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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Maclean believe the Smokejumpers had accomplished spiritually at the time of their deaths?
(a) Praying to their gods.
(b) Unite with earth, fire, and the sky.
(c) Unite with lost ones.
(d) Asking for understanding.

2. What common portrayal of death did Maclean believe did not occur for the Smokejumpers?
(a) To see the people waiting for them in Heaven.
(b) To see the future.
(c) To see their whole lives in review.
(d) To see the people they love.

3. What is "Red Skies of Montana?"
(a) A book written about the Mann Gulch Fire.
(b) The new branch of the Smokejumpers.
(c) A movie made about the Mann Gulch Fire.
(d) The name given to the Gates of the Mountains.

4. Where did Maclean place the ashes of his wife Jessie when she died?
(a) At Seely Lake.
(b) On Mount Jessie.
(c) On Mount Helena.
(d) On the western bank of the Missouri.

5. Who is one of the best bibliographical references about the Mann Gulch fire available to Laird and Maclean?
(a) The postmistress of a nearby logging town.
(b) The chief librarian at the New York City Library.
(c) The Forest Service land office manager.
(d) The head librarian at the local library.

6. What did the blowup and its fire rising out of Mann Gulch look like?
(a) An atomic explosion as seen on television.
(b) An atomic explosion in a laboratory in Arizona.
(c) An atomic explosion in Montana on its way to Nebraska.
(d) An atomic explosion in Nevada on its way to Utah.

7. What well-known magazine had a lead article entitled "Smokejumpers Suffer Ordeal by Fire?"
(a) Life.
(b) Time.
(c) National Geographic.
(d) Look.

8. When did the investigative committee that the chief forester assembled arrive in Mann Gulch?
(a) August 19.
(b) August 9.
(c) August 5.
(d) August 10.

9. Who did the author reference when he compared ghosts and tragic heroes?
(a) Macduff from "Macbeth."
(b) Hamlet from "Hamlet."
(c) Iago from "Othello."
(d) Romeo from "Romeo and Juliet."

10. What began to happen at Mann Gulch forty years later?
(a) Small brush fires had begun to erupt along the ridge.
(b) Small bushes had replaced scarred land along the hillside.
(c) Small trees had begun to grow along the gulches on the hillside.
(d) Small animals had begun to return to the hillside.

11. What did Maclean call the "North Star that guides all arguments?"
(a) Hellman's cross.
(b) The top of the ridge.
(c) The crevice in the ridge.
(d) The location of Dodge's fire.

12. What did Maclean believe the atomic mushroom to be a symbol of in the 20th century?
(a) A symbol of everything wrong with governmental agencies such as the Forest Service.
(b) A symbol of the future of science.
(c) A symbol of our inner fear of the explosive power of the universe.
(d) A symbol of American supremacy in firefighting.

13. Who made the crosses that mark the spots the Smokejumpers fell, defeated by the fire?
(a) Wag Dodge and his crew.
(b) The U.S. Forest Service.
(c) The Smokejumpers in Missoula.
(d) The Red Cross.

14. What feeling did the Smokejumpers share with all other youth their age?
(a) The feeling that their lives would be long.
(b) The feeling that they were immortal.
(c) The feeling that education was important.
(d) The feeling that they could be successful firefighters.

15. What was the one thought the Smokejumpers shared as they ran from the fire?
(a) To find Sallee and Rumsey.
(b) To find some place cool.
(c) To find some water.
(d) To find a way back to their foreman.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who did Maclean meet who finally makes the connection for him to Robert Sallee?

2. What emotion did Maclean believe was the last one felt by those still living when young people have died?

3. How many Smokejumpers have died from fire since the Mann Gulch fire?

4. What time did Dodge's watch say when he rose from the ashes of his own fire?

5. What sculptor's piece stands at the University of Chicago commemorating the Atomic Age?

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