REGIONS: ORIGIN SITE ~ Northeast WA, RE-LO SITE ~ Idaho
The movement of the 3rd lookout on Stranger Mountain near Chewelah, Washington to private property on Crystal Ridge near Fernwood, Idaho is an unusual Type 2 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. Ray Kresek wrote in an email to me: “The (Tower #3) 1959-1983 Stranger Mtn LO was bought by my son Dave Kresek in 1983 from DNR for $1, provided it was removed within 30 days, because it was blocking the view of the new (tower #4 1983-2008) similar 42’ DNR tower.”
Ray continued “He moved the cab only to his Crystal Ridge, ID property. DNR wanted the legs to remain for comm antennas. The 20’ iron legs (not 40’) and X braces are from the guard tower at the old Gieger AFB brig. He modified the cab with an inside stairway entry.”
Then the following ad appeared in the Summer, 1997 FFLA’s LOOKOUT NETWORK.
According to Ray Kresek, Dave “sold it in 2000 for about $4,000 to a hunting outfitter for handicapped clients. After being vandalized repeatedly, it went on the real estate market for years at about $80,000 until Ms. Wolfe bought it to become another of her “exotic” AirBnB TV advertised and filmed experiences.”
The story continues in the faircompanies web site: “When Kristie Wolfe saw a fire lookout tower advertised for sale on private land, she knew she had found her next build. She had already constructed a Hawaiian treehouse and a hobbit hole getaway from the ground up and loved the idea of converting the abandoned structure into an immersive deep-forest escape The 13 acres of forest above tiny Fernwood, Idaho (population: 684) cost her $67,000 and was her most expensive purchase……… When Wolfe bought it, it had been abandoned for 25 years by all but the bushy-tailed woodrats which had inflicted their damage. Working mostly alone, Wolfe spent weeks transforming the cab into an overnight shelter ….Wolfe does all the work on her properties herself – with the help of family- and never takes out loans.”
Kristie Wolfe continues the history. “I bought it in the fall of 2017 and got right to work remodeling it until I woke up to a blizzard in early October just a few weeks after I arrived and remained snowed out until June of 2018. I reworked the floorplan, tore down and salvaged some out buildings & added the new fireplace. My mom and I built the deck. My brother Matt came up for a couple of days and the three of us moved the shed that Dave built to where it sits now and I transformed it into the sauna.”
The re-located lookout is now advertised By AirBnb as the Crystal Peak Lookout ~ A Treehouse hosted by Kristie and is rented out by the night. The online Ad includes : “You’ll have the treehouse to yourself. The lookout is open year-round with a wood fired stove to keep warm at night or heat your morning coffee.
The Cab from Stranger Mountain LO #3 is moved to Crystal Ridge
Our Visit to Crystal Peak Airbnb, the RE-LO SITE for the Stranger Mountain #3 LO
We signed up with Airbnb to visit the Crystal Peak Lookout with an overnight sleep the night of September 19-20, 2021.
We drove about 5 miles on the gravel & dirt Crystal Mountain Road to reach the short side-road leading to our “overnight shelter”. The information package that Airbnb provide to us stated that a 4-wheel drive vehicle would be needed to drive up the steep and rocky driveway from the Crystal Mountain Road to the lookout We elected to walk up the ¼ mile side road with our food and our supplies.
The cab was entered from the stairs through a hatch in the floor. The hatch door was heavy and hard to open from below. (photos of other visitors from other websites)
The lookout cabin had been converted into a comfortable one room living quarters. The firefinder and stand were gone and none of the other fire lookout furniture or equipment was left.
It was cool outside, but the efficient wood stove kept the inside toasty warm. We used the top of the stove to heat water for our coffee , hot chocolate, freeze dried dinners and washing dishes.
The trees around the lookout blocked most of the views.
We were treated to a spectacular sunset.
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.
“Twin” comm towers on old lookout site ~ 2021 photo
“Twin” lookout towers ~ photo taken shortly before the cab of #3,seen on the right, was removed.in 1983
Two steel comm towers now stand atop Stranger Mountain where the fire lookouts once stood.
Views from the Stranger Mountain Lookout Site.
NOTE: The mountain is called Stensgar on maps, but the lookout was called the Stranger Mountain Lookout. The following article appeared in the Summer 2008 edition of FFLA’s LOOKOUT NETWORK.
Stranger or Stensgar?
Why is it that Stranger Lookout is shown on the maps as Stensgar Mountain, never Stranger? John Kresek thinks he has found the answer to the question. John found that the history of Addy (a small town north of Chewelah) refers
to a man named Thomas Stensgar and says that Stensgar is pronounced “Stranger”. If that is true, that should explain where “Stranger” comes from. Stensgar, a native of Scotland and former employee of the Hudson Bay Company, was the second settler in the area, coming to old Fort Colville on the Columbia in the 1840’s and soon afterwards settling at a point two miles north of the present town of Addy.
Two of the other Stranger Mtn LOs were moved to new locations. Click Stranger #2 or Stanger #4 to find out where they went.