How Granite Mountain Hotshots are being remembered this year
Tributes to the Granite Mountain Hotshots are returning in full force after ceremonies were curtailed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A stretch of State Route 89 that runs through Yarnell and Prescott is being renamed in honor of the 19 fallen firefighters. At least four ceremonies are planned on or around the June 30 anniversary.
All but one crew member died in the fast-moving Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013 that overran the small mountain village about 35 miles south of Prescott. It was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in 80 years at the time and destroyed 127 homes.
Tuesday: A renamed highway
On Tuesday, a replica of the newly installed Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial Highway signs will be unveiled at a 10 a.m. ceremony at Watson Lake, which is four miles from Prescott.
Prescott Fire Chief Dennis Light said four signs have been installed along the route, which starts northeast of Wickenburg and winds through Yarnell and Prescott before ending north of Chino Valley. Chino Valley was chosen as the end point because some of the Granite Mountain hotshots lived there.
“Everyone was overwhelming supportive of this,” Light said. “It’s just kind of another token of the remembrance of our fallen.”
Tuesday: Event in Prescott
Also on Tuesday, the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew Learning and Tribute Center in Prescott will host a ceremony at noon with music, pipes and drums. Prescott Mayor Greg Mengarelli will make remarks too.
The volunteer-run center contains 7,000 to 8,000 artifacts and memorabilia sent as tributes, including more than 1,000 T-shirts from firefighting crews. Helmets from the 2017 movie about the hotshots, “Only the Brave,” are also on display, including one worn by actor Josh Brolin. He portrayed Granite Mountain superintendent Eric Marsh.
John Marsh, the non-profit center’s chairman and father of Eric Marsh, said the tribute center attracts visitors from all over the world. They are sometimes overcome with emotion, even if they didn’t know the hotshots personally.
“It’s amazing the people, eight years later, still care and still support us,” he said. “We need to remember there are people out there right now risking their lives.”
The center will be open daily from Monday, June 28 through Wednesday, July 7. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. After July 7, the center will return to its three-day-a week schedule of Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The center is in the Prescott Gateway Mall, 3280 Gateway Blvd. More information is available at: gmihc19.org.
Wednesday: Bell-ringing ceremony
On Wednesday, the historic Yavapai County Courthouse in downtown Prescott will ring the bell 19 times — once for each hotshot — beginning at 4:42 p.m. The bell-ringing coincides with when the fast-moving blaze overran the hotshots in a box canyon near Yarnell. To hear the bells, stand on the south side of the courthouse. No speeches are planned.
Wednesday: A park in Yarnell
Also on Wednesday, residents in Yarnell will dedicate a park that has been in the works for seven years in the center of town. The ceremony begins at 4 p.m. at the Yarnell Hill Fire Memorial Park, 22556 S. State Route 89.
Organizers say John Marsh, the father of Eric Marsh, is expected to attend along with Karen and Scott Norris, the parents of hotshot Scott Norris.
Lew and Marcie Theokas, the grandparents of hotshot Garret Zuppiger, will read each hotshot’s name.
The park features a 9-foot-by-9foot steel memorial based on an iconic photo that shows the crew forming a human pyramid. The hotshots are pictured in front of a giant juniper tree that the crew had saved during the 2013 Doce Fire near Prescott.
In the event of rain, the ceremony will move to the Yarnell Community Presbyterian Church at 16455 Tabletop Way.