Transcripts For CSPAN Cities Tour - Missoula Montana 20240714

Travel to missoula, montana. With a population of about 66,000, montanas second largest city sits on the western part of the state in the heart of the northern rocky mountains. Over the next hour, well learn about the history of missoula and the surrounding region. Missoula is located in the western part of montana. We probably claim it to be the largest city inside the rocky mountains. Because we have a branch to our east and a branch to the west. So were located in the heart of western montana. In a very ferre tile area. When captain christopher p. Higgins established missoula, actually established hellgate first, which is the immediate predecessor, it was because, it was the nexus, it was the hub in western montana. Because to the north youve got the mission and to the south youve got an increasing settlement in the Bitterroot Valley and in 1860 you have lieutenant john mullin completing the military road from fort benton in the east to walla walla in the west. So anything everybody who is going from one direction to the ther is coming through here. Before White Settlement was here, this was the native american land. This was their homeland. And as such, as far as we really are know, there was never any type of permanent settlement here in missoula. They settled elsewhere. Particularly up the bitterroot. But in here, they did a lot of hunting, there was a great deal of hunting and gathering. The bitterroot flowers, the roots of the bitterroots were cherished and a whole field of them existed pretty much where we are now. The hellgate village was established in 1860. Now, what had happened was captain christopher p. Higgins had been on the wagon master on lieutenant on Governor Stevens expedition. He was stevens was taking office as the first territorial governor of washington, which at that point included montana. So, he first saw this area coming through here in 1853, when stevens was negotiating with the indians. Eventually he moved out to walla walla and olympia with the governor, stayed there for a number of years, but realized his future was not in the military. And he remembered this valley. Isaacs ught out the old concern of the warden isaacs store in walla walla and he convinced his new partner, frank warden, and their clerk, frank woody, that they needed to relocate their entire operation from walla walla to western montana. And they set up shop about four miles from the current downtown. Tiny Little Village called hellgate. Named after the gates of hell or the [speaking foreign language] as the french call the prominent geographical feature here. And they established their Little Village, never more than 14 permanent inhabitants. Nine violent deaths by the way. Good odds not good odds. But they were immediately successful because they fit a need. They fit the need to supply the settlers, the indians and, increasingly, the miners. We have no mineable things here. But we knew how to supply others. Ut after four, five years, higgins and his partners decided to move their operations four miles up what was then called the missoula river. Now called the clark fork. And they first built a sawmill, then a grissmill. Relocated their store. They started building their homes there. And within three more years, hell gate village seized to exist. There is nothing there. There were some efforts to save the one remaining structure, which was st. Michaels church. Which has a great deal of historical significance. Plus, being one of the first structures built by white people out here. That has a storied history. It was saved there, restored, then it was moved downtown. It served as a boys boarding school, a girls school, a comsear, a store house for st. Patricks church. Then it was moved back there in hellgate village, but then the developments took over it and in the 1980s the friends of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula worked long and hard to obtain it, to bring it to the Historical Museum grounds where we can preserve it, tell those early stories about hellgate and make history come alive. Fort missoula was established in 1877. Now, for many years, the leading citizens of missoula lobbied the territorial government, the state government, and the federal government for a fort. You have to remember that during this time period, this is this is the worst of the indian wars. Youre pretty much in the midst of the sioux wars, which are devastating. In 1976 you have custers defeat at the little bighorn. Theres lots of fears about the indian menace. And we have, the flathead indians, largely peaceful. The nes pers who come through the area, peaceful. But theres the threat of the sioux, the cheyenne, the blackfoot from up north. So there was a fear for that. Plus, in my opinion, the Business Leaders of missoula understood that once you get the government in, you cant get them out. And they pay an ungodly amount of money to the community. So i think it was a very, very shrewd decision by the city founders to pursue having a fort. There is the noncommissioned officers quarters, the root cellar and the carriage house. Those are the only three structures that still remain. A one0, it was called milliondollar fort, because rather than close it, the center has got 1 million to invest in it. We have got a lot of those structures left on Historical Museum grounds, but the rest of it, which is still there and active, contains the old officers row, the barracks sections, supply firehouses, old cook houses. The parts that were during thealuable internment camp. I think it is increasingly