“High Still Air”

» On Trail August 2008 » Washington Trails www.wta.org “High Still Air” Desolation Peak lookout in the North Cascades. Once an integral part of fire preven- tion, Washington’s remote lookout cabine are now prime hiking destinations. The rich history of fire lookouts in Washington State What is the lure of a lookout site—the views? call your own. And the government even paid The solitude? Nostalgia for a simpler life? Per- you to be there!” haps it is, as Gary Snyder wrote in his poem, “You felt like you owned the world up there,” “Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout,” said Bev Heebner of the ten summers she and “Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup, her husband Charlie spent atop Oregon Butte in Looking down for miles southeastern Washington. Through high still air”. The people who staffed lookouts were For decades, people have spent summers as outdoorsmen and teachers, young and retired, fire lookouts scanning the skies for smoke or loners and couples, poets and scientists. They enemy airplanes, reading pulp fiction, chasing committed to two months at the height of the mice and befriending mountain goats, eating fire season, from snowmelt in July through the beans and hauling water. “It was a great life,” first snows of September. It was a summer job wrote Ray Kresek in Fire Lookouts of the North- like no other. west. “You woke up in the morning to the finest The first lookout station was merely a pup views of all. You breathed the freshest air in tent and a tall tree on a high mountain, called a the world. You ate and did the chores when the “rag camp.” Western Washington’s first lookout spirit moved you. You had a whole mountain to cabin was built in 1910 atop Red Mountain near By Judy Bentley Mount Adams. Devastating fires, such as the www.wta.org August 2008 » Washington Trails On Trail « Preserving Lookout History Ray and Rita Kresek started the Historic Lookout Project and the Fire Bob Adler (left) and Forest Clark, members of Friends of Kelly Butte, at work restoring Judy Bentley Lookout Museum lookout window frames. Preservation of fire lookouts is primarily done by volunteers. in their Spokane Yacolt Burn of 1902, convinced federal, state site. On bare mountains, the cabins were built home to spread and private timber companies to construct on the ground. Among the trees, the lookouts knowledge about a vast network of fire lookout stations in the perched on towers. Cables and ground wires and encourage 1920s. During the Great Depression, the Civil- secured them in high winds and protected the preservation ian Conservation Corps added hundreds more them from lightning. They were furnished with of lookouts. The and set up lines of communication by stretch- a radio or telephone, a few old pots, a bunk, a one-acre museum ing 44,750 miles of telephone lines through the lantern and a fire finder. features 19,000 woods. At the system’s peak, there were 5,000 No matter how seductive the views or relics from lookout lookouts nationwide—more than half of them refreshing the air, the first job of a lookout was towers, includ- in four Northwestern states—including 685 in to spot fires. In the early years, the lookout was ing Smokey Bear Washington. also a first responder. Equipped with a fire-pack treasures, eight The highest was at 12,276 feet on Mount with several gallons of water that he could different fire find- Adams, but it was used for only three seasons, hoist onto his back, he could set off to dowse a ers from around then abandoned to the year-round ice. The most fire in its earliest stages, especially fires started the world, an L-6 difficult to reach was Three Fingers, perched by lightning. More often, however, his job was lookout tower cab, above an eagle’s nest in view of Mount Baker; to report fires by telephone or radio so crews a replica of a 1929 the approach was a series of ladders spiked could be dispatched quickly. To locate fires pre- spar tree lookout into a 100-foot rock wall. Some say the most cisely, the lookout used the fire finder, common- 60 feet tall, and a extensive views came from Pyramid Peak, the ly called an “Osborne” after designer William B. 1953 Chevrolet fire highest lookout in the Lake Chelan District. Osborne. The Osborne stood on a table in the truck, a 200-gal- Others say the most spectacular views were center of the cabin and mapped out a radius of lon pumper. The from Desolation Peak in the North Cascades, 22 miles in every direction. The lookout found museum is free, immortalized by Jack Kerouac in his novels the fire through a sliding vertical sight, took an open anytime by Desolation Angels