Aimee Bissonette - Headstrong Hallie!: The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the First Female Fire Guard

With thanks to the Tofte Lake Center and in honor of artist and nature lover Gaia
Fenna, who it is said had a bit of Hallies spirit. And, as always, with love to Bryan.

Aime

To the forests and parks of California where I spent my childhood summers.
They are a gift worth being protected.

David

Photograph of Hallie Morse Daggett with binoculars courtesy
of Klamath National Forest, Yreka, California

Photographs of Hallie Morse Daggett at pole-mounted
telephone and at desk telephone used with permission of
the Siskiyou County Museum, Yreka, California

Text Copyright 2021 Aime Bissonette | Illustration Copyright 2021 David Hohn | Design Copyright 2021 Sleeping Bear Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief
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Printed and bound in the United States.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bissonette, Aime M., author. | Hohn, David, 1974- illustrator.
Title: Headstrong Hallie! : the story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the first female fire guard / written by Aime Bissonette ; illustrated by David Hohn.
Description: Ann Arbor : Sleeping Bear Press, 2021. | Audience: Ages 6-10 | Summary: In the 1880s the U.S. Forest Service didnt hire women, thinking they couldnt handle the
physical challenges of the work, but Hallie Morse Daggett overcame discrimination to become the first woman fire guard hired by the U.S. Forest ServiceProvided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020031590 | ISBN 9781534110618 (hardcover) | Subjects: LCSH: Daggett, Hallie Morse, 1878-1964--Juvenile literature. | Fire lookoutsOregonKlamath Marsh
National Wildlife Refuge--BiographyJuvenile literature. | United States. Forest ServiceOfficials and employeesJuvenile literature. Classification: LCC SD421.375 .B57 2021 | DDC
634.9/618dc23 | LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020031590

Hallie leapt from her bed and raced to the
window, pulling back the curtains. A bright
orange glow filled the sky.

Flames licked the tops of far-off trees. Hallies
house was safe for now, but the winds could
shift at any moment. Even if her home was
safe, the forest was in dangerthe trees, the
animals, her neighbors.

Hallie raced to get dressed. She had to wake
her sister, Leslie.

The fire crews would be here soon. They
had to be ready. Hallie had to help save
her forest home.

Hallie Morse Daggett
never feared the forest.

Certainly not!

She hiked among the tall trees of Californias Siskiyou
Mountains, listened for the calls of familiar birds, and
looked for signs of wildlife. She fished the rushing
Salmon River with her brother, Ben, and sister, Leslie.

She was an expert shot who loved to hunt.

Fire. And summer was the worst time of all for forest fires.

Hallie had seen the horrible power of fire race through the trees, leaving
them scorched and leafless. She had seen the animals of the forest scatter
and flee from racing flamesdeer and foxes, rabbits and tiny mice. And
she had seen those flames come dangerously close to her familys home.

So whenever US Forest Service crews came to fight the fires, Hallie
joined the fight. She and Leslie stamped out abandoned campfires.
They brought food and supplies to the men at the fire line.

Fire was a constant worry in Hallies life.

At night in bed, with the smell of smoke thick in the air,
Hallie vowed to do more. Who knew the mountains better
than she did? Who would protect them and keep her friends
and family safe? Hallie decided she would work for the US
Forest Service when she grew up.

What kind of girl dreams a dream like that?
A headstrong girl, for sure.

As soon as she finished school, Hallie began mailing letters to the
US Forest Service. She wanted work. She wanted to help fight fires.

But the Forest Service said no.

A few years later, tragedy struck. The Great Fire of 1910 burned
millions of acres of forest in Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
Fanned by hurricane-force winds, the fire destroyed entire towns.
People diedmost of them firefighters.

Hallie was more determined than ever. She wrote more letters. The
Forest Service needed someone like Hallie, she told them. She had
grown up in the mountains. She knew forest fires and the dangers
they posed. She simply would not take no for an answer.

In 1913, Hallie finally got her break. The man who was the fire lookout at
the Eddy Gulch Lookout Station quit to take a better paying jobright
before the start of fire season. Hallie knew the Forest Service would act
quickly to fill the post. She sat down and wrote her most heartfelt letter yet.

Ranger M. H. McCarthy received three applications for the Eddy Gulch
fire lookout job. In addition to Hallie, two men applied. Ranger McCarthy
carefully reviewed all three applications, then sent his recommendation
to his boss:

I hope your heart is strong enough to stand the shock.
It is this: One of the most untiring and enthusiastic
applicants which I have for the position is Miss Hallie
Morse Daggett, a wide-awake woman of 30 years, who
knows and has traversed every trail on the Salmon River
watershed, and is thoroughly familiar with every foot of the
District... she is not afraid of anything that walks, creeps,
or flies. She is a perfect lady in every respect...

News spread that Hallie would be the new lookout at Eddy
Gulch. It caused quite a stir.

Some of the Forest Service men made bets she would quit
within a few days. They were sure Hallie would be frightened
by the fierce electrical storms atop the mountain. They were
sure she would be lonely at the isolated station where days or
even weeks could pass without seeing another human being.

Each morning, Hallie raised the American flag. She gathered
firewood and fetched water from a nearby spring. Sometimes
a hunter, camper, or fellow forest guard would come by to visit.

And Leslie made the three-hour climb up the mountain on