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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What emotion did Maclean believe was the last one felt by those still living when young people have died?
(a) Confusion.
(b) Pity.
(c) Damnation.
(d) Sadness.

2. When was the only time Smokejumpers were allowed to be alone while fighting a fire?
(a) As they fell to earth from the plane.
(b) As they made escape fires.
(c) As they dug trenches and holes.
(d) As they ate a meal.

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

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

5. How did W.R. Moore assist Maclean in his research about Mann Gulch?
(a) He ordered that all documentation on the fire be sent to the library in Missoula.
(b) He ordered that all documents on the fire be sent to Washington, D.C.
(c) He ordered that all Forest Service documents on the fire be available to Maclean.
(d) He ordered that all documentation on the fire be put on the internet.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who made the crosses that mark the spots the Smokejumpers fell, defeated by the fire?

2. What well-known magazine had a lead article entitled "Smokejumpers Suffer Ordeal by Fire?"

3. What did thinking about the struggle for oxygen that the Smokejumpers' experienced remind the author of?

4. What is "Red Skies of Montana?"

5. What words are in the Common Book of Prayer that beg to not die of sudden death?

Short Essay Questions

1. What object do Sallee and Rumsey discover at the site of a fallen comrade? Why was this discovery important?

2. What did the land in Mann Gulch look like in the aftermath of the fire?

3. How did the perspective shift as the author continued his discussion of the fire from looking at the mushroom cloud in the sky? What did he hope to learn by changing perspective?

4. When Maclean and his group began their trek to Mann Gulch, how did Maclean respond to those who were concerned about his heart being strong enough to make it to the site of the fire?

5. How did Maclean explain the picture of a big fire? What was it made up of in his opinion?

6. What different theories did Henry Thol on one side and Carl Gustafson present as to the escape fire set by Dodge? How did Maclean suggest the Review Board of the Mann Gulch fire might have immediately answered the question of the escape fire set by Dodge?

7. How did the author describe the final moments of the men's lives before the fire overtook them? What elements of nature were prominent in their lives just before their deaths? How did they actually die?

8. How did the Forest Service receive Maclean when he began searching for the documentation on the Mann Gulch fire? Why?

9. How did Jansson's explanation of why the non-flammable objects such as wallets and watches were found uphill from the men's bodies? How did his explanation differ from that of the Forest Service?

10. What did the gulch look like forty years after the fire? Was there any living vegetation?

(see the answer keys)

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