This is a collection of photos contributed by Larry Decker, who was a crewmember on the Rogue from 1972-76, and then 1988-89 the Winema Supt. All these photos are from 1973. If you have further caption info for any photo here, or if you'd like to contribute photos, please email us.

Clicking on any photo will get you a larger version.

Dr. John Lacey UNCLE ROY:   This is Roy Skelton. He was the crew boss in the early '70s. I think he came from the Wenatchee.
In 1976 we went to Minnesota to fight a peet bog fire. These were the state of the art firefighting tools they had back there. There had been a crew on the fire before we got there. We were there for two weeks. The fire was still smoldering when we left. We had a deuce and a half with a tank in the back that they let us use. We smashed the fenders running over trees. PEET BOG:  And of course we had the local farmer with his irrigation system. A big rainbird sprinkler. The pump was run by a car motor set up near the creek. The tractor eventually got stuck; they tried to pull it out with the deuce and a half which got stuck also. They had both of these hooked up to a D8 dozer to get them out.
LUNCHTIME:  We went on a fire in Region 3. The usual question was asked when we got there, "Who are you guys and why are you here?" Every day we hiked to the bottom of the canyon to some pools that were left from the dried-out creek. It was the only place to find any shade. We took off our boots and made ourselves comfortable. The statement at lunch every day was, "Eat it or wear it." Leever and Pancho:  Pancho left the crew to be a smokejumper in Cave Junction. First jump went pretty well except for the landing! Here he is with Mike Leever at Bailey's wedding.
Lacey shaving:  Here is a picture of John. He was getting ready for a crew party but had to come out and talk about something important, like whether the keg of beer was coming or not! Lacey and Juhl:  At the old barracks in Union Creek. We had cooks who worked in the old dayroom. We left two people to do dishes in the morning after breakfast. We came back to find these two having too much fun on the job!
More Lacey. KP
When there were no fires, there was always lots of project work to do. Here is a corral we built. It was so hot that it burned your hands if you picked up anything made of metal. On every forest whether the Rogue or the Winema, the crew seemed to build a lot of bridges. This one was on the Rogue River N. F.
When I first started, we flew everywhere in these DC-3s. They were the smokejumpers' planes. Bench seats on the side with no flight attendents. Crossing the Rogue:  One year we had a real slow summer fire-wise. We spent most of it constructing a hiking trail along the Rogue River from Prospect to Union Creek. Rather than hike all the way back to get to the rigs, we would send a couple of drivers and everyone else would take a shortcut. It depended on how good your balance was, on what method you used to cross the log. We lost one or two hardhats in the river.
Cook's dog:  This was the cook's dog wearing one of the old RR hats. This is Richard Bonney. He was the crew boss when we made that infamous trip to Beaver, Utah. He departed shortly after we returned. After that it was crew boss of the week club.


GO TO DECKER'S OTHER PHOTO PAGE

GO TO PHOTOS PAGE ONE

GO TO PHOTOS PAGE TWO

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GO TO O'REILLY'S PHOTO PAGE

GO TO ROGERS'S PHOTO PAGE

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