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3 unusual facts about Young Men and Fire


Mann Gulch fire

Several factors that combined to create the disaster are described in Norman MacLean's book Young Men and Fire.

University of Chicago English professor and author Norman Maclean (1902–1990) researched the fire and its behavior for his book, Young Men and Fire (1992) which was published after his death.

Young Men and Fire

Norman Maclean's son, John Norman Maclean, wrote Fire on the Mountain (1999 book) that told a very similar story about the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain on July 6, 1994 in Colorado, which took the lives of 14 firefighters.


Helena National Forest

The forest was the site of the 1949 Mann Gulch fire, which claimed the lives of 13 firefighters and which was the subject of both Norman Maclean's book Young Men and Fire and James Keelaghan's folk song "Cold Missouri Waters."


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