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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the blowup and its fire rising out of Mann Gulch look like?

2. What did Sallee and Rumsey say as they went up the last hillside?

3. At the end of his life, what did Maclean consider the ultimate drive of the human spirit?

4. As an old man, what did the author hope to receive by his study of the Mann Gulch fire?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What was it like when the fire reached its height and totally covered the landscape? To what did Maclean compare the fire at this point?

2. What did Maclean mean when he said, "viewing total conflagration is literally blinding, as sight becomes sound."

3. Whom did Maclean find at the Hoerner Waldorf-Champion paper mill? What information did this person give Maclean to move him along in his search for Sallee and Rumsey?

4. 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?

5. What two emotions governed the analysis of the tragedy at Mann Gulch? How did Maclean describe the first emotion among the men in Mann Gulch?

6. What happened to the men when they left the foreman, Dodge, at the site of the escape fire? What name did the author give to the point at which the men left? From what perspective did the author tell the story of their assent?

7. 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?

8. As Maclean began his comparison of the Smokejumpers' run to the top of the ridge to a race run on a track, how did he compare the race run by the Smokejumpers and that of the athlete on a track?

9. Who was Henry Thol, Sr.? What was his role in the Mann Gulch fire?

10. What were Sallee and Rumsey arguing about as Maclean approached them on the ridge? What did they agree on?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Henry Thol, Sr. was the leader of the group of families suing the Forest Service for the wrongful death of their family members. Discuss Mr. Thol and the impact he had on the Mann Gulch fire. What was his opinion of how the young men died in the fire? Why was it important to Maclean's investigation?

Essay Topic 2

In the final chapter, Maclean used a series of metaphors to describe the Mann Gulch fire. What are those metaphors? Why are they successful or unsuccessful in the telling of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Maclean speaks throughout his book about the importance of studying and understanding the Mann Gulch fire of 1949. Discuss why Maclean believes it is important to understand this disaster completely.

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