Anniversary of Fire on Rattlesnake Ridge

Shortly after 2 pm on July 9, 1953 (57 years ago), a depressed, unemployed young man tossed a match onto bone dry grass by the side of Alder Springs Road west of Willows, California. Eight hours later, fifteen firefighters were caught by a surprising wind shift and couldn’t outrun the flames in dense chaparral. Today, a stone monument stands beside the road, and across the canyon one can see the white crosses marking where the firefighters fell.

White crosses on Rattlesnake Ridge

Surprisingly, fourteen of those who died that day were missionaries from a nearby New Tribes Mission “boot camp.” In return for use of an old Civilian Conservation Corps facility as a training facility, New Tribes provided custodial services and responded to fire emergencies when called by the Forest Service.

Rattlesnake Fire Monument

I visited the site recently on a geocaching trip and was completely surprised by the involvement of New Tribes missionaries in this fire. A few years ago we knew a couple who volunteered with New Tribes, and supported their efforts in Thailand. The descriptive sign at the monument did a good job of explaining the tragedy, but I wanted to find more background information. A quick search on Amazon found Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines Battling Wildfires.

I liked the book for two reasons: it explained how small oversights can combine and lead to fatal consequences, and it gave background on the people involved—the human interest side of the story. On the right side of the photograph above, there is a cluster of nine crosses. As John Maclean, the author, describes it, “Whatever the missionaries were thinking, they acted as though they had a message for one another. The nine men found at this place were heaped together… Perhaps they huddled together to take comfort from a human touch and a common faith… They appear in photographs to be straining upward, reaching for the high ground.” And perhaps, in one last act of commitment, they joined in prayer.

The geocache here (GC1TDNW) is one of the most moving caches I’ve found. I stayed for a while, just contemplating the sacrifices clearly displayed on the hillside.