1933 Honorary Member Profile : Kenneth D. Swan

Wilderness and cameras were Kenneth D. Swan's dual loves. Thirty-seven years with the U.S. Forest Service in Montana gave him the opportunity to indulge in both. He shared the products of those passions with many, including the Spokane Mountaineers, and the club elected him its fourth honorary member in 1933.

In his 1968 book, Splendid Was the Trail, K.D. reveals a childhood affection for high places in his native Massachusetts, where he was born in 1887. "My first love was a range of hills-the Blue Hills of Milton and Quincy....This was my wilderness, easily reached from home by bicycle, trolley, or even on foot, and here I spent countless carefree hours in all seasons, following trails and old wood roads, climbing to rocky summits, discovering abandoned quarries, and exploring woodsy hollows...." His book is a rich and adventuresome chronicle of a forester's life: surveying, mapping, tree planting, preparing yield tables, log scaling, fire fighting by day; the camaraderie of rough camps, backwoods settler's hospitality, and the welcome civilization of tiny mining towns by night.

Facility with a camera was spurred in the 1890's by his father's photography hobby. In June 1911, the brand-new Harvard University forestry graduate hopped off a train in Missoula to begin his job as a forest assistant, a prelude to later years as official photographer for the Forest Service's Northern Region. He reveled in the vast photo opportunities his forester job afforded as he rode his horse or hiked through Montana's hills. "His meticulous attention to names, places, and events not only adds to the flavor of adventure, but also adds a historical aspect and makes the volume a valuable addition to the historical writings about the Northern Rocky Mountain area," wrote Kenneth A. Keeney, a Northern Region division chief.

K.D., as he was commonly known, repeatedly journeyed to Spokane from his Missoula headquarters to show his widely known wildflower, game, mountain, and forest slides at monthly Mountaineer-sponsored educational programs. "Something too good to miss," said the club's May-June bulletin, announcing Swan's "Some Indians, Deserts, and Canyons of the Southwest" program in the Old National Bank auditorium. "Mr. Swan...has developed his own system of natural color photography and his slides are superb." Records show K.D. participating in at least one club outing. Titled "High Climb in the Missions of Montana," the summer 1947 Kinnikinnick write-up lists a Memorial Day joint outing with the Montana Mountaineers, then headed again by Swan. Peaks proposed to climb were Mountaineer, McDonald, and Grey Wolf.

A Spokesman-Review story called Swan "outstanding in promoting and developing an interest in and appreciation of outdoor recreational possibilities in the Pacific Northwest." And the credit line, "Photo by K.D. Swan," was widely seen in the National Geographic, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Living Wilderness, and on the walls of countless Forest Service facilities and homes. Even today, his 1941 photo of smokejumpers about to board a Ford TriMotor at the Missoula airport fills the screen when you address the Forest History Society archives webpage.

In 1926, Swan's speaking and photographic talents were put to work initiating a "showboat" program to bring the Forest Service's conservation aims to the people. He bumped along the rough roads of eastern Montana to 28 small towns in a Model-T Ford pickup loaded with a Homelite generator, DeVry motion picture projector, Baloptician for showing slides, screen, two-reel motion picture, and bedrolls for emergencies.

Mountains lured during off-work hours, too. K.D. was a long-time climber with the Montana Mountaineers and an early president. His wife, the former Ruth Barrow, was climbing with the Montana club before becoming Mrs. Swan. Tourist "safaris" into the Montana wilderness were another Forest Service assignment, with Mrs. Swan's outdoor skills often put to use. She was a frequent companion when he lugged the ancient and cumbersome view box camera, tripod, and black headcloth through the hills. During World War II, both Swans were assigned to tell and depict the stories of the women perched on mountaintop fire lookouts.

Swan retired in Missoula in 1948 and died unexpectedly at home in Missoula in 1970 at the age of 82. He had continued photographing nature across the country into retirement and was working on a second book when he died.

Swan left a unique opportunity for today's Mountaineers to share the life that the club honored: Splendid Was the Trail. You can check it out at the Spokane Public Library's downtown branch.

Lorna Ream

Sources: The Missoulan, Spokesman-Review, Spokane Mountaineers bulletins, and of course, Splendid Was the Trail (Mountain Press, Missoula). I would especially like to thank Bette Ammon of the Missoula Public Library for her assistance.