A months-long process of research and petitioning the U.S. Forest Service proved fruitful for a group of C.R. Anderson Middle School students seeking National Recreation Trail Registry designation for the Mann Gulch Trail.
One student said they hoped the application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service for National Recreational Trails would be approved in June.
Instead, the 3 1/2-mile trail was approved Tuesday night as a surprise to the students from the Forest Service and they were presented with a formal plaque.
Lucas Parriman, with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, surprises students from the C.R. Anderson Middle School Mann Gulch Club with the official Mann Gulch trail designation after a presentation by the club Tuesday night at the Lewis & Clark Library.
The students started the project as a part of the C.R. Anderson Mann Gulch Club, which focuses on studying the history of the Mann Gulch Fire. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the fatal wildfire near Gates of the Mountains.
The students met twice a week during lunch to talk about the project and what they needed to research or look into regarding the fire.
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Two of the lead educators for the club were Shannon Thomas and Dick McMahon.
McMahon said the project was a "get-to-do type of thing," because they got to work with the kids and work on the project together as a unit.
He said he liked that the kids involved wanted to learn more about the project and the events that happened in 1949.
On Aug. 6, 1949, the U.S. Forest Service sent a recovery mission to the site of the Mann Gulch fire after tragedy struck the smokejumpers the day before. On that recovery crew was smokejumper Richard "Dick" Wilson, who carried a small film camera in the collar of his jumpsuit and captured some of the only photos of the aftermath.
The Mann Gulch Fire took place in the Helena National Forest, where 15 smokejumpers were dispatched to the scene. They met with James Harrison, a fire guard, who quit the smokejumpers program a year before the fire started.
Thirteen people died as a result of the fire, 12 were smokejumpers and the other was Harrison.
The fire covered 3,000 acres when the wind picked up, causing the crew of firefighters to retreat up the hillside. The crew was ordered to drop their gear and run uphill to find safety. Crew foreman Wagner Dodge survived after he lit an escape fire and took refuge in the ashes; Walter Rumsey and Robert Sallee made it to safety in a rocky area of the canyon’s wall. These three were the only survivors.
Thomas said the units had students find the slope and speed of some of the firefighters involved in the fire.
Kayden Jones and Oliver Camp talk about the C.R. Anderson Mann Gulch Club's application for designation of the Mann Gulch Trail during a presentation at the Lewis & Clark Library on Tuesday night.
The students were able to travel to the site of the fire and hike the trail, while smelling ponderosa pines, which, according to the students, "smelled like vanilla."
C.R. Anderson students Braeden Burke and Grace Shanks said a part of the project was to read books about the events to gain more background information.
Another part of of the project was to create topographical maps using cardboard and paper that showed Mann Gulch along with nearby hills to display in a handheld form.
Students said the hike took about an hour and 45 minutes, but it took "way less time to get back down."
They described their adventures during the presentation with photographs showing a bighorn ram, ponderosa pines and their boat trip to the site. They also wrote about the history and their findings in a historical narrative.
Burke, Shanks, Melissa Klatt, Zaila Carlson, Shyloh Smith, Cayden Jones, Oliver Kamp, Ryan Driscoll, Gabe Mattern, Damian Rumbold, Zuriah Elkins, Savannah Savage and Lynsey Renney were the students involved in what was called the "Mann Gulch Overlook Trail Project."
In late July of 1978, while Norman MacLean was doing research for his book "Young Men and Fire," he organized a trip to Mann Gulch with Bob Sallee and Walter Rumsey, the only remaining survivors of the Mann Gulch fire at the time. It was to be the first time the survivors would revisit the scene of the tragedy.
There are almost 1,300 designated trails throughout the country, which are land-based or water-based trails. The recreation trails give residents a "close to home" opportunity to go hiking in nature.
"This is a legacy thing for the kids," McMahon said.
He said this will be a project that their children will be able to be a part of and it will continue to grow.
Editor's note: Story updated to clarify the number of smokejumpers who died.