100 Fires Project Treasure Hunt
Welcome to the 100 Fires Project Treasure Hunt! A few years back, I became somewhat obsessed with another treasure hunt. It was based upon a poem by Forrest Fenn, containing clues to where he hid a sizable treasure somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. His objective was to get people out to enjoy our public lands.
I was convinced that it was on the banks of the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. A few years back, the treasure was actually found to be in Yellowstone. Its exact location remains a mystery, as does the meaning to most of its clues. However, spirited online debate continues to this day about the meaning of those clues, indicating that the hunt outlived the treasure.
That, along with movies like National Treasure and the many Discovery Channel shows featuring some kind of lost treasure or artifact that I shamelessly binge-watch during the offseason, encouraged me to come up with the idea for this treasure hunt. While the treasure in this case is mostly just bragging rights and an award for the wall, my hope is that there will be similar debate over the clues, and that firefighters across the entire fire community explore and learn from our wildland fire history. I have applied the following leader’s intent.
TASK: Create a fun, yet difficult, quest that will encourage study of our wildfire history.
PURPOSE: Learning the lessons that our history teaches us will make us all better and safer firefighters.
END STATE: If successful, wildfire units (crews, engines, departments, companies, etc.) will spend time researching, debating, and learning from the most influential fires in our history, strengthening their learning cultures and crew cohesiveness along the way, and perhaps building the slides necessary to recognize impending danger before it is too late to mitigate the hazard.
My hope is that this will also bring awareness to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, who hosts the 100 Fires Project timeline, and whose mission is to help the families of firefighters killed in the line of duty and to assist injured firefighters and their families.
The rules are simple. Work together within your local unit to figure out the clues in the poem below. From there, you will have to complete 2 more challenges to come up with a final question, the answer to which wins the treasure hunt. Any unit from any agency, department or contract company may compete for the bragging rights for being the first to find the answer. The clues you will need are typically going to be hidden in plain sight, so consider every word appearing on this and its linked pages. Good luck!
If for thrill of the hunt, or if for right to boast,
Or if for the award on the wall,
You will study our history from coast to coast,
Wildfires both big and small.
Take time as you train, the youth on your crew,
Teach lessons learned from the past.
But don’t dawdle long, for I tell you true,
If you want to win, you must be fast.
The next 16 stanzas will give you the clues,
On which you will make your guess.
The Foundation has fires from which you can choose,
And the info you’ll need to possess.
The student who’ll walk a more zig zag path,
Will discover the birthplace of four.
For here amidst tragedy and sorrow we hath,
Found what’s needed to proceed evermore.
On a fire with multiple entrapments, though brief,
True refuge in vehicles was learned.
But among those lost, the Commander and Chief,
Fled a truck that barely was burned.
On too little sleep, tasked to mop up the fire,
Until spots caused the fire be lost.
Two more chains, 1,200 times o’er.
Two squads now cut off, several lost.
Before anchor was made, right out of the gate,
Cut off and now destined for loss.
Under red skies, young men met their fate.
In defiance they all dodged the boss.
On foot or by air, at first without rush,
A gamble to finish their quest.
With brands below line underslung in the brush,
Most lost the race up to the crest.
Thirty miles southwest, 18 years before,
With fuels very similar still.
Confused on the plan meant to win the war,
Several men lost the fray on that hill.
Through standing dead from a decade before,
From history we shall be taught.
Ceasing only upon reaching the shore,
In its path several hundred were caught.
Less than 10 downhill chains to tie in the line,
With almost no comms with the rest.
When a wind shift occurred with nary a sign,
Not enough uphill speed they possessed.
Twice before planned, 3rd time’s not a charm,
The whole thing was just for the birds.
In the end one peeled off to the north without harm,
Locked eyes, but exchanging no words.
On a fire where vegetation was lush,
Breaking ground to cut fireline.
Escaping on foot, they were trapped in the brush,
20 yards more they’d been fine.
First driven by wind and then by the fuel,
Through forest, from grass, but first slash.
To escape smoke and flame, the canoe was the tool,
As old growth was reduced to ash.
While making escape, fire spotted ahead,
Turned back and uphill they did flee.
A few of the proud lost their lives as they fled,
Later, one being all he could be.
On the east of the range where down the wind blows,
In the midst of the daytime heat.
A reversal in slope, as the smoke column rose,
Trapped several amid their retreat.
Turned down by 1 but taken by 2,
The plan was sketchy at best.
Remained in safety did most of the crew,
Chased down by the fire were the rest.
To the crackle of flame, without light from the lamp,
The imprisoned sought rest on the hill.
When the order came down, to retreat to the camp,
To this day, we watch out for this still.
Augered in at a house at the top of a bowl,
In the interface man set aflame.
When a glow did appear at the base of the knoll,
Several men’s lives it did claim.
With your fires ID’ed, note their 2-digit years,
And confirmed firefighters now late.
First, sort the years by the total lost peers,
Then, chronologically by date.
The solution is a 32-digit string,
A password with which you can earn,
Access to a document certain to bring,
You close to that for which you yearn.