Early Days in the Forest Service Volume 4

THE LOOKOUT
By W.K. "Bill" Samsel

Most of the Forest Service's early day lookouts were above timberline, in the cap rock, where timber did not obstruct their view. In the beginning, of course, these points were unimproved. There was no protection from the elements, for man or equipment. It was common practice then for the lookout man to camp in the nearest sheltered place below the lookout point, from where he could quickly hike up and take observations. During periods of high fire danger and lightening storm activity he might make several such observation trips in a day's time. In some cases, in order to observe more area, a man might use two or more observation points located a considerable distance apart. In such cases the man would hike from one point to another taking observations on each point and return. Such stations were referred to as patrol routes and the person manning such a station was known as a patrolman.

Living quarters on these early day detection points were most primitive. The Forest Service furnished a tent, a few cooking utensils, and a bed, consisting of 3 GD army type wool blankets and a tarp, a double bitted axe and fire tools. It was up to the man to use his own ingenuity and skill as a woodsman in making his quarters as comfortable as possible.

The first three summers I worked for the Forest Service I was stationed on one of these unimproved points. I was fortunate, however, that there were two of us stationed at the same point. In such cases one man was designated the lookout and the other the smokechaser. I played the latter role. The advantage of two being together was that we could throw our bedding together and make a much better bed. We built a good substantial bunk up off the ground and covered it deep in fir boughs for springs and mattress. We stretched our tent in a good sturdy manner so it would afford us, our bed, food, and personal belongings the minimum protection from the elements. Believe me, the elements can be rough at an elevation of 8,000 feet, what with wind, lightening, rain and even hail and snow.

Since the Forest Service did not furnish a stove we built a rock fireplace where we did the fry cooking and boiling, then an oven in the rocks for baking bread. This done, our quarters were complete, still quite primitive but we managed to get along and be quite comfortable most of the time. It has been said before and I am sure it is true, that it took a special breed of men to fill these jobs and live under such primitive conditions. They had to love the mountains and be possessed of the old pioneer spirit. Starting wages for a first-year lookout man were $70 per month, including board and room. And, at first, room was "all the outdoors."

The first structures to be built on the early day lookouts were small, crude log cabins for man shelter. The observatory might be just a ladder up a tree to where a small platform with a railing called a "Crow's Nest" was built. On this Crow's Nest the lookout man had his map board and alidade and could do his fire spotting. On points where there were no trees suitable for observatories a crude tower was sometimes fashioned out of poles. These structures were built by the lookout man and smokechaser with no plans or blue prints. Many of them did serve the purpose for quite sometime. The first somewhat modern lookout structure to be used in this region was a 14'x14' frame structure with windows on all four sides. This type of structure was placed directly on top of the lookout point and served both as living quarters and observatory. It was a vast improvement over any previous facilities. Several different versions of this structure were built during the period ending World War I and the early 1930's. Many were constructed from logs and native material with a cupola added on top. This cupola was used for an observatory and made the structure much more functional.

At this point I should say something about the food, which was furnished by the Forest Service. Because all food had to be packed in by mule train, which took from 4 to 6 days from the road end, and because there were no facilities for keeping fresh foods, they had to be of a nonperishable nature. A typical grub list would run about as follows: Flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, coffee, beans, rice, dried apricots, prunes and raisins. Sometimes there were dehydrated potatoes. For meat there was ham and bacon, and sometimes a little canned corned beef. Other canned foods consisted of corn, tomatoes, milk, and syrup. Some years later when the Forest Service began to furnish canned fruit and apple butter we thought this was really high living. It is only fair to say that we supplemented our diet with huckleberries and fish when we were able to get to where they were. Also when grouse season opened that helped, too.

The water supply was often a problem. Most lookout points were located a considerable distance above a source of water, so keeping an adequate supply on hand for drinking and for camp use was quite a chore. In the beginning about the same system was used by all. The Forest Service furnished a 5-gallon water bag with shoulder straps attached. This was called a man-pack water bag; old-timers referred to it as a "coon." At any rate, the lookout backpacked his water to his tower up from the nearest spring, creek, or lake. This might be a distance of 2 or 3 miles. In these cases, water had to be conserved. No bathing was done; dishwashing was cut to a minimum. Such utensils as frying and baking pans were never washed — as soon as a slick glaze was burned on them they were simply wiped out with a cloth. Other dishes were scraped and wiped as clean as possible before they were put in the dishwater. In this way the water remained clean enough so that it could be used two or three times.

