Popular American History writers and airs every weekend at this time. To if he recounts the forest fire that spread across timothy returns the forest fire that spread across oregon and washington. He discusses Public Opinion on National Parks at the time. Timothy thank you so much. Its terrific to be here in montana, because ive been on a book tour. Ive been in 25 cities or so and now here i am, basically home where the fire started. The source of the story, and the source of so much joy for me growing up in spokane and fishing here in rock creek and hiking here in the National Forest basically learning to love this land as a little kid. So thank you for coming out on this gorgeous, wonderful, crisp montana night. The rest of the country can only look on us in and. In envy. Also, i wanted to open with a wonderful quote from one of my literary heroes, norman maclean, famous montanan author didnt have his first book published until he was 72 years old, but it took a long time for that masterpiece to surface. And it was a river runs through it. Maclean says in the book that he and his brother, they were ministers kids, their father was a minister. That grew up in montana. They were raised thinking the world was full of love, but as maclean said, my brother and i soon discovered that the world outside was full of bastards. The number increasing rapidly the farther one gets from missoula, montana. [laughter] timothy and i just that just nails it for me. That tells the story about missoula. Also, i should say this. After the book he was a huge success and publishers were tripping over themselves to print his next book, which was a book about fire. And took him 14 years to finish fire. He actually died before he could finish it. But alfred a. Knopf said we will do anything, we are at your mercy. And he wrote, he said, you do not know my type. Im scott irish and we have long memories. He said, if i were the last offer left on earth and you were the last publisher, that, sir, would be in the books as we knew it. Which i love as well. [laughter] timothy directly he got his kicks in, maclean, a to montanan. I was drawn to the story about writing about the dustbowl because, as was said in the introduction, i love these clashes between human beings and nature. You couldnt have anything really more elemental than human beings against fire. Is as old as humanity itself, as old as anything. And to tell you the truth i was really going to write initially just a fire story. And to tell you the truth, more i was just going to write kind of a cool fire story. Because i was attracted to the perfect storm quality of this fire story. We have never had a fire like this in our history. 3 million acres in a day and a half. The state of connecticut burns in 36 hours. Now by comparison, a few months ago you had these fires raging in east of l. A. , angelos National Forest. Big fires, burned for two weeks. At their peak those fires are 100,000 acres and blanketed most of the l. A. Basin. So these are 3 million acres. 2000degree temperatures, the estimated. Crown fire going from tree to tree at its peak. A fire moving faster, this is what the men said at the time, faster than a horse to go at full gallop. And we had never tried to fight a wildfire before either. Never tried to fight it on this give. This was the first time in our history, 100 years ago next year, that we assembled an army of men. And almost all men except for a woman cook, who i follow here in the story, a homesteader who outlived all men and became the last survivor of the fire. An army of men, poor irish and poor irish and poor italian. It was the peak of italian immigration. They just open the gates for the southern mediterranean and they were treated fairly. They call them beaten men, the races. And poor irish. Many of whom grew up in butte, who were the famine irish , the defendants over those who survived that the descendents of those who the descendents over those who survived the famine. Nearly 2 Million People died in the famine of iron. Theyre getting paid 25 cents an hour to come here and try to fight this wildfire. Those of you who live in montana know we get dry summers, and sometimes they can go months without the rain and youll get these lightning strikes a come down, these dry lightning storms. Theres no precipitation. That i was trying to explain this reading any of the washington, washington, d. C. When they get thunderstorms they get torrential rains. So thats what happened. If you had these come down. August of 1910, almost 3000 of these little fires burning in the newly created National Forest of the Northern Rock use. Northern rockies. Just a few miles up the hill here, of the mountains. And so their concern. This is the age when towns were being burned to the ground. Denver, seattle, chicago, San Francisco. They were greatly concerned about fire. The trees they have changed they had chased every other element. Grizzly bears were largely gone. Wolves were a limited. Bison were almost done. The indians were pushed to the edge. The only thing they still feared was fire. So with this thing happen, they assembled an army to try to prevent it from getting catastrophic, from destroying mozilla. And then it blew up. And i hope theres some people in the audience here tonight who fought fires before. Ive only been as an embed and i was on the yellowstone fire in 1988. There are few things that scared me so much as being in Yellowstone Park would not fire blew up. Its like the sound of 10 jet liners roaring at once. I was just chilled to the bone when a fire starts to spot and shoot up in crown to crown thats what happened here. You have 70 miles an hour wind which are officially classified as Hurricane Force winds. Matt, i know what is 70 mile an hour wind is because like i was in a documentary for the History