Kalispell Smokejumpers Remembered at Mann Gulch Graveside Memorial Ceremonies
Henry J. Thol Jr., 19, and William J. Hellman, 24, died in the Mann Gulch Fire on Aug. 5 alongside 11 other smokejumpers in what remains the greatest tragedy in the history of the still nascent firefighting program
By Mike Kordenbrock
On a flat patch of grassy hilltop, ringed in by towering shade trees, the headstones of Kalispell smokejumpers Henry J. Thol Jr. and William Hellman sit less than 100 yards apart. To the east of the Conrad Cemetery grounds is the Flathead River. To the west is downtown Kalispell. The quiet, only occasionally disrupted by trucks in the distance or planes flying overhead, lends itself to a sense of peacefulness.
But peacefulness in this case does not mean forgetfulness. Under clear skies and sunshine on a recent summer day, during a season so often given to distraction and escape, the memories of Thol and Hellman were kept alive by a crowd of around 100 people. They came to pay their respects to the fallen smokejumpers on Aug. 8, almost 75 years to the day in which the two men died in the Mann Gulch Fire on Aug. 5 alongside 11 other smokejumpers in what was the greatest tragedy in the history of the still nascent firefighting program.
Relatives of both men were among those who attended graveside memorial tributes organized with the help of the National Smokejumpers Association. Wildland firefighters, smokejumpers, and employees from various firefighting agencies mixed in with longtime Kalispell residents who ceded some of the limited supply of chairs closest to each headstone to family members.
Credited with spurring the development of modern wildland firefighting safety practices and with helping give birth to the field of fire science, the Mann Gulch Fire, and the circumstances that led to the loss of life that day, have been the subject of much study and analysis. Just three of the 16 men who were present survived.
“The tragedy was also a severe blow to the Forest Service, which had not experienced a fatality during a decade of smokejumping and was extremely proud of its elite firefighters. Repercussions from this incident were severe and long lasting,” wrote the fire behavior researcher Richard Rothermel in his 1993 report, “Mann Gulch Fire: A Race That Couldn’t Be Won.”
Henry Thol was just 19 when he died, and had planned to enroll in the University of Montana that fall and help pay for his education using the money he earned from smokejumping. At the memorial, Dan Roberson, a smokejumper who was active in the 1970s and led the ceremony, said that Thol had been called off a roofing job to go fight the Mann Gulch fire, which was sparked by dry lightning in the Helena National Forest in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness area about 20 miles north of Helena.
Hellman, a World War II veteran who served as a medical corpsman in the Marine Corps and was at one point deployed to the Pacific Theatre, had left Flathead County High School early to enlist, was 24 years old when he died. He had ambitions to become a botany teacher, and left behind a wife, and a son who was a month-and-a-half old. Chuck Underwood, a smokejumper who jumped in the 1960s, led the service for Hellman. As Underwood told the crowd, Hellman’s wife, Geraldine Mather, had grown up in the same neighborhood as Thol. Just two weeks before the fire, Hellman had taken part in an honorary jump exhibition at the White House, and he was just a few months shy of completing his teaching degree when he died.
Both ceremonies included a color guard flag presentation, a bugler playing taps and a donation of flowers to family members. Ahead of the memorial services, new bronze medallions had been installed on the headstones of Thol, Hellman, and the other smokejumpers who died at Mann Gulch, in what National Smokejumper Association President Mike Bina said was the first time in many cases that the gravestones showed any acknowledgement of their service as smokejumpers and their connection to Mann Gulch.
Speaking after the memorials had concluded, Henry Thol’s younger brother John, a 91-year-old Moscow, Idaho resident, shared his appreciation for the people that had attended, and for the ceremony itself.
“It was wonderful what they did,” Thol said of the ceremony. “You know, it’s something that burned in our family for many, many years. This is nice. I couldn’t believe all the people. I was up in Mann Gulch the other day, I couldn’t believe all the people I knew, and that I knew of. It was pretty nice.”
Underwood and Roberson both said they were honored to participate in the memorials. “This is such a privilege to be part of this,” Underwood said.
“It’s an honor to help remember the heroes that died in Mann Gulch,” Roberson said. “I guess that’s it in a nutshell. It was such a turning point for the Forest Service.”