1910 Big Burn Firefighters Memorial
Shoshone County, Shoshone County, Idaho
Marker Inscription
In memory of Unidentified Man, August Berger, Joe Ferre, Harry Hansen, William Learmouth, Richard Woods. They died as truly in the service of their country as did those on Flanders' poppy-covered fields. Eu Pulaski, 1923
Erected by Idaho Panhandle National Forests
The Story
Placed by Ed Pulaski in 1923, this memorial names men — among them August Berger, Joe Ferre, Harry Hansen, William Learmouth, and Richard Woods, along with an unidentified man — who died fighting fire in service of their country, likened here to the fallen of Flanders. Pulaski was the ranger famed for saving most of his crew in a mine tunnel during the Great Fire of 1910, the "Big Burn" that consumed some three million acres across Idaho and Montana.
Why it matters
This memorial ties individual sacrifice to the 1910 Big Burn, the catastrophe that galvanized the U.S. Forest Service and permanently shaped American wildfire policy.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the summer of 1910, the mountains of Idaho and Montana were tinder-dry, and small fires had been smoldering across the region for weeks. Then, in August, hurricane-force winds swept through and blew those scattered fires into a single monstrous conflagration — the event remembered as the "Big Burn." In a matter of days it consumed some three million acres.
This was the Progressive Era, and the U.S. Forest Service was only a few years old, still fighting to prove that the nation's forests could and should be protected. The men who battled the Big Burn were often hastily assembled crews — rangers, hired laborers, immigrants seeking work — thrown against a disaster far beyond anything they had trained for.
Shoshone County, where this memorial stands, was at the very heart of the inferno. The land here still remembers 1910, and so do the graves and markers left behind.
People & events
This memorial was placed in 1923 by Ed Pulaski, one of the most storied figures of the 1910 fire. Pulaski was a Forest Service ranger who, as the flames closed in, led his crew into an old mine tunnel and — at gunpoint, by some accounts — kept them inside as the fire roared over. Most of his men survived because of it. His name lives on in the "Pulaski," the combination axe-and-hoe firefighting tool still used today.
But this marker turns the spotlight away from the famous survivor and onto the dead. It names August Berger, Joe Ferre, Harry Hansen, William Learmouth, and Richard Woods — and, poignantly, an unidentified man whose name was lost. These were the firefighters who did not walk out of the mountains.
Pulaski's chosen words compare them to the fallen of Flanders — the soldiers buried beneath the poppies of the First World War's battlefields. In doing so, he insisted that these men, dying against fire in the forests of Idaho, had given their lives in their country's service just as surely as any soldier.
Its place in the American story
The Great Fire of 1910 is one of the pivotal events in the history of American conservation. Its sheer scale horrified the nation and settled a long-running argument: the young Forest Service emerged committed to aggressively fighting wildfire, a stance that would shape federal land policy for most of the coming century.
That this memorial was raised by Pulaski himself gives it rare authenticity. This is not a distant official's tribute but the act of a man who was there, who survived, and who spent years afterward insisting that his fallen comrades be remembered by name.
By naming ordinary firefighters and likening them to war dead, the marker elevates a kind of sacrifice that history often overlooks. It ties one small spot in Idaho to a turning point in how America chose to manage — and mourn the cost of protecting — its wild lands.
If you visit
You'll find this memorial in the rugged country of Shoshone County, in the same mountains that burned in 1910. Reading the names carved here — including the unidentified man — is a quietly powerful experience; each one represents a life given in a single catastrophic week over a century ago.
Look closely at the inscription and its comparison to "Flanders' poppy-covered fields." Those words were written by Ed Pulaski, and knowing that the memorial's author was himself a hero and survivor of the fire gives every line added weight.
This is high, forested backcountry, so plan your trip accordingly and treat the site with the reverence of a graveside. The Big Burn left its mark all across this region; a visit here pairs naturally with time spent driving the surrounding national forest, where the story of 1910 is written into the very shape of the land.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Edward Pulaski
- · August Berger
- · Joe Ferre
- · Harry Hansen
- · William Learmouth
- · Richard Woods
Related events
- · Great Fire of 1910 (the Big Burn)
Themes & tags
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