Channel on the dustbowl and some knucklehead got the idea, lets recreate 70mile i went and put him in them. So they brought this flatbed truck out input to giant fans and fire them. Poured a whole bunch of dust in there and had me be blowback. Because it was a Union Production there was a doctor on site. [laughter] timothy i was totally thrown back. I was a tumbleweed. In the 70 mile an hour wind. I could not stand. Thats what caused this fire, to blow up, 70mile an hour winds. So was a total failure in terms of human beings being able to beat the fire. And as i looked at this thing you know, i thought thats a great story in and of itself but what was it like to be a ranger fighters into the history of the formal study of united for service. What was a like to be an immigrant from italy . I traced it back to a Little Village in the north of italy these two boys basically gave it up for Teddy Roosevelt dream to be here in the strange American West so far from italy and suddenly fighting a fire. What was it like to be a black soldier . There were these africanamerican Buffalo Soldiers who were sent to idaho, to wallace, idaho, thereby almost doubling the population of blacks in the state of idaho by their arrival. Treated terribly. The headline was dusky doughboys arrive in town. And then they would have stories about their singing and a gambling at night. And it turned out they saved to the two towns. Two towns. These men were a rogue at will. You rose as well. Euros as well. Heroes as well. I was going to write about the quality and drama of the wildfire when you didnt know how to fight one. But like so Many Americans before me, i absolutely fell head over heels for this man whose chiseled on Mount Rushmore, Teddy Roosevelt. And i also feel any strange way for a man who is not chiseled on Mount Rushmore but is almost forgotten to us, the founder of the Forest Service. Let me to you about each of these men because they figure so much of this fire, and this fire changes our history. Its so interesting to think here in missoula, on the richer, two nights of pure hell changed everything in terms of saving our public land also the nature of firefighting in itself. But let me just back up. Teddy roosevelt is a song of wealth and privilege. That son of wealth and privilege. Hes the only native of new york city ever to be president. Is our youngest president by the way. Kennedy was a little younger but he was elected. As you remember, Teddy Roosevelt got the presidency when mckinley was assassinated. He grows up a son of privilege in new york city. He is fascinated by bugs insects, the outdoors, but he is told as a very young man he probably will not live until the 21st birthday. Use a sickly child. He is asthmatic. He is nearsighted. And he wears spectacles. The kids make fun of him. It is scrawny. Is groaning. You is scrawny. He is scrawny. Is almost anorexic. He is told that he does want to live to his 21st birthday he probably shouldnt go outdoors. And roosevelt willss wages for. Whose way to strength. He says in his biography autobiography, i will will myself stronger. He builds his body. He overcomes his sister he was afraid of the dark that he was afraid of trees that he was afraid of forces. This most robust mail of our president he was this shallow very scared child. He wills himself to strength. He goes to harvard. He falls in love with this beautiful woman, and he leaves harvard and he starts with a little crabby very young age. He joins Republican Party and then he said was the least corrupt of the two corrupt parties as he said in new york the legislature was not 100 crop but perhaps 90 corrupt. Soviet family will so he could afford virtue. Didnt have to be corrupt. He is elected he assumed at age 20. At age 25 hes the leader of the Republican Party. He is the republican minority leader. Then tragedy strikes. On valentines day, 1884, his wife gives birth on west 57th street in new york where they are living. And she dies on childbirth. She dies upon giving birth to the first child, alice, that day, valentines day, 1884. Roosevelt goes upstairs where his mother is living. She dies on the same day. So this was our most prolific writer as a president. I am impressed with Barack Obamas two books. Teddy roosevelt wrote 15 books before his 40th birthday. He wrote 10,000 letters while he was president. He was a prolific diarist. But what did he put on valentines day 1884 . This thing just chilled when i saw it in the National Archives. He writes a big, shakey x. On february 14. That is that beneath that is that is a single line. He says, the light has gone out of my life. So he gets his newborn baby to his sister to race or. He resigns his position in the legislature. And he says goodbye to wealth and new york and he moves out west. He moves to the dakota territory and he becomes a new man. A different man. A transformed man. He sets up shop, i was hope it was a stage of your, but in a little cabin which i saw about 400 square feet. And he hangs his bare skin rugs up next to the fireplace and he brings all his books in by train. He puts a rocking chair next to the fire, and he becomes a cowboy. He becomes a man who lives and tries to get rid of his grief from the west. He spends the next two years as not a dude rancher. He worked 16 hours a day. Some guy in the more cold him for hours some guy in the bar calles himm four eyes and roosevelt decks him, puts him at. Some other guy stole horses. He spent three days chasing the guy and by the coffee that he was a tough as will be as they say. But it is also a lover of literature and a lover of nature. And two things happened. He is restored. Agreed that happens to him from losing his wife and his mother is somewhat mitigated by the outdoors. It makes him a little whole again. But he sees something. He sees the