Blackwater Creek Fire Memorials, 1937

The Blackwater Creek Fire was started by a lightning strike on August 18, 1937. It was two days until firefighters were called to fight it. But by early afternoon on the 21st the wind blew up and trapped the firefighters. In all, 15 men died and another 38 were burned. Of the 15, ten were CCC enrollees from Texas and their Foreman (working out of the Ten Sleep CCC Camp), 3 were Forest Service workers and one was a Wyoming Bureau of Public Roads employee. 

The U.S. Forest Service, Division of Fire Control concluded that units need to be on scene earlier. Two years later funds were authorized to carry out parachute jumping experiments for fire suppression. The Smokejumper Program was born. The larger monument is located along Highway 14/16, 38 miles west of Cody, Wyoming, near the junction of the Blackwater Creek and the Shoshone River. The smaller is located along Highway 16 near Meadowlark Lake, 15 miles northeast of Ten Sleep, Wyoming.

For more reading go to this site. Wyoming History