Galena Mountain Lookout Re-Located to Maloney Ridge

Maloney Ridge LO Site. The Galena Mountain LO was moved here in 1941. The last Maloney Ridge LO was removed in 1969.

Lookout Site Regions: ORIGIN SITE ~ Northwest, RE-LO SITE ~ Northwest

The move of the Galena Lookout L-4 cab to become the Maloney Ridge Lookout is a good example of a Type 3 Re-Location.  Like most of these cases where a lookout, or part of a lookout, is moved to become the fire lookout at a second site, it was later removed from the second site.  No structures remain at either the Galena or Maloney Ridge  site, but lookout artifacts can be seen at both.

The FFLA web site (www.firelookout.org) provides this information about the ORIGIN SITE, Galena Lookout:  ”Built in 1931, this L-4 cab was moved to Maloney Ridge in 1941 and is now gone.”    There is some uncertainty about the dates of the construction and of the move of this lowland lookout.   Several sources gave dates ranging from 1931 to 1935-36 being given as the date that an L-4 cab was built here.  What is known is that it must have been built by 1934 at the latest as Panoramic photos were taken on August 8, 1934 from the top of the cab.

There is even more confusion concerning the dates of the move of the L-4 cab to Maloney Ridge and the dates of its use there.  Both the FFLA website and Rex’s Forest Fire Lookout Page in www.firelookout.com give 1941 for the date.  Rex gives this info for the Maloney Ridge lookout: “1941: L-4 cab moved from Galena Mtn.. 1942: AWS cabin. 1953: L-4 cab. Destroyed 1969.”  Eric Willhite provides data on his web site indicating that the Aircraft Warning System was using a Galena station at least through 1942 and 43.  The AWS built sleeping quarters at Galena on 10/7/43.

There was a USFS Galena Guard station near the Galena Lookout.  It is possible that the AWS used the Guard Station rather than the lookout site.  If that were the case, it could explain the apparent discrepancy in the dates for the L-4 cab move.  (More research is needed to clear this up.)

The best information that I have found to date indicates that the Galena L-4 cab was moved to become the 1st Maloney Ridge Lookout in 1941.  Then the AWS built a cabin there in 1942.  The Galena cab was either removed then or in 1953 when a second L-4 fire lookout replaced the earlier buildings.  This second L-4 was then removed in 1969.  Nothing remains at the Maloney Ridge Lookout Site now but some concrete and steel lookout artifacts and a nearby set of communication towers.

The Galena Mountain Lookout cab was move from the lowland ORIGIN SITE to become the Maloney Ridge LO in 1941

Galena Mtn LO site in the North Fork Skykomish River Valley. (2018 Google Earth Image)
Maloney Ridge LO site, the RE-LO SITE, on a NW ridge of Sobieski Mtn. (2015 Owen Photo)

We visited the Maloney Ridge LO site in May, 2012.

The reason for this name is a bit mysterious as the lookout was at 3364’on a northwesterly ridge of 4410′ Sobieski Mountain. There is a Maloney Ridge west of Sobieski, but the lookout was not on it. We got to the lookout site by walking up an often-gated road. The lookout was gone, but there was a modern communication complex several hundred yards before the abandoned lookout site.

We walked past the communication tower to reach the site. (Eric Willhite photo)
A corner footing and another big concrete pad were seen at the lookout site. Cleveland Mountain, the site of an early fire lookout camp, could be seen toward the NW.
Another footing block was found. The town of Skykomish could be seen far below.
Two steel anchor bolts remained.
Peggy stood at the edge of the lookout site. The row of snowy peaks to the NNW behind her included Cleveland Mtn., Mt Index., Philadelphia Mtn. and others. The first ridgeline behind her is Maloney Ridge.
Skykomish and Highway 2 heading down the Skykomish River Valley could be seen to the NNW. Mt. Index and Baring Peak are on opposite sides of the valley.
Beckler Peak, another abandoned lookout site could be seen to the NE.

We visited the Galena Mountain Lookout Site on August 3, 2020.

This lowland lookout was not atop a mountain but was on a wooded slope near the bottom of the North Fork Skykomish River Valley. At 1240′, the lookout site is only about 1/4 mile and 100 vertical feet above the Index-Galena Road. The steep off-trail walk to the site through the forest covered with growth and downed branches was harder than the statistics suggest. Eric Willhite, Paul Michelson and Craig Willis had searched the brush and finally found the site in 2018. We used the clues and GPS coordinates in Eric’s trip report to guide us in our search.

We tracked back and forth through the brush and ferns. We were almost to give up when we stumbled across one of the L-4 cab corner footings.
We had arrived the Galena LO site, the ORIGIN SITE, for this re-location. As Eric had reported “it can be difficult to spot”.
Ralph sat on another of the corner footings alongside another “lookout artifact”. We had found an old coke bottle sticking out of the ground near the old outhouse location.
Another metal footing was found hidden in the brush.
A metal bed frame was found nearby.
A northern view from one of the Panoramas taken from the roof of the lookout in 1934 shows that the river valley and hills above it had been logged before the lookout was built.
The trees completely blocked the view to the north from the lookout site when we visited it in 2020.
A view to the southeast taken from another of the 1934 Panoramas showed that the hill side in that direction had also been logged. (The outhouse is shown in this image.)
Our 2020 photo, taken looking SE from the lookout site, also shows that the forest had grown in to block that view. The steep hillside in that direction could be faintly seen through the trees.
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By hiker99ralph

I am a long time hiker and more recently have added lookout chasing to the hiking hobby. I served as a lookout fireman at the Hoodoo Lookout in the Blue Mountains in the summers of 1957 and 1958. I got away from lookouts after that until retiring when I started chasing lookouts.