This Heritage Cookbook pays tribute to the decades of dedication given by Forest Service employees throughout the past century.
In the Northern Region’s Early Days in the Forest Service, Volume I, the words of Joe B. Halm seem to state clearly how it was in the beginning. Halm’s career began in 1909 working for Ranger Edward Pulaski on a survey crew at Wallace, Idaho. He said:
“In thinking back over those early years of the Service I am impressed by the unselfish loyalty of everyone, the enthusiasm with which they worked and sweat [sic], carrying their food and beds on their backs, traveling the dim forest trails mostly without horses. Pride and loyalty to the Service and their chief carried them on, rain or shine, day after day, sleeping under the stars or in winter in soggy, leaky cabins with sagging roofs ten feet beneath the snow. That loyalty and enthusiasm has never waned, in my case at least.
“There is a bond which holds those of us remaining who traveled the forests together in those earlier days, who ate from the same pan and slept under the same blanket or snowshoed with hundred pound packs for days, wet to the bone, sleeping by a fire on a bleak mountain top burrowed in the snow many feet above ground. When the snow was soft we sank to our knees staggering along under our packs breaking trail. When the snow was crusted on steep ascents, we painfully cut steps in the treacherous icy slopes, but when the snow was firm and the going was good, we laughed, joked and sang.
“We have all shared the dangers, too, toiling beneath those great white billows of smoke miles high, adding our mite of strength to control the fire demon and stop the destruction that those to follow may profit by and enjoy our great national heritage.
“I am sure not one regrets a single hardship, firm in the belief that each mile traveled, each step taken, has added a bit in making the Forest Service what it is today.”