About Us

The Winema Interagency Hotshot Crew is stationed at the Klamath Ranger District in South Central Oregon on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains. The crew has been stationed here since 1982, after moving over from the neighboring Rogue River National Forest.

The Winema IHC traces its roots to 1962 on the Applegate Ranger District (Star Ranger Station) of the Rogue River N.F., where the Star Inter-Regional Fire Suppression Crew was formed. The crew stayed there through 1969.

In 1970, the crew was moved to the Prospect Ranger District and became the Rogue River Inter-Regional Fire Suppression Crew, or the “Rogue River Roughriders, as they were more commonly called. The crew was stationed out of the Union Creek work center. The crew logo was that of a cowboy on a bucking horse. They remained at this location, and with this name through 1979. During that last year the crew traveled with 21 people. The 21’st person was a photojournalist from the National Geographic Society, who spent the summer on the crew. Some of his photographs later appeared in the magazine (Sept. 1982) in an article on wildfire. Also in 1979 the Roughriders earned a Region 6 cash award for fireline performance.

The crew was renamed the “Prospect Interagency Hotshot Crew” in 1980 as a result of a new naming convention that year.

In 1982 the crew was administratively moved (and renamed as the “Winema Interagency Hotshot Crew”) to the Winema National Forest in Klamath Falls, OR where it is currently stationed.

Superintendents