Cart Creek Firefighters Memorial

A grass fire should not have killed anyone. On July 16, 1977, lightning lit a small blaze in the sagebrush two miles from Flaming Gorge Dam, and crews from the Ashley National Forest flew in to knock it down. Then the wind shifted. A wall of flame turned and overran the line on a steep slope, and three men could not outrun it — Gene Campbell, fifty-seven, Dave Noel, thirty-six, and Dwight Hodgkinson, twenty-three. Their deaths, among a run of grass-fire tragedies those years, forced the fire shelters and flame-resistant clothing every wildland firefighter now carries.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Flaming Gorge Dam — 2.1 mi
  A 502-foot concrete dam with a free guided tour inside
• Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area — 2.4 mi
  A turquoise reservoir carved into blazing red canyon walls
• Sheep Creek Canyon Geological Loop — 8.0 mi
  A drive through twisted and upturned rock layers spanning 600 million years
• McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs — 24 mi
  Massive Fremont-era rock art panels on private ranch land open to visitors

More markers nearby

• Mabel Williams Philbrick County Nurse — 16 mi