Amy Grisak presents on “History of Fire Lookouts in Northwest Montana”

Author, radio co-host, and sustainable-food practitioner Amy Grisak will present her years of research on fire lookouts of Glacier National Park and Northwest Montana as part of the museum’s 21st annual John White Series.

Grisak will cover fire suppression efforts and events starting with the Big Burn of 1910, which consumed 3 million acres and 87 lives, prompting creation of the lookout system. In Northwest Montana, with its predominant logging industry, such measures were critical to the economy and livelihoods of the area. “It’s one thing to learn about the number of acres burned,” she says, “and another to learn the personal stories.”

“I’m a fire-lookout nut,” says Grisak, who has hiked into many existing lookouts, such as trekking the 11 miles to Huckleberry Lookout in Glacier National Park. She also will present information and images of fire lookouts that have been lost along with ones such as Hornet, which marked a century this year up in the North Fork.

A former resident of Coram, where she built 220 raised garden beds out of stone on her property, Grisak now lives in Great Falls, where she co-hosts the radio program Front Range Outdoors and writes books and articles. She will sign copies of her Nature Guide to Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks and Found Photos of Yellowstone at the event.

The John White Series is named for John Whites Sr. and Jr., whose friendly faces warmed up Kalispell and area learners for decades. 

Details:
2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15; half-hour social time and refreshments after the presentation.

Tickets for individual events are $15 (members)/$20 (nonmembers).

Visit nwmthistory.org/programs/john-white-speaker-series for tickets and more info. Tickets also may be purchased by stopping in or calling the museum and talking with Terri or Margaret, 406-756-8381 option 5 or 6.

Regular museum hours:
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday
Northwest Montana History Museum, 124 Second Ave. East, Kalispell, MT 59901; 406-756-8381; nwmthistory.org