"Back then, basically you had your hotshot crews, you had your suppression crews, like your Navajo 1, 2, 3, Hopi 1, 2, 3, and stuff, and you also had some convict crews."
Okay, well, back then--this is twenty-nine years ago--they had several crews from both the Navajo and Hopi Reservations, and they'd be called Hopi 1, 2, 3, Navajo 1, 2, 3. They were ten-man suppression crews, and they were based on a call-up basis, where if they had a fire where they needed manpower, they would call up to the reservation and the crews would then come down. They would just stay a regular Forest Service group, employed full-time by Forest Service, just doing project work when they weren't on fire. And actually, I forgot, 1972, that year they did have a ten-man suppression crew at Blue Ridge and one at Long Valley. They were suppression crews, they weren't hotshot crews.
And the real difference between that and a hotshot crew was those were usually ten-man crews. The hotshots were twenty-man. The hotshots were employed full-time, and when we weren't on a fire, we were doing different types of project work on the forest, cutting fuel breaks. In 1972 they housed the hotshot crew out at the Ski and Spur Ranch, which is at the base of the Peaks. In February of 1972, they had gotten the ranch in a land exchange from I believe their name was Grasmowens [phonetic]. They had owned the Snowbowl, and that's why the name Ski and Spur. They had this little ranch kind of at the base…..
Garcia Hunt: So is there a difference between hand crew and hotshot crew?
Bishop: To my way of thinking, no. A hand crew is somebody basically that is going to--you're building, handling, you're using pulaskis, mcclouds, and shovels, and scratching out hand line. A hotshot crew is one of the type of crews that does it. I'm sure things have changed in twenty-nine years, but back then, basically you had your hotshot crews, you had your suppression crews, like your Navajo 1, 2, 3, Hopi 1, 2, 3, and stuff, and you also had some convict crews. I expect they used them a lot in California where inmates could get credit and reduce their sentence by working on fire lines.