Ed Pulaski

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Edward C. "Ed" Pulaski (1868-1931) was a U.S. Forest Service ranger based in Wallace, Idaho. Born in Ohio, he was a great grand-nephew of Kazimierz Pułaski, a general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Ed Pulaski traveled west and worked as a miner, railroad worker, and ranch foreman before joining the forest service in 1908. [1]

On August 20, 1910, he was credited with saving his crew of 45 men when a fire they were attempting to fight suddenly broke out of control, later known as the "Great Idaho Fire" or "The Big Blow-up." It had been unusually dry in 1910 and forest fires were rampant across the northern Rockies. Pulaski was supervising crews on the west fork of Placer Creek, about five miles south of Wallace.

Drawing on his knowledge of the area and of the dynamics of forest fires, Pulaski led his crew to safety in an abandoned prospect mine. Pulaski is reported to have stood by the front entrance of the mine throughout the night with a pistol, threatening to shoot the first man who tried to leave as the timbers of the mine caught fire. All but five survived the deadly fire. The mine entrance is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ed Pulaski is widely credited for the invention of the Pulaski in 1911, a hand tool commonly used in wildland firefighting. A combination hand tool with a mattock for digging or grubbing on one side and an axe for chopping on the other, it is often called a "Pulaski tool." [2]

Mount Pulaski, a 5480 foot (1670 m) peak 1.5 miles southwest of Wallace, is named for him.

[edit] External links

• Polish Culture site - Ed Pulaski
• Idaho Forests.org - The Pulaski Project (background)
• The Pulaski Project
• Canadian military site - Ed Pulaski
• Surrounded by Forest Fires - My Most Exciting Experience as a Forest Ranger, by E.C. Pulaski
• U.S. Forest Service - Invention of the Pulaski tool