Station, stayed at Camp Paxson on the south end of Seeley Lake, and did their training jumps over Blanchard Flats, near (or at?) Clearwater Junction. Here’s Cooley’s own account [...]

Category: 1940s, Aviation, Firefighting, history milestones, National Forest, Smoke jumping, Uncategorized, University of Montana, Western Montana history | No Comments »
Tags: 1940, Camp Paxson, Earl Cooley, Forestry Kaimin, Seeley Lake Ranger Station, smoke jumpers

admin | November 17, 2009

They buried Earl Cooley yesterday afternoon in his Bitterroot hometown of Corvallis, and the barrage of tributes to Cooley’s work as one of the first smoke jumpers keeps coming. It’s interesting just to Google Cooley’s name and see them all. Cooley graduated from high school in Corvallis in 1930, but he didn’t enroll in Forestry [...]

Category: 1930s, Aviation, Firefighting, National Forest, Smoke jumping, Uncategorized, Western Montana history | No Comments »
Tags: Earl Cooley, Forestry Kaimin, forestry school, smoke jumpers, University of Montana