February 16, 2026
Saddle up for archive drama
Show HN: Scanned 1927-1945 Daily USFS Work Diary
1927–45 ranger diaries go online: 7,488 pages, real mules, and a fight over where it belongs
TLDR: A family digitized a Forest Service ranger’s 1927–45 diaries (7,488 pages) and used AI to transcribe and index them, bringing a century-old workday to life online. Commenters applauded, argued for uploading to Internet Archive, shared mule trivia, and imagined a giant crowdsourced history map—why it matters and where it should live.
The internet just got a time machine: a Forest Service ranger’s daily diaries from 1927 to 1945—fires, arrests, roadwork, even Pearl Harbor watch duty—are now online. The uploader says they personally scanned all 7,488 pages and used AI tools to read the handwriting and build an index. Commenters turned into instant historians, gawking at entries like the 10-day Mud Creek Fire in 1931 and federal arson busts in 1932, while cheering the family effort and the old-school grit it captures.
But the comment section’s true wildfire? Where this thing should live. One camp is urgently yelling, “Internet Archive or bust!”, dropping guides and links to upload and manage items. Another crowd points to the American Diary Project as a home for other journals. Meanwhile, a big-brain futurist chimes in with a dream of a crowdsourced mega-map of history, where diaries link up to show who was where doing what across the 1920s–40s. And because this is the internet, the surprise meme of the day: “government mules are real”—yes, the U.S. still uses mule teams to haul gear into the wild. It’s nostalgia meets nerd energy, with a side of mule facts and just enough hosting drama to keep the comments sizzling.
Key Points
- •Daily work diaries (1927–1945) of USFS ranger Reuben P. Box have been scanned and digitized.
- •The diaries cover forest management, fire suppression, law enforcement, road construction, and daily life in northern California.
- •Handwriting transcription used Mistral OCR; summaries and indexes were built with Anthropic’s Claude; hosting is by DreamHost.
- •The project partners include Working Toast, LLC and the Stirling City Historical Society; contact provided is Lance Orner.
- •Timeline highlights include transfers (1927, 1928, 1938), the Mud Creek Fire (July 22, 1931), federal arson arrests and Grand Jury testimony (Oct 1932), WWII forest watches (Dec 7, 1941), and retirement (Mar 31, 1945).