Six Press Photographs of the US Forest Service’s Attempts to Fight Wildfires, Early 20th Century

Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota; Pike National Forest, Colorado; and unknown locations, 1920. Six photos: three 4 x 6 inch, two 4 ¾ x 6 ½ inch, and one 4 x 6 ½ inch. One dated May 7, 1911. One with editorial overpainting recto. Five with typed captions affixed to bottom, one with caption printed verso. Slight damage to edges, excellent contrast, overall excellent to near fine.. Six photographs showing firefighters and USFS rangers at work preventing forest fires, with one showing the aftermath of a forest fire in an unknown city. The men dig firebreaks with pickaxes, spray a downed tree with a firehose, and cook a meal at a fire camp. Besides a single photograph dated to 1911, two others date these to the 1910s and 20s: a forest ranger strings telephone wire, a project which began in 1906 shortly after the inception of the USFS; and a ranger at Custer Peak Lookout Station uses an Osborne Fire Finder, which was put into use by the Forest Service around 1915. A striking series of photographs of interest to historians of the Forest Service and firefighting.