Not long after World War I, ideas started being talked about to use plans for spotting fires in the backcountry. They also started thinking about dropping firefighters with parachutes. They first experimented with dummies, then did live jumps to prove that it could be done safely, according to information from a brochure by the USDA Forest Service.

In 1940, the Moose Creek Ranger Station was chosen to be the smokejumper base. A parachute loft was constructed of poles and shakes at the southeast corner of the runway.

On July 12, 1940, a fire call came through requesting the jumpers make their first jump to a fire on the Moose Creek District of the Nez Perce National Forest. Travel Air NC8112 was dispatched to pick up the jumpers, Rufus Robinson, Kooskia, and Earl Cooley, Hamilton, MT, made that first jump in the history of the Forest Service on the Rock Pillar Fire in the Marten Creek drainage.

All seven Region One smokejumpers were stationed at Moose Creek in the program's first year. Moose Creek continued to be used as the jump base through the 1943 fire season when it moved to Nine Mile outside Missoula, MT.

To see more of the info check this link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd479358.pdf.

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