At the turn of the last century, the job of the forest ranger was still relatively rugged. Without effective means of traveling the backcountry other than by horse or on foot, the amount of equipment carried was an issue near and dear to the rangers' hearts and crucial to their survival. To fight the brush fires that these intrepid souls often encountered one needed an axe, a mattock and a shovel, at bare minimum. This is rather a load to carry in the best of circumstances, let alone when battling a growing conflagration. One ranger who worked in Idaho (around Wallace) decided to lighten his load by welding the a blade from a mattock to the back of a single bladed axe. His name was Edward Pulaski, and it was thus that the tool, widely known and wielded by foresters and forest fire fighters everywhere, gained its name.