important, as more and more in,le from outside come they need to be immersed in local history to understand exactly what we are as a community. It is wonderful, why is it there, and, wonderful . Thesewonderful because of men who have an important aspect in developing the fundamental aspect of what makes missoula missoula. Hard to overstate Mike Mansfields importance. He advocated on behalf of montana. He said he had no higher ambition dan to be a senator than to be a senator from and for the state of montana. Mike mansfield was born in new york city in 1903. He was the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. He had two younger sisters, catherine and helen. When Mike Mansfield was seven ands old, his father died sent him, as was the irish tradition, to live with relatives in montana, which is how he and his sisters ended up. At the age of 14, he went back to new york, tried to get his father to enlist in the military. His dad said no, so mansfield lied and enlisted in the army at the age of no sorry, the navy at the age of 14. Manserved his time as a sea and as soon he was done, he enlisted as a private in the army. When he was discharged from the army, he came back to great falls, worked a couple of jobs, didnt like it a whole lot, then enlisted in the marines. He ended up serving in all three branches. At that time, there were three branches of the service. Loved the marines. The marines sent him overseas and this was the first time he was getting to see the world and enjoy the opportunity to learn about and see other places, and experience other places. He would say that he had the most respect for the marines and thought it was the test brands because they had the good sense to promote him to private first class. In fact, he is buried at Arlington National cemetery, and his gravestone, he could have had anything on it at all. He was sent majority leader, ambassador to japan, it says Mike Mansfield, private, u. S. Marines. Man, butch a modest this was also a definitive part of his life. No story of Mike Mansfield would be complete without talking about his wife. At one point in time, he said that she was like a mother and a wife, because his mother had died when he was seven years old. And shey trusted her helped him come up in the world. After he got discharged from the marines, he went to dubuque montana and worked underground in the dust, in the dirt. Took some classes toward coming a mining engineer after he saw a friend of the his who he worked underground with dye and thought, this is going to be me if i dont get out of here. It was during this time that he met maureen hayes. She was a schoolteacher. They fell in love and he guided she guided him through the rest of his life. Under her guidance and with his came to theactually university of montana, started as a special student, because he only had an eight grade education. Once he finished his credits that he needed to be really enrolled, he got a degree here in history. If you look at his transcript, you will see his grades were not ideal, which goes to show that experience is important as well as coursework. She supported him by working as a social worker by cashing in her Life Insurance so that they could afford to live. She also got a degree. He wound up getting his masters degree in history from the university of montana. She got her masters degree in english in 1934. They had gotten married in 1932. She had moved missoula to join him. A daughter andad they continued to live here in missoula. He was on the faculty of the university of montana. He taught latin american and east asian history, worked on his phd at a distance and a couple of travels to california at ucla. He ultimately did not complete that degree, but it helped to inform his way of teaching and the way that he focused on east asian history again give him credibility when he got was elected to the u. S. House and was one of the reasons why he was appointed to the House Committee on foreign affairs. In 1940, Mike Mansfield decided to run for the u. S. House of representatives are presenting the western district. At that time, we had two representatives in the house. Mike mansfield ran as a democrat. Rankin, whoeanette was elected in 1940. She cast the only vote against our entry into world war ii and ultimately decided not to run for reelection in 1942. By 1942, Mike Mansfield had decided to run again and he was elected every time after that that he ran. He goes to the house of representatives in 1942. He gets recognized for his knowledge about foreign affairs. He is the person who has the in the house on the House Foreign Affairs committee about east asia. He gets sent by president roosevelt to china, which further solidifies his reputation as somebody with knowledge about east asia. Served in the house, was reelected every two years until he decided to run for senate in 1952. Mansfield entered the freshman class of 1952 of the senate alongside prescott bush, albert gore senior, barry goldwater, henry jackson, and john f. Kennedy, to name just a few. One of the things on the table here is a photograph that is really well known of mansfield serving as umpire to a game that kennedy is catching, it is a baseball game, and jackson is batting. It is fitting that in this photo, Mike Mansfield is playing umpire, because he does go on to serve essentially as an umpire for the senate. He sort of manages it. By johnson is picked to serve as majority whip, and then in 1961, when johnson becomes Vice President , mansfield is unanimously elected to become the Senate Majority leader and he serves in that position until 