The Big Burn

BOOK REVIEW by Dennis Ginoza
January 26, 2010

“The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan
(Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America)

Gifford Pinchot, a product of the east and Yale, believed that forest fires could be controlled. Author Timothy Egan weaves in a superb way, America’s struggle to save our forests, the national parks, and nature’s gift to this continent.
President Teddy Roosevelt, once a collector of insects and frogs, teamed with Gifford to save Americas forest before the lumber companies, the railroads, and this nation’s rich and powerful would exploit further, this nation’s vast and rich forest.
August 10, 1910 was a tipping point. The drought stricken forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana were swept by a fire uncontrollable and extremely devastating. Egan recounts the spread of the fire, how men and animals were caught in the firestorm, towns completely burned, or as said, “it was like all of New Jersey had burned, border to border.”
This account is worth reading. It is about pioneers with dreams to keep America with its cherished natural beauty—John Muir, the politics of power and the money grab, the tension between conservation and lining investments with profit, more often greed, and the mind of politics in this nation’s earlier days. And there is personal intrigue in the lives of those who shaped this nation.
For those who still enjoy America’s land of beauty, this is a story about how the woods of Appalachia, the Smokey Mountains, to all the forests in the west, in Idaho, Montana, to Washington were preserved. What this nation has was not preserved without sacrifice, the courage of a few, and the guiding hand of leadership. Without conscience, a nation cannot survive.