Friends of the Museum Explore Siskiyou History!
by Judy Bushy, Happy Camp, CA
Summer heat is upon us! The lazy days of summer….except for fires in various places. We watch with concern, both for the residents of the area wildfire threatens, but also our crews that may be sent there.
Friday’s lunchtime movie at the Siskiyou County Museum was Up In Flames. It focused on how the United States Forest Service prepares to fight these devastating natural and human made disasters. The film documented the development of fire detection, communication and fire suppression technology. I’ve read of Idaho’s 1910 Big Blowup, but not Oregon’s 1933 Tillamook Burn. I wonder how they compared with the Biscuit Fire in Oregon more recently. I visited my husband, Dan, at the Biscuit Fire Camp near Selma when that was happening. Because of those catastrophic fires there was research and developments of fire fighting technology in many aspects.
Following the film there was a meeting of the Friends of the Siskiyou County Museum (fscmuseum@gmail.com) Mary Shaw is serving as president, Grace Bennett as Vice President, Gail Jenner as Secretary Karen Cleland as Treasurer and Selma Schants, Victoria Bunce and Jean Krueger as board members at large. They will meet again September 8th at 1:30 p.m. after an interesting historical film. Membership is only $10 each for the year, and there will be a newsletter. The meeting was necessarily busy with the details of organization, but now that is on the way after the bylaws were approved.