1977. In november 1963, by that time, he had been the majority leader for a couple of years and there were some rumblings on the floor that maybe he was not moving legislation as fast as it should be moving or he wasnt holding senators as accountable as they should be for being present or doing the work they should be doing and people were beginning to wonder if they had elected the right majority leader. To respond tor those criticisms on the floor of the senate in a speech that he was going to give about his leadership style in which he said, he was elected, he was there by their free will, they were free to remove him if they didnt feel he was working appropriately, if they didnt feel the senate was working appropriately, but that patience was a virtue and that moving legislation took time. On the day that he was going to read this statement on the floor, john f. Kennedy was assassinated, and mansfield ended up inserting the statement into the congressional record, never did read it. He instead wrote a eulogy for jfk and delivered that at his funeral on the 24th of november of 1963. My partye of colleagues believe that mine was not the style of leadership that suited them, they would be welcome to seek a change. I had selected a friday afternoon, when little else would be going on, to discuss the senate and its leadership. Friday, november 22, 1963. Events put ingic and to any such speechmaking. After johnson came into office as the president , he was committed to passing civil rights legislation, and the house passed a bill that they then sent over to the senate. Early 1964, mansfield and his team knew this bill was coming to them, and among the documents i have on the table are back channel behind the scenes primary source documents outlining the strategy that mansfield and his team were going to take to move the legislation through. They knew it was going to take a wild. They knew that there was going to be a filibuster. They knew that they needed 67 votes to stop the debate and actually vote on the bill. It took months. Of the of debate filibuster on the floor to get this through. One of the qualities that mansfield has exhibited in those years of serving as majority whip and majority leader was this patients, this willingness to build bridges across the aisle, this willingness to give responsibilities to junior centers, which Lyndon Johnson never did. The willingness to give responsibility to committing ders instead of requiring Committee Leaders instead of requiring that he approved everything that happened when people wanted action on their to thehey were referred Committee Leadership, not he did not get in the middle of those conversations. That was one of the reasons why he was respected was also that building of bridges and making of connections, including with the southern democrats who were opposed to civil rights legislation. It is what really helped ultimately move the civil rights bill and ultimately, they stopped debate. They had enough votes to do that and the civil rights bill was passed on july 4 of 1964, signed by president johnson on the same day. So, mansfield sent that same letter to all 99 senators, and he said, dear senator, we have come to the most trying time in the senate. In retrospect, the issues were such that they might have opened schisms that have been years in closing. That did not happen and i want you to know how grateful i am for the help, understanding, and cooperation you gave me in striving to prevent it. Striving for this will mean a great deal to the nation. It meant a great deal to me personally. With thereated me utmost kindness and consideration and i am deeply appreciative. Hubert humphrey writes back to him, and most senators did write back something to him. Hubert humphrey managed that bill on the floor. He took the lead on it and humphrey wrote back to him, your letter to me following the civil rights battle is a cherished possession. You are without a doubt the most unselfish, kind and considerate man ive ever known. It is a rare privilege to be associated with you and i am internally grateful for the opportunities you have given me to make some contribution to our country. From thead this one minority leader at that time. Dear mike, i dont know what we would have done about the civil rights struggle if it had not been for your humility, your understanding, your sale self effacement and your understanding of every problem when it arose. But all was said and done, you should have had the lions share of credit, because you are the leader and youd cooperated at every step of this torturous road. You will never know how deep my appreciation is and my admiration and respect for you. He wound up keeping the senate together in a time that could have been the most disruptive, may be the history of the senate. For that, he deserves the nations thanks and got the thanks of the nation and his colleagues for that. I would say that probably when most people think of Mike Mansfield today, what they think of is his opposition to our involvement in the vietnam war. He was involved in some different issues, the Nuclear Test Ban treaty, the civil rights act, the Voting Rights act, there were many issues, but most people are thinking about. Ow he was and early supporter some people have said that maybe we were involved in vietnam two involved in vietnam because Mike Mansfield was so influential in pushing support for dm. He felt that it was anticommunist and that is what the United States was looking for, someone who was anticommunist. The leader of south vietnam. When he was assassinated in talk mansfield began to