Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum

We were led on a tour by Dave, a smoke jumper in the late 60’s. The first hand experience paired with all the artifacts of forest firefighting made the history so alive and tangible, it was a transcending tour into the world of our nation’s first smoke jumpers. Wow, loved it, and loved Dave.

This is an interesting museum. Wes, a former smoke jumper and now volunteer, led our tour. He explained how the service was formed and changed through the years. He provides a demonsttration for repairing chutes, packing up and their suits. While we were visiting, several wild fire fighters were their to work a fire nearby in CA. Very interesting to see those helicopters and talk to the fighters. Great experiemce.

If you like history this is going to be an interesting place to visit. This museum is the located at the base camp of the smokejumper training facility that operated from 1943 – 1981. The original buildings are still standing and have been restored for tours. The site offers a self-​guided tour for visitors that features photos and write-​ups about the buildings and people being depicted. The photos are extremely interesting photos of action shots of smoke-​jumpers in action.
The museum is still being completed and buildings restored, but there is still lots to see. They have a small gift-​shop that sells miscellaneous food and beverages along with T-​shirts, hats, and toy parachute smokejumper figures. The museum tells is the story of the 555^th segregated military regiment that was brought in to learn smokejumping and wildfire fighting techniques, but what makes the story fascinating is the WWII connection that they have. The 555^th was brought in as a response to Japan’s balloon attacks on USA mainland. Their story is a interesting piece of history that isn’t well reported due to secrecy of the project at the time.
I would suggest that if you are on highway 199 and you have time stop in and check this museum out; then do it. You will be glad you did.