Issaquah Alps Trails Club (IATC) HISTORY: In 1976, Harvey Manning, a noted local hiking guidebook author and ecologist began a revolution ~ “throw off the wheels that bind, get out of your cars and walk, walk, walk”. He highlighted a small cluster of forested and undeveloped low “mountains”s east of Seattle and pushed them… Continue reading The Blackwater and Blackwater Connector Trails, the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park and the IATC.
Category: Other
Other items including tales of lookout chasers, more than one LO, etc.
Smokejumper Reading List
Smokejumper Reading List My interest in smokejumping began with the research into the move of the Leecher Mountain steel lookout tower to the North Cascades Smokejumper Base (NCSB) to be used in the re-construction of a smokejumper training tower there. I first began studying the history of the NCSB. After being led on a guided… Continue reading Smokejumper Reading List
Yarder Visit ~ 8/24/2023
On Thursday, August 24, Peggy and I hiked to visit the logging donkey yarder that George reported recently. It is an interesting logging relic and makes a good addition to the truck at Dirty Harry’s Museum, the fuel truck on FR 9021, the big logging arch trailer abandoned high on the South Bessemer Road and… Continue reading Yarder Visit ~ 8/24/2023
Grazing in the Pasayten Wilderness
The history of live-stock grazing in the North Cascades contains the formations of the United States Forest Service (USFS) and the National Park Service (NPS), the agencies sometimes contentious differences over land management policies and the decades-long debate for a North Cascades National Park and for wilderness preservation. In the late 1800s, concerns about the future… Continue reading Grazing in the Pasayten Wilderness
Hoodoo and Lookout Mountain LOs
I staffed the Hoodoo Lookout in the Blue Mountains of Northeast Oregon during the summers of 1957 and 1958. I also staffed the nearby Lookout Mountain Lookout for the last two weeks of the fire season in 1958. Both of these lookouts were in the Walla Walla District of the Umatilla National Forest and both… Continue reading Hoodoo and Lookout Mountain LOs
Our Origin & Re-Lo Site Visit Log
ORIGIN LOOKOUT DATE ORIGIN SITE VISITED RE-LOCATED LOOKOUT SITE DATE RE-LO SITE VISITED Salmon River To Be Visited Buckley Foothills Museum 10/2/2019 Deming 6/4/2020 Forks Timber Museum 11/22/2020 Rainier Tower To Be Visited IslandWood Education Center 8/8/2021 & 9/27/2021 Stampede Pass 9/7/2019 Camp Waskowitz 3/3/2007 & 8/31/2019 National 7/8/2021 Now unknown. Still investigating To Be… Continue reading Our Origin & Re-Lo Site Visit Log
FFLA saves the East Flattop Lookout
The last Flattop Lookout was built in 1946. It was a one-of-a-kind frame two-story prototype with windows that slanted outward to cut the sun’s glare, similar to an airport control tower. But the unique design turned out to be too labor intensive and costly, and no more were built. Two other Posts tell the story… Continue reading FFLA saves the East Flattop Lookout
Dick Morrison, Lookout Fan
In 2020, I was lucky to meet Dick Morrison, over the phone and by email, while searching for answers about the fate of the Little Summit Lookout on Orcas Island. Dick is one of the senior members of the growing brigade of Fire Lookout Fans. Dick answered my questions and we then exchanged lookout history… Continue reading Dick Morrison, Lookout Fan
SUMMARY TABLES FOR ALL 4 TYPES OF RE-LOCATIONS
What’s a Re-Located Lookout? Many fire lookouts that were no longer considered useful in fire detection were destroyed in place. Others, the Re-Located Lookouts, were moved to a new location where they were used for other purposes. Some of these, the Type 1 Re-Located LOs, were given or sold to towns or public museums to… Continue reading SUMMARY TABLES FOR ALL 4 TYPES OF RE-LOCATIONS
Useful References
Here are a number of references that I have used to learn more about the lookouts included in this website. I have included a selected group below along with my comments. In particular some have been crucial in discovering how to access the sites that we have visited. My website is not intended to be… Continue reading Useful References