Robert E. Marsh and the U.S. Forest Service
=Robert
E. Marsh attended North Pacific
Dental College in Portland, Ore. He started
at the college in 1929 and graduated
in 1934. What was then North Pacific
Dental College became the University of Oregon Dental School and is now the Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry.
=During the summers,
between terms at North Pacific,
Robert Marsh worked for the U.S. Forest Service fighting
fires in the Salmon (Idaho) National
Forest. The idea for
doing this came from a fellow dental student from Carmen, Idaho. Work
Robert Marsh did for the Forest Service included using a crosscut
saw, making trails and fighting fires. His horse was named, “Red.”
=Robert Marsh and his classmate from Carmen, Idaho,
traveled from Portland to Salmon, Idaho, drove Dr. Marsh's Model T Ford touring model (without a top). The Model T cost about $19. To save money,
he learned how to replace the Model T’s wooden transmission bands.
=“The top speed of this car was 41 miles an
hour, otherwise it would
boil over (it had no water pump),”
Dr. Marsh said. In the car were two water bags and a five gallon can of cheap oil. It took him and his classmate three days to drive from Portland
to Idaho, via Pendleton,
Oregon. Once in Salmon, Dr. Marsh jacked up his Model T and put it on blocks and it sat all summer. He
took the battery out of the car
and sent it to Salmon,
which had one store. Don't know why he sent the battery to Salmon where, “Mr. Sweeney” was Salmon’s postmaster.=
# 5/11/2022
Note: Photo of a 1925 Ford Model T Touring was found on Internet. This is not a photo of Dr. Marsh's car.
