Got the fire under control. My knees have scabbed over and feel pretty good today, but my hands are in a hell of a shape. Damned if I'll ever fight fire with my bare hands again. pTypical of turn-of-the-century forest rangers in the Inland Northwest--northern Idaho, western Montana, and eastern Washington--this diarist faced fire and other tribulations far from civilization, often alone on foot or horseback, with little equipment and no means of communication. pIn this engaging collection, Hal Rothman has selected and provided context for the best and most informative letters written by early foresters. Highly literate and perceptive, the writers illuminate how they were forced to balance the agency's regulatory impulses with the needs of rural communities that depended upon forests for their livelihood. They reveal much about the challenges they met--autonomous decision-making fire fighting and prevention opposition and pressure from local residents occasional corruption or incompeten