Fifteen Years at Imnaha Guard Station

About the Book

When people asked me what I did for a living I used to tell them I was a fireman for the Forest Service and in the off-season I taught school. But of course, teaching was my profession, and I did enjoy it. In 1997 I retired after almost 30 years in the classroom, most of it at Pleasant Hill, one of the finest public schools in Oregon. Pleasant Hill is a “bedroom community” ten miles from Eugene, Oregon. But the typical residence is three acres and a horse. Beginning when I was in the eighth grade my plan was to be a “forest ranger.” I studied and worked toward that goal. But when it came time for college I could not afford to go away to OSU and a good Forestry program. I lived at home and finally gravitated toward math education. However I worked for the Forest Service summers beginning in 1958. My first summer was part of a “road crew” on the Mount Hood. Then I worked on a survey crew in the Applegate District of the Rogue River National Forest. I gotsome fire experience there and then spent 15 years at Imnaha Guard Station in the Butte Falls District. My wife and I raised four wonderful boys. Each worked for the Forest Service for a time and all have super families of their own now. I have six grandchildren, plus two little boys who lived with me 24/7 for the fi rst four years of their life. My last ten years or so were spent on the Willamette. I was an Arial Observer for two or three years and then moved into the centralized dispatch center in Eugene. This is my first attempt at writing. Maybe it won’t be my last.

About the Author

After working almost 20 summers for the US Forest Service, Bob became an Aerial Observer on the Willamette NF near the middle of the Oregon Cascades. He rode in a small plane with a pilot and flew a prescribed route over the forest looking for smokes. His oldest son, John, joined him as an Aerial Observer in 1987. Two years later John, who worked year around for the USFS, became the Lead Observer. Bob was transferred to Eugene to be a radio dispatcher during the summer months. Bob retired after 28 years of teaching and from dispatching at the end of the 1997 season. At that time he began a wonderful period of about six years raising two little boys, unrelated to him. Squeek and Boca were with Papa 24/7.