more about his opposition to our havingment in actually boots on the ground in the area. Originally, this opposition was behind the scenes. He respected the rights of the executive to make Foreign Policy , and he did not for a long time speak out publicly against our. Nvolvement in vietnam as time went on, he became more and more public with his opposition. In mansfield papers, you see , kennedy,he president johnson, outlining his opposition to strategies, to having troops on the ground, outlining opposition to funding the war. To 60s, he isid talking about his opposition publicly. Articles, ing in speeches he is giving, even in letters to nonconstituents. One of the things about Mike Mansfield is that he saw every montana and who came to washington dc, he responded in person. He signed every letter. Every time one of his constituents wrote him a letter, he responded. Mail about of vietnam, pro and con. There is a letter that he received from a man who lived in himt falls who writes to about being drafted and what he should do, and what his plans are if he does get drafted. Mansfield writes back to him, whichyou for your letter, i have just received and read with interest. It has given me a clear understanding of your situation and i welcome your frankness and sincerity. For my part, i voted against the extension of the draft, but it is nevertheless the law of the man of the land. I am working to end involvement in vietnam byent legislation. I know of no other response then urging conscience and what i believe to be the overriding sentiment of people of our state. Youettably, i can offer little in the way of tangible help. Killing in this war but are prepared for military service, it is possible that some other assignment, perhaps in the medical corps, may be open to you. There is a typed note at the bottom so you know he handwrote the letter back to him. It says i am sorry that i cannot be more encouraging. I hope you will understand my difficulty. He was writing these notes to his constituents every day. I mention that mansfield received volumes of correspondence about vietnam, both pro and con. This is an example of how the correspondence was stored. This was one letter from april of 1968, but this particular letter happens to be to him from janet rankin. Mike, it is a source of great pleasure to me that i had the privilege to see you on the day of the merciless bombing of vietnam. Thank you for receiving us on that day. I regret that you did not make take advantage of meeting my colleagues, for you would have inspired because you have spoken up for peace. They would like to thank you in person for your contribution. Let it be written that our nation found the path to peace, always remembering that there is no way to peace. Peace is the way. I mentioned earlier how many thousands of photographs are in the collection and i like this one in particular, because i think it is a great expression on Mike Mansfields face, but also because he is with george aiken. George aiken was a republican and mike hadand he breakfast together every morning. It is an example of mansfield knowingness to cross the aisle, willingness to cross the aisle, to learn from other ideas, to be open to new to put the interests of the senate above his own personal interests. In the tributes to him at his retirement and again on the in october his death 2001, they mentioned his integrity, his support of the senate as an institution of the individual members of the senate regardless of party. Those are the things that mansfield continues to be remember for today. In a way, it is in an area feeling to think about these people who were brought here, most never having any idea of why they were arrested and brought here for hearings to determine whether they might be disloyal to the country. What did these people think, away from their families, unsure of what would happen to them, interrogated by strangers, people who were going to determine their fate . Jobmuseum has done a great of telling the story about the japanese and the italians who came here. They have some of the original barracks. We are sitting in a building that was the headquarters whereng in the courtroom the hearings were held for the japanese. Place forally great people to come and learn more about the story that i think really hasnt been told, and knowe largely dont really that either italians or japanese were held here during the war. Wereof the people who arrested were living on the west coast and Fort Missoula had most recently been a civilian concentration core camp conservation corps cap. It had the infrastructure of the Justice Department to bring people here and also it had in 1940 one, almost 1000 protect merchant ships who were stranded at u. S. Ports. Britain wouldnt guarantee their safe passage home. They want the ships and the men to be enlisted against them. Ports forish in those quite a while until their government ordered the crews to start sabotaging the ships, because they were worried the United States would take them over and give them to britain. Began, thebotage United States ordered all these men off these ships, sent them to ellis island and they had to determine where to send them. Because the camp was available them on trains out to Fort Missoula starting in may. When the italians first came here, they seemed to be happy to be here. Camp had a really enlightened Camp Director who really understood that, while they were here against their will, there was no point in making life miserable for them. They did give them what they called and money to do jobs, to do bakers the bakers and gardeners and