and The Dharma Bums. Only azimuth reading (degrees from the north pole) appointment be- one person ever spent the summer on top of and determined the fire’s distance from the tween March and Mount St. Helens; a proposed cabin atop Mount lookout using landmarks and quarter sections November. Call Rainier was never realized. of the map. 509-466-9171 for The cabins and towers came in standard Each lookout contained its own panoramic reservations. designs, remembered affectionately by their photo, showing every stand of trees, meadow, government labels: D-6 cupola, D-1 cupola, R-3 peak, and valley in the vicinity. The photos log cabin, L-4, L-5, L-6 and R-5. The most typi- were produced in the 1930s by a team carry- cal lookout, an L-4 or L-5, was a 14- or 10-foot- ing 100 pounds of camera gear to 1,400 lookout square “cab” with a shingle roof, heavy shut- sites and 200 patrol points in Oregon and Wash- ters, and windows on all sides. It was pre-cut, ington. The photographer perched a tripod on hauled to the mountain top, and assembled on- the peak of the cabin roof to take each photo- » On Trail August 2008 » Washington Trails www.wta.org graph. Stehekin wilderness.” Then “there was this to- Although lookouts didn’t scan the skies 24 tal, unearthly silence—not a sound whatsoever. Renting a hours a day, they soon knew the terrain and the It was as if time itself was suspended.” Lookout patterns of fire starts, such as sleeper fires. Ray Food, water, and wood or fuel were hauled Kresek described a sleeper fire as a lightning by mule team or “shank’s mare.” In the begin- fire that lies in a pocket at night. As soon as ning of the season, snowmelt provided water; Only Evergreen the sun hits it at dawn, it sends up a puff of later the lookout hiked daily to the nearest lake, Mountain smoke. The fire may then lie dormant for as pond, or spring. “The water kept getting heavi- Lookout, ten long as a week, until the fuel burns on a hot, er; the trail kept getting longer; the groceries miles northeast of windy day. A keen lookout can spot the initial got heavier,” said Heebner of their decision to Skykomish, and puff of smoke and watch for it when the fire retire from lookout duty before someone asked, the Clearwater flares later. “Aren’t you getting too old for this?” Lookout Cabin Lightning storms are spectacular on the Women and couples became more common in in southeastern peaks. “We lived for the lightning storms,” lookouts during World War II, when the govern- Washington south Heebner said. “Wham, bang…very exciting.” ment staffed the stations year-round as part of of Pomeroy can be Outside, the buildings were protected with the Aircraft Warning Service. Their task was to rented. But both heavy copper lightning arrestors. Inside, the watch for enemy planes, particularly flying in have been unavail- lookout could rest his feet on an insulated stool. from the west. After the war, lookout stations able recently due “There is little or no danger involved if one took a more peaceful turn. Poets of the Beat to storm damage stays inside,” said former lookout and glaciolo- Generation, including Gary Snyder, Jack Ker- to the access road gist Austin Post, but “the blinding, tremendous ouac and Phillip Whalen spent summers scan- and repair work, flash and crackle of the lightning bolts strik- ning the North Cascades skies not only for fires respectively. To ing only a few feet overhead is still impressive but for inspiration. Snyder crafted many poems check availability, enough.” among the peaks in addition to Kerouac’s two call the National Another attraction was silence, the high still novelized memoirs. The 2007 summer lookout at Recreation Reser- air Snyder described. Lookouts learned the Desolation posted lines from Kerouac’s jour- vation Service at rhythms of the day. Occasionally on Pyramid nal on the window: “On Desolation, I was the 1-877-444-677 or Mountain, Post experienced five minutes at alonest man in the world.” visit www. the end of the day when “the shadows were By the mid-1970s, lookout jobs were scarce. ReserveUSA.com. extending long across the myriad peaks of the The Washington Department of Natural The author, right, and Kay Forsythe visit the Oregon Butte lookout in Southeast Washington. Unlike many lookout cabins, it’s still staffed in the summer. www.wta.org August 2008 » Washington Trails On Trail « Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Park Service relied more on technol- Four Great Lookout Hikes ogy and aerial reconnaissance and, eventually there were more people in the woods with cell Kelly Butte phones and GPS systems.

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