Mountains Of Memory: A Fire Lookout'S Life

Copyright

University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2001 by the University of Iowa Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Design by Richard Hendel http://www.uiowa.edu/⬃uipress No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. “August on Sourdough” by Gary Snyder, from The Back Country, copyright © 1966 by Gary Snyder, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.; “Things to Do Around a Lookout” by Gary Snyder, from Mountains and Rivers without End, copyright© 1996 by Gary Snyder, reprinted by permission of Counterpoint Press, a member of Perseus Books, L.L.C.; “Witness” by W. S. Merwin, from The Rain in the Trees, copyright© 1988 by W. S. Merwin, reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Chapter 15, “The Eagle Bar Fire,” appeared in a somewhat different form as “A Season of Fire” in the Fall 1989 issue of Idaho: The University. The publication of this book was generously supported by the University of Iowa Foundation. All photographs by Don Scheese Maps by Megan McCready Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scheese, Don. Mountains of memory: a fire lookout’s life in the river of no return wilderness / by Don Scheese; foreword by Wayne Franklin. p. cm.—(American land and life series) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-87745-783-2 (cloth), isbn 0-87745-784-0 (pbk.) 1. Scheese, Don. 2. Fire lookouts—Idaho— Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness —Biography. 3. Natural history—Idaho— Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness. 4. Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho). I. Title. II. Series. sd421.375.s34 2001 634.9⬘3—dc21 2001033292 01 02 03 04 05 c 5 4 3 2 1 01 02 03 04 05 p 5 4 3 2 1 to all lookouts past, present, and to come There is great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one’s life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them, walked in them, lived in them, even for a day, we keep forever in the mind’s eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say: I am who I am because I have been there, or there. —N. Scott Momaday What is remembered is what becomes reality. —Patricia Hampl I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks. —Wallace Stevens You cannot overemphasize being able to get into your landscape. There is no way to go native without it, no way to develop a sense of place centered in the fundamental world, no way to imagine yourself a part of the natural community of plants and animals and the regional forces around you. For that you have to have the full, five-sense experience of direct and repeated contact, experiential immersion with nature. —Dan Flores & when pray tell, shall Lookouts die? —Gary Snyder ...