work in the laundry, so they were given money that they could use to buy a small things, then the government provided them with the essentials. They were allowed a lot of leisure time. They put on plays and musical performances, to which civilians were invited. Particularly in those first six months, they thought that it was not a bad life at all, because most of them were not that interested in going back to italy and being enlisted in the military and having to fight in the war. Early 1980sin the a newspaper story that said for the first time, the United States government formally acknowledged that they had conducted surveillance on the japanese living in the United States well before our entry into the war. The government had created what they called abc lists, a being the most dangerous, and those were the people that were rounded up initially starting on december 7, because they had already done all the surveillance and talked to people in the community about whether they thought that these people were suspicious, so when i heard about that, i thought, that is interesting and someone said i heard that there were japanese held out at Fort Missoula. I couldnt find anything that had been written about them. Found no references in books, so i ended up going to the National Archives and reading through all the files there, and that is when i first got interested in what i thought was really an untold story, because we had heard a lot about the ura camps, or relatively speaking, because i am sure plenty of people dont know much about them, but we hadnt heard much about the Justice Department camps and they held the very first japanese that were detained. Iat piques my interest, and started to write about that then. There was a lot of agitation to remove all of the japanese from the west coast. Rooseveltf 1942, issued an executive order, which created what was called the western defense command, which was essentially the western parts of washington, oregon, and california. Had to be relocated from their and in concert with the warey created relocation authority, and that established 10 camps and that was run by that agency, the w ra, those camps were different from this Justice Department camp, which held only japanese nationals. Ande were no women here, there were no american citizens here. The average age of the japanese who were interned here in 1942 was 61 years old. It really was the community elders, the most influential people, because the government worried that they would be the leaders of any fourth column activity. One who is most wellknown was a man from hood river, oregon. Store and mercantile apple orchards. He really owned quite a bit of property. Sons wellknown because his was one of the people who challenge the constitutionality of the degrees that japanese couldnt travel more than a certain distance. They had curfews. Their civil rights were really in question. Those were the cases that went the United States supreme court, but the sun came here, he was an attorney, and before he was detained, he came here to try to help his father during the loyalty hearings. They wouldnt allow him to be counsel for his father, but he was able to sit in, so we have some record of the kinds of questions that were asked of him and the evidence that they had against him. He wrote about how they brought out crude drawings that they said were drawings of the panama canal, and asked him what these were, and he said, they were drawings that my children did for school. They were trying to claim that this was part of the sabotage that he had planned the blowup the panama canal. Reallyt of cases, they it been living a life, but the japanese tended to live if they had done anything that made them a prominent figure in the community, that seemed to cast suspicion on them, as to whether they were still loyal to japan. Because they couldnt become american citizens, the question was, where weather loyalty lie . Well, where weather loyalty lie the question was, where would where would their loyalty lie . Well, where would their loyalty lie . They could not become american citizens, so that in itself seemed to cast suspicion on them. When i would give talks on this, i would say i think america learned a lesson in terms of casting suspicion on people because of where they came from, what they look like, what their cultural and religious practices were. Now i am not so sure that we learned that lesson. I think the museum does a good job of reminding people what happened to those people. What went on here and how does that factor into how we as a people behave today towards people who are not like us. Youou look around missoula, will see people who are very much looking like one another. Population,ndian from native americans who lived on this land before white people ever came here, but we also have a large majority caucasian population here and i think it is important for us to remember what went on here and who are we and how do we treat people who are not in the majority. I think the museum does a good job about that, reminding people of our history here and how that impacts us today and how we should look upon people who dont come from the majority. During the mid19th century, america was using a prodigious amount of wood. In the east, the lake states in the northeast, most of the forest was harvested. Harvesting was moving to the south. Some people were starting to get that we would not have any trees or wood left for the future. That is called the conservation movement. Law891, Congress Passed a to authorize the establishment of forest reserves, allowing the