The Forest Fire Mystery

Wilderness Mysteries #6

by Troy Nesbit

Art Mills and his family have recently moved to southwestern Colorado. When Art isn’t working in the family’s Dew Drop Inn, he’s out exploring the national forest that surrounds them. A favorite spot is Eagle Mountain, where the abandoned Fittleson’s Folly mine—a good spot for snipe hunting!—is located. When the secretive logger Mr. Maynard threatens Art, his sister Liz, and their friends to stay away, the kids can’t help but wonder what Mr. Maynard is up to. And then once the forest fires start, Art knows someone is up to no good . . .

The recurrent themes of the books in the Wilderness Mystery Series are natural phenomena—caves, canyons, mountains, sand dunes, and forests—and a sense of the past as seen through archaeology. In many of the narratives, events of long ago are seen to have left traces of their passing. Notwithstanding the fact that the books were written in the 1950s, the progressive Franklin Folsom (alias Troy Nesbit) had refreshing views of women, Native Americans, and the environment, and he was prescient in having his characters often oppose corporate and government efforts to develop wilderness areas.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery, Westerns

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Legal name: Franklin Folsom

Also used the following pseudonyms:
Benjamin Brewster
Samuel Cutler
Michael Gorham
Lyman Hopkins
and Troy Nesbit

Reviews

[Ian]

You know what? I cannot really recall the details of this novel—been that long, but I do recall re-reading this several times back when I was a kid. I am giving it four stars, largely as it comes from my far distant and sometimes happy childhood, where books were my one true companion.

[Rebekah Morris]

A fun mystery story that made me laugh several times. Yes, it was written for a younger age group, but I enjoyed it anyway. The setting was delightful and I wanted to go visit this small town. And the characters were fun. Flossie and her “children” added so much character to the story and unexpected situations. It was also rather interesting to learn about logging in National Forests as well as prospecting in the 1960s.

[James Hogan]

Throwback! I hadn't read this book since probably sometime in middle school. I believe I discovered it at Grandma's house one trip to Iowa and brought it back with me? Published in 1962, this is a fun children's book that I appreciated back in the day for giving me a small window into what it was like to live as a kid in small town Colorado in the mid 20th century! It's an interesting (although not altogether engrossing) mystery with a good cast of kids and adults. Honestly as a kid reading this, I enjoyed reading the life of a kid working in a hotel/diner the most! After so many years, still remembered the jukebox trick, perlite, the snipe hunt, Art working for his parents and his attempt to make friends. Smiled multiple times coming across nostalgic bits! Not a great novel by any means but I still appreciate it for the historical glimpses one obtains.

[Sharon Buxton]

C. fiction, middle grades, geared towards boys, adventure, mystery, Mom's stash, discard, hardback Library edition of same book published as Forest Fire Mystery by Troy Nesbit

[John Geary]

Read it as a child in the 60s, quite enjoyed it. It was a nice break from the usual Hardy Boys and Tom Swift series that I read regularly from the age of 8 until about 11.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Bill]

Fun read aloud for our 10 and 11 year olds. It did not hold the attention of the younger, however our teenagers were listening, because they asked me to stop reading when they had to step out of the room. A few good twists in the story and not as predictable as I thought. Not to give too much away, but I thought for sure Mr. Nesbit was setting up the Forest Service employee to be the "bad guy". I was glad to read he was not. How they fought wildfires then, and how we do it now, was also fun to read and prompted many questions from the listeners.

[Ronald]

Nesbit is a pseudonym for Franklin Folsom; read during summer/fall of 1965 after school started