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John Kirk Townsend: Collector of Audubon's Western Birds and Mammals by Barbara Mearns, Richard Mearns

2008; Oregon Historical Society; Volume: 109; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ohq.2008.0072

2329-3780

Paul Lawrence Färber,

Fire effects on ecosystems

River, northeast of Helena, Montana, to attack a routineblaze.Within a fewhours, thefirehad "spotted"below thecrew and quickly expanded into a roiling conflagration that overran the men, claiming the livesof twelve smokejump ers and one Forest Service fire guard. In the nearly sixtyyears thathave elapsed since that fateful day, numerous attempts have been made to unravel themystery of the tragedy, including technical monographs on fire behavior, personal narratives by those who had some connection to either thedeceased or the firefightingorganization at the time, and philosophical reflectionson thenature of the tragedy itself. Probably thebest known attempt tomake sense of the loss of lifeon theMann Gulch fire isNorman Maclean's classic, YoungMen and Fire (University of Chicago Press, 1992). To make direct comparisons between Young Men and Fire and A Great Day toFight Fire would be tomiss the point ofMatthews's book. Maclean's project was one of translat ing ostensive "catastrophe" ? "terror without consolation of explanation," asMaclean puts it ? into "tragedy," with a "filled-in story" (p. 37-38) As such,Maclean grapples with the meaning of thedeaths of young smokejump erswho chose career paths thatmight have been his own, but was not; who might have gone on to jump other fires,but as a resultof the convergence of fuel, weather, topography, and falliblehuman decisions, ended inwaves of flameunder a hotMontana sun. In contrast,Matthews, himself a former firefighter, haswritten a book that issimultane ouslymore detached andmore personal than Maclean's elegy. Matthews is absent from the narrative but,with the skillof a journalist and storyteller(and drawing on interviews,letters, and other primary sourcematerial), heweaves togetherthe livesof thosewho directlyengaged the Mann Gulch fire and thosewho were for ever transfiguredby the tragedy?like Ranger Bob Jansson,who assisted with the recovery effortof the injured and dead, or JulieReba, whose husband of only a fewmonths died in the gulch.According toMatthews, his goal in writing thebook was "to reconstruct theevents that ledup to and occurred in Mann Gulch as well as bring to lifethememory of thosewho died thatday" (p.xiii). He describes thebook as a "nonfiction novel," intended "as a memo rial to theyoung firefighters, hoping it will free theirpersonalities from the emotionless con fines of historical statisticsand distant events" (p. xiii). In this,he succeeds. This isa book that should be readwith one finger in the notes, because it is in the notes thatMatthews identifies the points where he takes literarylicense to chink thegaps inwhat otherwisemight be a disjointed, third-person narrative. For some, this reconstruction will remain unsatisfying insofaras itcontains ele ments of conjecture. Nevertheless, Matthews adds much-needed flesh to the individuals? World War II veterans, forestrystudents, and adventurers ? whose stories largelyremained obscure and untold. It isa respectful,poignant tribute to the individuals whose lives inter sected the Mann Gulch tragedyand the legion firefighters who continue to engage thefiresof summer to thisday. David Strohmaier Missoula, Montana JOHN KIRK TOWNSEND:COLLECTOR OF AUDUBON'SWESTERN BIRDSAND MAMMALS by Barbara Mearns and Richard Mearns Barbara and Richard Mearns, Scotland, 2007. Illustrations, maps, tables, bibliography, index. 400 pages. $110.00 cloth. JohnKirk Townsend was aminor nineteenth centuryornithologist,best known forhis diary, Narrative ofa Journeyacross theRocky Moun tains, to theColumbia River, and a Visit to the Sandwich Islands, Chili, &c, with a Scientific Reviews 499 Appendix (1939),which recounts his trip on Nathaniel Wyeth's expedition, the twoyearshe spent inOregon, and his return toHawaii and Chile. Among historians of the lifesciences,he isalso famous as a collector ofbirds andmam mals, many ofwhich were used by JohnJames Audubon inhis Birds ofAmerica. Townsend's Narrative has been reprinted a number of times,notably inReuben Gold Thwaitess Early WesternTravels (volume 21) and,more recently, by theOregon StateUniversity Press. Barbara and Richard Mearns have taken Townsend's Narrative and expanded itwith short chapters on his lifeand appendices on his collections.They have also extensivelyillus tratedthe travelaccount. This book isclearlya labor of love. The Mearnses are naturalists who have physically retracedTownsend's route and have takenphotographs ofwildlife and habitat along theway. They have done considerable archival research,including in thebook images ofmanuscript letters,illustrations fromAudu bon's works, photos of museum specimens, tables, maps, and portraits.Their edition of the Narrative contains additions from otherwrit ers, mostly Audubon, as well...