The Wildland Firefighters National Monument is an American monument and memorial dedicated to

wildland Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

and

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

firefighters. The monument, which is located on one acre of land, stands on the grounds of the

National Interagency Fire Center The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho is the physical facility which is the home to the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC), and the National Multi-Agency Coordination group (NMAC or MAC). The center works clo ...

's (NIFC) headquarters in

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. The monument was dedicated on May 25, 2000.

History

In 1994, fourteen firefighters were killed fighting the

South Canyon Fire The South Canyon Fire was a 1994 wildfire that took the lives of 14 wildland firefighters on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on July 6, 1994. It is often also referred to as the "Storm King" fire. It was the subject of J ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. The Wildland Firefighter Foundation, an organization which assists fallen firefighters and their families, began to seek a way to honor the fourteen firefighters and others who had died in the line of duty, leading to the idea for the present monument.

Memorial

The site of the monument and its surrounding park was originally a parking lot. Three eight-foot tall,

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

statues of firefighters, which were designed and created by American sculptor

Lawrence Nowlan Lawrence Joseph Nowlan Jr. (January 11, 1965 – July 30, 2013) was an American sculptor and figurative artist known for his statues of notable individuals, including Harry Kalas and Jackie Gleason. Nowlan also designed memorials, including the f ...

, are the centerpiece of the monument. A

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

feature was designed by Bill Mitchell and Hugh Carson, both Fire Center employees. Mr. Carson, a former stone mason, spent two summers building the water feature, with daily assistance from the Boise Smokejumpers, who mixed cement and placed rocks in place that they had gathered from a local

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

. Ted Rex used a large front-end loader to gather several larger rocks, one weighing four tons which required the largest crane in Boise to place. The monument and sculptures are surrounded by one acre of land. A walkway, with commemorative granite stones inscribed with the names of donors and other supporters, brings visitors through the park leads to the memorial. The surrounding area has been landscaped using native trees,

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s and grass which are native to Idaho. A replica of one of Lawrence Nowlan's firefighter sculptures was installed in

Prescott, Arizona Prescott ( ) is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the city's population was 45,827. The city is the county seat of Yavapai County. In 1864, Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona T ...

, in August 2013, to commemorate the lives of nineteen firefighters killed in the

Yarnell Hill Fire The Yarnell Hill Fire was a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona, ignited by dry lightning on June 28, 2013. On June 30, it overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Just one of the hotshots on the crew survived—he was pos ...

of June 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildland Firefighters National Monument Bronze sculptures in the United States Buildings and structures completed in 2000 Buildings and structures in Boise, Idaho Firefighting in the United States Firefighting memorials Monuments and memorials in Idaho Outdoor sculptures in the United States Sculptures in Idaho Sculptures of men in the United States Tourist attractions in Boise, Idaho 2000 establishments in Idaho

History

Memorial

See also

References