president to withdraw Public Domain lands. Passed, there was a law that allowed the selling of and that wasazing, the first legal way that people could acquire those type of resources on National Forest land. The department of the interior was managing the forest reserves. The first rangers were hired. The First American educated forrester became good friends with Theodore Roosevelt before he became president , and after Theodore Roosevelt became president , he and roosevelt advocate theer to moving of the Forest Service to the department of agriculture and establish the u. S. Forest service. Years, theover 100 lands of the forest reserves became National Forests in 1907, and they have been managed for the American Public on a multiple use concept since then. Words, looking at providing opportunities and support of the public today, but also looking in the long term so that those resources are available in the future. 153 nationalare forests located in 42 states and puerto rico. No museum in the United States collecting objects that was connected with the history of the Forest Service, so it was important for the group of volunteers that formed this organization it had good volunteers in the local area. Missoula was an ideal location. It had a lot of early history with the Forest Service. Where we are situated today at themuseum site, we are in bungalow rangers residence. This is a cabin that was relocated from idaho. It was constructed in the 1920s. The Ranger District was shut down. It was a surplus, so they took it apart piece by piece and brought it over here in 2000. Eventually, this is going to be on thebit of rangers ranger station in the 1950s. I have selected a number of storylines that i thought show examples of what we have in the collection. The first storyline i would like to talk about is the ranger. The ranger is sort of a mythological character in movies and fiction and novels, a solid individual with his own horse who is writing the range and keeping people that are violating game laws at bay. That is all true. That all happened. Inn the Forest Service began 1905, they started with an examination. You had to demonstrate your proficiency doing things in the field. We prepared this questionnaire for a reunion in 1925. I took some questions. One of the questions in the 1925 poundas, there is an 1100 saddle horse doing average work requires blank pounds of oats per day. The answer was 6. 5 pounds. They had to know that. Test, rangers passed that they had to provide a horse, the saddle, a rifle, and a pack horse on their own. They didnt get reimbursed for that. Usually, the first ones were assigned a station that there was no cabin or anything. They went out and built their own place in the woods. Time that these rangers were out there, they had to complete a diary. I have an example of a 1906 diary. Supposed toas everyday record what they did and then at the end of the month, turn it in so they could be checked to make sure they werent that they were always working. Service wanted to have a set of rules and regulations that the rangers had to follow and that was put in the book that all the rangers carried in their saddle. 1996 1906 book that outlined the policy, the rules, and regulations of National Forest lands. This was 1906. Ureaucracy kicked in 1928, this was the Forest Service manual. It is fairly small print, so they got a lot of information out of this book. Fastforward to the 1990s and digital, has gone to before it went to digital, there was a whole bookshelf of handbooks and manuals of policies managing the National Forests and research and other organizations. I would like to talk about the role of research and the National Forest service. We have a large number of scientists spread across 80 different offices. Scientists are looking at all different types of aspects related to National Resource management, including awareness, recreation, watershed, soil, timber management, but one of the big research activities, especially here in missoula, because we have the Fire Science Laboratory just down the road from our museum site, they are spreads,t fire, how it how to rate fire danger so you can prepare and have the right Resources Available if a fire were to break out, which is important. Fire started back in the 1930s. Andoula was a base for that other places in the United States, too. They developed fire weather stations and the first effort was trying to develop some type of tool that local people could use to predict fire danger. They developed a lot physical, almost like circular slide rules that were adapted to a specific region. This one is developed for the southeastern United States, by the asheville station. Factorscally had print on the weather, the dryness of the fuel, things like that. You rotated these different wheels and you would come up with a prediction on fire danger. One of the key elements in that was a need to measure and fuel, that means what burns out there on the land, what is their relative humidity. How dry are they. Of course, it starts out materials have high humidity in the spring, but dry out as the summer progresses. Tools that they researched, figuring out what is the fuel moisture of small fuels is using these fuel sticks. These are used even today. Station, at the ranger they would be weighed, and that would be part of the report that the ranger station would send in to the central. They would record the weight of these and that would be one factor of predicting the fire danger. These fuel sticks would be weighed on this type of fuel scale. Side andd hang on this it would indicate the weight on it. This is called in Appalachian Fuel moisture scale, developed down in the southeast. The civilian conservation corps had a huge impact on National Forests, state forest, National Parks all across the country. Depression era program for young men. It was part of the legislation of the 100 day start of the Franklin Roosevelt administration. A law was passed in 1933 that authorized the department of labor and the resource agencies. Ike the Forest Service the department of labor would recruit young men and the Forest Service would put people to work on the National Forest. Was taskedsically for building camps, managing camps, Army Officers would staff each camp. Said,rest service, as i would provide the work. There was probably well over 2. 