Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum Project

Working to make a great American adventure story into a cultural heritage treasure.

The Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum Project is a 501C3 nonprofit organization based in Cave Junction, Oregon. It's members and board are mostly smokejumpers who formerly worked at this base as well as tourism development advocates and aviation enthusiasts who use the airport where this historic base is located.

The group was involved in getting a portion of the historic smokejumper base on to the National Register of Historic Places. 2005 National Register Application (Word Document 1.5mb).

The group identifies the following reasons to preserve the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base:

It is the first smokejumper base in Oregon and California history and one of the first four bases in American history. It is the last of the original four smokejumper bases that is still in its original location with its original buildings.
The base is believed to have had the first Asian American smokejumper in history as well as the first Hispanic and Native American smokejumpers. The smallest smokejumper in history started his career at this base.
The base is considered to be the home of the moon trees that were grown from seeds carried to the moon on the Apollo 14 mission by Stuart Roosa, a former smokejumper from the Siskiyou Smokejumper
Base.

The objectives of the group include:

Raise funds and organize volunteer groups to restore, repair and maintain the historic buildings at the base.
Develop and implement a business plan (pdf 2mb).
Develop an interpretive plan (pdf 2mb) for a museum, self guided - walking interpretive tour of the grounds, accessibility, and safe management of visitor traffic.
Develop and install museum displays and wayside exhibits.
Improve wheelchair accessibility for the historic district.
Maintain the grounds to retain the park-like character that was created by smokejumper crews over the years the base was in operation.
Collect historic artifacts, photos, and conduct interviews to preserve the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base story. At this time the group has well over 2,000 historic photos that were taken at various times during the 38 years the base was in operation.
Use the smokejumper story for publicity to promote tourism travel in the local region. Establish a visitor contact station to increase the effectiveness of retaining visitor spending at regional businesses. Target audiences include families that travel by private airplane, tour busses, RVs and school busses.
Organize and conduct special events related to smokejumper history.

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