In later years better methods of supplying lookouts with water were developed. One of the better systems should be credited to Jack Clack who was assistant supervisor on the old Missoula National Forest at the time he developed this system. He fabricated a 200 gallon tank from galvanized sheet metal. This tank, cylindrical in shape, was sunk in the ground on the leeward side of the lookout. The top plate was perforated with nail holes and was then covered with a 4- to 6-inch layer of gravel. When the deeply drifted snow melted in the spring this snow would filter down through the gravel and fill the tank.

In the beginning, communication was just as primitive as other facilities on these remote points. The Forest Service first attempted to use the heliograph. For many obvious reasons there was little success with this instrument. Next we tried to tie in telephone communication with a fine insulated wire, which we hung on the tree limbs. This was called emergency wire telephone. It was a little more dependable than the heliograph. However, it was vulnerable to breakage by windstorms, falling trees and by wild animals, such as elk and deer tangling in it. The first fairly dependable communication did not come until the advent of the standard Forest Service tree line. In this, No. 9 galvanized wire was used. It was hung on trees with a split tree insulator which, when a tree fell across the line, could render through and go to ground rather than break.

Early in the 1930-decade the first efforts were started to organize the fire detection system on a plan wise and scientific basis. The first step in this plan was the mapping of scene area. Mappers were sent into the field to map the scene area from all the improved lookout points and many unimproved points. From these data gathered in the field transparent overlays were made. Then various combinations and composites could be studied to determine what points or combination of points afforded the greatest area of detection coverage. Many of the points included in this study group had flat tops and a tower was needed to increase visibility. If it was decided to improve and use the point the scene area mapper determined the height of the tower needed.

At this point in the planning, Major Kelly made the decision that where towers were needed, living quarters as well as observatories should be on top the tower. This would allow the lookout man to be at his post 24 hours a day. With this in mind Kelly commissioned Clyde Fickes and his architects to design a tower and lookout house combination. Clyde and his crew soon came up with suitable plans. The house or cab portion of the structures were to be cut out at the Spokane warehouse and the towers would be constructed from native lodgepole, fir, or larch, or whatever was available nearest the site.

This was during the depression and the Forest Service had an abundance of CCC and other work relief labor. Therefore, a concerted drive was made to get all our primary lookouts improved while help was available. A typical tower construction crew consisted of an experienced carpenter foreman, one who was skilled in framing round timbers. He would be given a crew of six CCC boys. These boys would act as helpers, cooks, flunkies, etc. Some of these little crews became quite skilled and were able to put up a tower, with lookout house, in approximate time of 6 weeks, more or less, depending on the quality and availability of tower material and other factors. Transportation of material was a big job. Practically all the sites were accessible by trail only. Therefore, material had to be packed in by mule train. The Remount was at full strength during this period. Much of the transportation job was accomplished by remount packers and their strings of long legged, slab sided, lumber mules. Just how many lookouts Region One constructed over a period of about 6 years I do not know. There were many. During the summer of 1938 I managed to complete three lookouts on the Seeley Lake District. Towers were 20, 30, and 40 feet in height. When this regional system of lookouts was fully manned it afforded quite adequate detection coverage.

The best I can recall, the prefabbed lookout houses cost about $500 at the Spokane Warehouse. Cost of tower construction varied in proportion to the difficulty of securing tower timbers at the site. It runs in my mind — and this is only a guess from my recollections — that some lookout towers were completed for as little as $1000. At any rate, the cost was minimal compared to what a similar structure would cost today.

During the war years, because of shortage of manpower, a system of manning fewer lookouts and supplementing by use of air patrol was tried. This system worked quite well and has since been developed to a point where Region One mans only a small fraction of the number of fixed lookouts it once did. This system, in my mind, is more economical and more efficient than the older one.

Also during this period, for the same reason that air patrol was implemented, the Forest Service relaxed its standards and allowed the rangers to hire high school boys and girls as young as 16 years of age to fill lookout positions. I was in charge of the Plains District at that time and I employed a number of teenage boys and girls. While this may sound like a plug for Women's Lib, I have to say it because it is true. The girls of the same age as boys turned in much better performances. They were able to stand the loneliness much better and were more alert and they displayed a sincere interest in the job. It has been 13 years since I hired and organized my last fire protection crew so I am not current on just what goes on in this line. I am informed, however, that many more women are filling lookout and other fire protection positions, today, than they did a few years ago. Reports are that they are doing a good job.

The modern lookout structure and all its facilities is a far cry from the primitive lookout of long ago. Transportation has advanced from mule train and backpack to automobile and helicopter. Communications have come from heliograph and telephone to two-way radio. They have accurate maps, aerial photos and modern fire finders as instruments and aids in accurately locating fires. Food service is such that the lookout can fare just about as well as if he lived in town. In spite of all this the sentinel of old and the modern day lookout still have a few things in common. They were, and still are, the eyes of the fire protection organization.