5 Million People and about 4000 camps across the United States from the east coast to the west coast to alaska, where usually about 200 men worked in a camp and they would have jobs, whether it was for coral soil conservation, stopping erosion on the planes, they were called the tree army by some people, because they planted 4 Million Trees over the course of 10 years. In 1933 when it was authorized, until it was shut down in 1942 because of world war ii, there were almost 3 million men working across the country. Treeplanting was an important part. This is a bag that they would itry with tree seedlings in as they were out in the forest with their planting tool. The trees would be carried in this. Ccc logo and the Forest Service shield on it. It, whenig aspect to we were talking about fire, we mentioned that they were usually important in fire control. Uniform andsued a this is the garrison cap. Emblem on it, and i believe it is and army issue type cap. Of ccr important aspect was vocation training. They would have many different kinds of location training. , learning toample be a draftsman. They would have some type of skill when they left cc. , radioas also carpentry communications and many other types of subjects. Cce people have credited the with helping prepare the United States for world war ii, because a lot of these and release, when they came in, because the country was in such bad shape, they had poor nutrition, didnt weigh as much as they should, so they put weight on, put muscle on. To regimentedused lifestyle in camps. Big project, hugely important during the time, but also the impact of the project, whether it is recreation development, some of that is still seen in the forest and parks of the United States today, and i think it is a good pattern to be able to understand how the Forest Service was involved in supporting the national priorities. [indiscernible] smoke jumping started in 1939 in washington. The reason smoke jumping came about, they were getting fires in the middle of nowhere and 3, 4had to hike guys 2, days into the fire and the fire would be up to a thousand acres. They had to fight them when they were small. The goal of a smoke jumper is to parachute into wildfires where it is and accessible to other resources. Speed, payload, range, that is the mantra. They did tests in washington and those proved successful, than the first fire jump was in 1940 out of missoula. That went well and it continued from there. There are nine smoke jumper bases in the western u. S. As far north as alaska, as far south as the southern base is northern california, but we do we have one in silver city, new mexico, not far from the border. Bases fluctuate between 70 and 80. Haveof the smaller bases 2530 jumpers. It just depends on the demand. Seven of the bases are department of agriculture and two of the bases are department of accra of the interior. Agriculturetant to in the department of agriculture. Room. S the ready roughly 75 lockers in here. When the siren goes off, you come in here, get your jumpsuit on, harness and parachutes, then you get your check, make sure your gear is in order and you are on the plane within 10 minutes. This is a very busy place when that bell goes off. Every morning, you know if you are on the load, so they identify that 10 folks are on first load, then you know when the siren goes off it is you that has to get suited up. Everyone is notified. We are flying over 20 minutes later. During fire season, how many calls will you get . July and august are our busiest months. You get 25 jumps in a busy season. Year, so was a slower i would say 10 last year in july and another 10 in august. How long does it take someone to get ready once the siren sounds . 10 minutes, suited up. Your jump jacket, your suspenders on, put on your parachute harness, strap that yourself, put your reserve on, then we get a check from another jumper to make sure we put everything on correctly. We do another check on the airplane en route to the fire. Very redundant for good reason. This is important in equipment we are wearing, so we want to make sure it is good and right. Have a great safety record. This is operations. You can see on the left those two columns with yellow, those are all the jumpers that are here on base. Over here on the right, you have a few names. Those are folks on the road air and in arizona, new mexico, that is about the only busy place right now. Right now, typically, this time ,f year, arizona and new mexico which is region three, that is traditionally where it is busy june and folks will be there until the monsoons come in early july, then they will trickle back up north here and normally our fire season, we get going early july, made july, and then into september. What is the longest you can be away from home . 