west which hes, all his life he has this image of buffalo everywhere and these wild animals. Is almost gone. He sees the american have eaten barely 100 years into us being a nation is all but destroyed. Birds, even the birds which he thought there would be millions and millions of birds because thats what lewis and clark had discovered when they come up not far from where roosevelt set up a shop in that cabin. So he goes back to new york city after two years, and he is this transformed man. The west has saved him. He said i owe more than any man could ever owe to the west. The west made him whole again. So lets fastforward to 1900. Mckinley as president. Roosevelt is vice president. They thought they would get rid of them by putting him on the ticket because he was a governor and a reformist governor and the corrupt people in albany did not like having roosevelt. He was placed on the vice presidency. Mckinley is assassinated. He is not dead yet. Roosevelt is hiking. The secret service goes and get him. They think mckinley is going to die but after a day they think he make go through. Roosevelt goes back up into the adirondacks. About seven days later the secret service gets him again. The president is dead. It takes roosevelt another 36 hours to get to buffalo where he is sworn in as our youngest president. Now, he says later in his autobiography, doesnt say it at the time, remember, he is leader of the Republican Party, i wanted to transform the Republican Party as he says, into a fairly radical progressive party. Thats the exact quote. Fairly radical progressive party. He doesnt tell the country that but he says in his diary. And to do that he needs different potential. Who also is a son of wealth and privilege. His father was a clearcutter. One of his three homes were he grew up having 27 brits turre ts and about a halfdozen fireplaces. He grows up in his castle. Im sorry yes. And im glad we have here tonight. [laughter] timothy pinchot things like roosevelt. They think the american colossus is tearing apart what we have. They think that we are moving, at some point we will have a timber famine that will run out of trees. That were tearing it all apart. Thats whats left over from the Louisiana Purchase, this big open Public Domain is just systematically being ripped apart. So pinchot and he then over the course of the next seven years set aside an area almost, not quite, but almost the size of france. Its National Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife refuges that they do most of it by executive order. The congress stops them eventually near the end. Just before they stop them roosevelt and pinchot set aside another 16 million acres. They have these rangers bring in the maps. Roosevelt describes if you put in the upper Flathead Valley . I remember being up there once and seeing this magnificent herd of elk. Lets include. They are drawing the boundaries all over the west and creating these are why these original forest rangers were called arrangers, they were in on creation. They are drawing the boundaries that they were out of jail and given these huge magnificent forest for them to take over. So they create these National Forests. But there is pushback that there is tons of pushback. Women become this is the end of the gilded age. You have never in our history have had a bigger gap between rich and poor until just a few years ago during the wall street peak. But you have rockefellers, guggenheims, j. P. Morgan, who hated roosevelt. Morgan said, when roosevelt left office in 1909, went off to africa for your, they asked morgan what he thought, he said i trust some lion will do his duty. [laughter] timothy thats how they felt about him. And j. J. Hill who built the railroads here. They are sort of knowing at this Public Domain. They dont like these National Forest designations. They are used to getting land for free. So they fight roosevelt. Theres one more check i should mention before i move on your. You had a United States senator here once named william clark. And he wanted to be the richest man in the world. He was utterly corrupt and fairly honest about his corruption. He made his money in being one of the copper veterans of butte, montana copper barons of butte, montana at a time when we get copper because the telephone was just taking off in copper wires and all that. And he bought his senate seat. At the time senators were not elected by the people, they were elected by the legislature. Now that means that occasionally some corruption as we saw when the man in illinois, who has not been convicted of anything yet but has been accused of using some shenanigans from the selection there. Well, thats what happened here. And clark bought his senate seat with 10,000 of the. That was the going price. He did and his monogrammed envelopes were his initials were stamped on the outside and stuff ed with hundred dollar bills. He didnt deny. He said later i never bought a man who was not for sale. So clark buys his senate seat and promptly leaves montana. He goes to new york city and he wants to be one of these gilded age titans. He build a 106 room house in manhattan. A few blocks from where these other guys were living, these guggenheims and other powers. Whom and just to give you a sense of what this guy was like. Mark twain who was then still kicking around, said this about your former senator, clark of montana. He is the most disgusting creature that the republic has yet produced. [laughter] timothy and i should say, they knew how to hurl an insult back in those days. So clark spends his one term and the United States senate most ly living in his 106 room house in manhattan, and he has one great passion in the senate. Do you know what it is . Stop the National Forests. So he is one of roosevelts villains. These are the people he is fightin