REGIONS: ORIGIN SITE ~ Northeast WA, RE-LO SITE ~ Northeast WA
The use of some of the parts of the destroyed 2nd lookout on Stranger Mountain in building Ray’s L=6 Replica Lookout is an unusual example of a Type 1 re-location.
The entry for the Stranger Mountain Lookout in the 2015 revision to the Lookout Inventory from Ray Kresek’s FIRE LOOKOUTS OF THE NORTHWEST reads in part: “1930: platform tower, cabin. 1936: 50’ pole L-6 twr. 1959: 40’wdn DNR twr (cab sold to Dave Kresek, moved to Crystal Ridge near Fernwood, ID). 1983: 42’ wdn DNR twr (moved to Colville Fairgrounds).”
It is interesting that three out of the four lookouts that have been atop this 5819’ peak were moved after they were no longer being used as fire lookouts. The second lookout on Stranger Mountain has its re-location story. This 50’ pole L-6 tower was evidently destroyed around 1959 when the third lookout replaced it. Parts of it were later re-located and had a new life. As Ray Kresek wrote in an April 29, 2020 email: “The L-6 here at the Fire Lookout Museum was built with parts from the ruins of seven L-6 towers in WA; hinges, shutters, shutter brackets, door, floor, catwalk, tower posts, X braces, bolts, siding. Porcupine (Chapter 10), Annie, Buckhorn, Hull (Ch 14), Stranger, CCA, Turnbull (Ch 15). We weren’t able to find any window frames, so they aren’t authentic. We chose also to panel the inside walls and create an attic with ¼” plywood for an exhibit at state fairs in Spokane & Yakima where it took the highest ribbons in 1984, and in OR where it was the guest of honor at the 1985 Oregon State Fair in Salem. It has rested in my back yard ever since. It is scheduled to be moved to the Priest Lake Museum in Idaho when I can no longer maintain the Lookout Museum. Since it is not an authentic fire lookout, there was controversy when Keith Argow insisted on making it a historic lookout on his National Historic Lookout Register.”
Parts of Stranger Mountain Lookout #2 Were Moved to the Fire Lookout Museum
Our Visit to the Fire Lookout Museum in Spokane, the RE-LO SITE for Stranger Mtn LO #2
Peggy and I visited Ray Kresek’s Fire Lookout Museum on September 4, 2021. Ray took us on a tour of his extensive collection of lookout, fire detection and fire fighting memorabilia. We enjoyed spending a full afternoon with Ray looking at his collection and trading lookout stories.
The one acre museum is located at Ray’s home, 7 miles north of downtown Spokane. The non-profit and non-commercial Fire Lookout Museum is sponsored by the Kresek family and the Historic Lookout Project, founded in 1969. As objects related to wildfire detection and firefighting became obsolete, there came the need for a repository to preserve their history. The Fire Lookout Museum was the logical place for 19,000 such relics; from lookout towers, to possibly the world’s largest collection of Smokey Bear treasures.
As noted in an article in the Winter,1992 edition of FFLA’s LOOKOUT NETWORK, Ray chose an 8 x 8 foot “L-6” style cab for the lookout to be displayed in his museum. The museum’s lookout is like the more than 200 L-6 cabs that had been built atop tall wooden towers from 1930 to 1936. The small size allowed the cab, filled with lookout relics, to be trailered to State Fairs.
The FFLA magazine article continued; “Most heartwarming were the moments when oldtimers would come inside and set the firefinder on a distant smoke, then relax in the lightning insulated chair with tears of nostalgia for the summers of long ago when they manned their lonely towers.”
The LO cab was full of relics
Our Visit to the Stranger Mountain LO Site, the ORIGIN SITE
Peggy and I drove to the abandoned lookout site atop Stranger Mountain on August 31, 2021. There are now a number of large communication towers atop Stranger Mountain and another one was being built. There are no Fire Lookouts on Stranger Mountain now.
A metal communication tower has taken the place of the 50′ wooden L-6 fire lookout tower which stood here from 1936 to 1959. No remains of the older fire lookout were seen in 2021.
Views from the Stranger Mountain Lookout Site.
Two of the other Stranger Mtn LOs were moved to new locations. Click Stranger #3 or Stanger #4 to find out where they went.