Bill Kuntz: Smoke Chasing

Transcribed and rearranged from oral interviews conducted by Julie Monroe, July 2002.

Bill Kuntz

Bill Kuntz’s father homesteaded (in Boundary County) in 1900. The family moved away but returned in 1917. Bill was about 20 years old when he began working for the Forest Service in 1929. He helped build lookouts, constructed trail, fought on big fires and hung telephone line.

He was also a smoke chaser.

Every man in the Forest Service kept a smoke chase pack ready. It contained 48 hours of food and a couple gallons of water. Food, considered enough for two days, comprised of three cans of beans. Each man carried a P38 to open the cans. They carried a Pulaski and a shovel, a compass and a map.

A smoke chaser had five minutes to get ready from the time the fire was spotted.

Pack on, tools in hand, the smoke chaser walked to the fire. If the fire was sizeable enough that the chaser could not get it out in 48 hours, the man called for back-up.

Bill was constructing trail in Boulder Creek in the early 1930s. He spotted a smoke on Boulder Ridge. He hiked to an old miners’ cabin. No one was in the cabin but there was a phone.

Bill called the fire in. Fire management told Bill to start towards it and that two men would meet him from the opposite direction. He walked more than 20 miles, cross country, through heavy timber, across steep sidehills, with no trail, to reach the first fire. No one met him. He put the fire out, but saw another spot down the ridge, and then another.

After the second fire, Bill stopped to eat some cold beans. It was then that he discovered the Ranger’s cost cutting practices directly affected him. The Ranger had purchased cans of green beans rather than pinto. Bill fought fire for three days.

He ate three cans of green beans. He managed to get the fires all out, but admitted to being tired and a little hungry. He noticed a trail crew down in the canyon and joined them in hopes of something to eat.

He still had more than 30 miles to walk out.

The crew was in fact roasting something over a small flame and were more than willing to share. They told him that it was squirrel but he swore he would have eaten a pack rat or anything else by that point.

Bill was never a fan of green beans after that.