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The original parachute loft constructed behind the Cave Junction Ranger Station, 1944 |
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Oregon's First Smokejumper BaseStories from the historic Siskiyou Smokejumper Base, Cave Junction, Oregon The nation was fully involved in World War Two when the first smokejumper base in Oregon history was established at Cave Junction in 1943. Funding was at a minimum for the fledgling program and much of what was eventually established had to be pieced together with salvaged materials and improvised facilities, most of which were constructed by the inventive and resourceful smokejumpers. Regardless of its rough start and shoestring budget, the program was able to achieve its objective of rapid response to fire calls and, as expected, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in fire suppression and loss of forest products.
Housing for crews consisted of temporary tent shelters, each a wooden platform with a wooden frame that supported the tent. Flaps on the tent could be put up to allow for circulation of air but there was nothing to prevent mosquitoes and other insects from flying in and out as they pleased.
Two other structures used by smokejumpers
included a bath house and cook house. Both of these were small, The bath house (right) was a rectangular building with toilets and showers. Water was heated by starting a fire in a stove outside of the building. Pipes carried the water through the fire box and into a holding tank that fed into the showers. T Most of the structures needed for basic
operations were already set up except for the parachute loft,
the most crucial structure in smokejumping. The smokejumpers
designed and constructed this building using wood that was
salvaged from the Oregon Caves Civilian Conservation Corps camp
located about eleven miles east of Cave Junction. One of the
smokejumpers at the Cave Junction base had some training in architecture and was credited
for designing the building. The building was good enough to
perform its intended function but, during the war, equipment was
scarce. It was not possible When there was a call for a fire, the crew
went to the parachute loft to pick up their equipment and rode
in the back of a stake-bed truck to the airport located five
miles south of Cave Junction. It was obvious that the response
to fires would be much quicker if the base had been located at the airport
but, as far as the crew members were concerned, the base’s
location in Cave Junction was very fortunate for them. This is
because they were all conscientious objectors who were given room
and board along with a small stipend for the duties they
performed
The Siskiyou Smokejumper Base is one of the great home-front defense stories of World War II but the danger and drama that was faced by crews in the earliest years of smoke jumping history, remains unrecognized. The smokejumper base in Cave Junction base was torn down around the same time that new buildings for smokejumper operations were constructed at the Illinois Valley airport beginning around 1948. The cook house and bath house are believed to have both been transferred from Cave Junction and set up at the Illinois Valley Airport around this same time. It is interesting that the Redwood Ranger Station was the main administrative office when the smokejumping base was established in 1943. This building was moved from Cave Junction to the airport in 1962 where it served as an administration building until the base closed in 1981. Story by Roger Brandt
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The
smokejumper program used airplanes
to rapidly deliver fire fighters to small fires in remote parts
of the Siskiyou and Klamath Mountains so it may seem odd that the
first base was not, from the very beginning, set up at the
Illinois Valley airport. There were several obstacles that
prevented this from happening. There was no power, water systems
or any other facilities that could provide the necessities for
smokejumper crews and low levels of funding made it unlikely
that setting up these utilities and buildings at the airport
would happen any time soon. 
The closest place to the airport where
water, power and telephones and facilities for providing the
basics of food, shelter and sanitation was at the Redwood Ranger
Station in Cave Junction (left circa 1945). It was behind these buildings that the
first smokejumper base was set up on a terrace near the Illinois
River and a large barn used for pack animals (right). 
rectangular buildings and it is uncertain when they were set up.
They may have been used for pack animal crews before the
smokejumper base was set up in the same area. 
he cook house was about the same size as
the bath house. About half of the structure was used for cooking
and cleaning and the other half used for the dining room. Both
the cook house and bath house were moved to the airport around
1948 and were in use until 1954 when they were torn down and
replaced with the present structures. 
during the first three years of
operation to do the technical repairs on parachutes and for this
reason repairs had to be done at a smokejumper base in Missoula,
Montana. 
as smokejumpers. None of them came with their own
vehicle for transportation and, for that reason, the base's location near Cave
Junction was ideal for them because everything was within
walking distance. When they had a chance to go into town,
they spent their free time going to movies or enjoying treats
such as milk shakes (above; smokejumpers going to town,
1945). The Illinois River ran next to the base and
on hot summer days, crew members retreated to the cool refuge of
the river (left). 