21 days. After 21, you are given the option to go back and get days off and most guys do. 21 days on the fire line is quite some time. He ambushed these guys checking suits. Are these parachutes jumped, we hang them, get the debris off them, check the whole parachute for any damage. If it is deemed ok, we go next door to see if damage is found, a ghost of the loft and documented and they repair it. How long does it take to check one suit . I would say 510 minutes. This time of year, there are this isa lot of ticks the parachute loft. Inspected,hutes are this is where they come to be packed. It takes an average jumper 45 minutes to be packed. You have to be certified to pack a parachute. Amount ofo pack x main parachute, reserves, then take a written and practical tests. Most jumpers become riggers by the third or fourth year. Once the parachutes are packed, they go on a shelf over there. Grab them off the shelf, hook them onto the harness and go jump. Jump round and square canopy is. It is primarily square. We just transitioned to square canopy these last 78 years. Here in missoula, it is 90 square. What is the difference . A square canopy is dropped from 3000 feet, round is 1500. Squares have more forward speed with the aerodynamics of the parachute. Squares are better at penetrating the wind. If you are jumping into a high wind penetration situation, square can fight through that. Round speed, you would be blown back. You would not have much control. Folks dont know about our program, but the folks who go to the tour recognize the value of Smoke Jumpers. We are jumping these fires in the wilderness, farflung reaches of the western u. S. , keeping those things from becoming massive wildfires. Saving the taxpayers money, saving homes, natural resources. There are so many Different Reasons to get on this fires quick before they get big and spread. Itetimes we jump these fires is a lost cause. We catch a lot of little fires before they become big and that helps the Program Every year. They dont build airplanes like this anymore in this is a piece of history. I like to think about the lives that have been influenced and the careers this airplane might have changed. Years, thest 18 airplane has been the centerpiece of our museum. It has been a static centerpiece. One of my first goals for the museum was to figure out how we can bring some new life into the museum, how we can get some of these antique historic airplanes back into the air where they belong. Anniversaryhe 75th what adday invasion and unique opportunity to join in the major part of history these airplanes were built for and to partake in the 75th anniversary of the dday invasion. Museum is dedicated to the Pioneering Spirit of bob johnson, who helped develop the aerial firefighting and smoke jumper programs here. I knew, to start a project like historichave had this c 47 here in the museum for 18 years, and it has become kind of a gathering for the retired Smoke Jumpers and aerial firefighters. Eventable to pull off an that would take us around the world and back, we needed more Community Support. We formed what is known as the miss montana to Normandy Campaign and the name, the miss montana, comes from a world war ii plane that was flown by my grandfather. He flew 286 combat hours. A small town boy, 19yearold from montana, survived the war and lost two thirds of his squadron. Came back to start a cattle ranch in montana. We had this amazing name that totally fit what we were doing. We are interested in honoring the world war ii history, so we are going to go make some new history with it. We spruced up the nose art in the lavette and weak the nose art a little bit and we are happy to share that history with the rest of the world. This airplane, to get it airborne after 18 years, luckily we were able to keep it in a hangar, so corrosion issues were not a problem or weathered flight controls. We knew when we decided to take this project on that we were going to have to set our sights out over half 1 million to do the restoration we wanted to do to bring the airplane up to modern standards with the avionics and most importantly the engines to be able to safely take the airplane and its crew across the Atlantic Ocean twice. The maintenance that is required with these old airplanes, the oil and spark plugs. There is no end to what is required to make a journey like this and bring it home safely. It almost to me hasnt settled in that this is still a remarkable dream, with the Community Support and the volunteers that have turned out to make this happen. Flyingit is going to be in another 75 so my great grand that it and experience part of history that is disappearing every day. Last bigrobably the event where anyone who was alive to storm the beaches of normandy or jumped out of one of these will be able to partake in the celebration. We are honored to be able to show our respect to those guys while they are still here with us. Our visit to missoula, montana is in American History tv exclusive and we showed it today to introduce you to cspans cities tour. To u. S. Cities, bringing the literary scene and Historic Sites toward viewers. Watch more of our visits at cspan. Org. Next, a Senate Hearing on how to enhance school safety. Newsmakers with gary graves. After that, the communicators with bob latta of ohio. To parents who lost their children in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in parkland, florida testified at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on how to make schools safer. This is just under two hours. Good morning, i want to call this hearing order. The title of this hearing is examining state and federal regulations for an against