There are some legendary forest fires that have been documented all the way back to the late 1800s. The most notable fire in that century was the Peshtigo Fire of 1871. After these fires, there were two main conservationists, Franklin Hough and Bernard Fernow, which pushed for protecting timber supplies and watersheds. The federal government then established the US Forest Service in 1905. The Forest Service was given control over the national forests. The current management at the time focused on fire protection. Five years after 1905, there were several large fires in Montana, Idaho, and Washington. These fires would combine and was known as the “Big Blowup.” Because of this incident, the forest supervisors convinced congress that the only
