This collection contains interviews detailing the work of forest fire lookouts in Montana and the Northwest. The interviews were conducted from 2016 to present by Beth Hodder and other members of the Northwest Montana Lookout Association (NMLA). NMLA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of historic fire lookouts on Federal and State lands in Northwest Montana. The interviewees discuss their time working as summer forest fire lookouts, what the job entailed, and the fires they spotted. They also describe daily life including packing in food and water, encounters with wildlife, and the solitude. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 453 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
In 2021, the organization changed its name from Northwest Montana Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association to the Northwest Montana Lookout Association. Visit the NMLA website to learn more about the organization.
This collection includes 33 interviews.
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Mark Hufstetler Interview, November 29, 2022
Mark Hufstetler
Mark Hufstetler describes being born in Utah in 1958. He says his father was a career U.S. Forest Service employee, and Mark’s family lived at Forest Service ranger stations within the Challis, Bridger, and Dixie National Forests until his family purchased a homestead in the ... Read More
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Marli Davis and Rick Davis Interview, June 8, 2025
Marli Davis and Rick Davis
Rick and Marli Davis discuss their experiences as lookout staff for the Flathead National Forest on Cyclone Lookout from 1971-1975 and on Baptiste Lookout and again Cyclone as volunteers, from 2012 to the present. Marli shared growing up in Kalispell, Montana where she loved being ... Read More
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Samsara Chapman Duffey Interview, May 17, 2023
Samsara Chapman Duffey
For her second interview, Samsara Duffey discusses how to watch for lightning strikes and holdovers and what to look for with weather. She shares her observations on the importance of long-term lookouts; knowing your area; and the lookout’s role in changing ways agencies view lookouts ... Read More
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Samsara Chapman Duffey Interview, May 23, 2023
Samsara Chapman Duffey
In this third interview, Sam Duffey discusses her daily routine when not looking for fires, including baking, knitting, listening to audiobooks, cooking, how she deals with garbage and storage, and other “odds and ends.” She talks of wildlife encounters, how often she leaves the lookout, ... Read More
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Samsara Chapman Duffey Interview, May 8, 2023
Samsara Chapman Duffey
Samsara Chapman Duffey discusses being born in Missoula, Montana, but moving to Helena as a young child and growing up there. She says she started backpacking and camping then, learning how important the outdoors was to her. She talks of her older sister becoming a ... Read More
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Suzy Ronfeldt Interview, August 21, 2021
Mary Suzanne Ronfeldt
Suzy Ronfeldt recalls stories her parents, Betty Jennings Muldown and Lloyd “Mully” Muldown, related about when they were lookouts on Whitefish Mountain Lookout near Whitefish, Montana in 1942, with Suzy, a three-month old baby. Suzy discusses her mother being born in Whitefish, and meeting her ... Read More
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Ted Clarke Interview, July 23, 2021
Ted R. Clarke
Ted Clarke discusses being born in Eureka, Montana and living in the “new” town of Rexford after Lake Koocanusa inundated their home during the Kootenai Dam construction. Ted remembers being 11 in 1955 when his dad, Ed, became the lookout at Webb Mountain Lookout above ... Read More
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Thomas Arthur "Tom" Jones Interview, May 18, 2017
Thomas Arthur Jones
Thomas “Tom” Jones discusses his experiences as a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout at the Mud Lake Lookout in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area in Montana. He recalls fighting forest fires for two seasons before getting an opportunity to work as a lookout. Jones describes ... Read More