With the high heat across the country and wildfires fanning the headlines Lookouts, Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics seemed like an appropriate summer read. Authors Ira Spring and Byron Fish have updated their fascinating book, first released in 1981, that details the history of the remote and far-flung fire towers that once dotted Washington State. When the authors first undertook their task they believed there were roughly two hundred towers. At the end of their exhaustive research they’d uncovered evidence of at least five hundred towers.
Like much public policy, the developments that led to the creation of forest lookouts came in the wake of a catastrophic event. On October 8,1871 the Great Peshtigo fire broke out in Wisconsin. Before it was over the fire laid waste to 1,300,000 acres in Wisconsin and Michigan, killing anywhere from 1,300 to 2,400 people. Ironically, the fire occurred at the same moment, but was unrelated to, the Great Chicago Fire, and as a result the Great Peshtigo fire has been all but forgotten to history. But the Peshtigo fire made it clear to the US Congress and to the President, Benjamin Harris, that that forests, long thought to be an inexhaustible American resource, were in need of protection and in 1891 Congess gave the president authority to withdraw public lands and create forest reserves. In 1893, then President, Grover Cleveland set aside some twenty-one million acres including the Pacific Forest Reserve covering much of Washington State.
Having created these reserves they needed to protect them and thus fire lookouts were built. Originally just tents or “rag houses” perched on high points, they soon evolved into full structures designed to endure the harsh elements of their locations. By 1929 ranger districts were placing watchtowers in earnest. The Forest Service was already doing its best to employ young men when the New Deal administration inquired if the Forest Service could use extra 25,000 men. That number blossomed into 250,000 and the Civilian Conservation Corps was formed. In nine years the CCC built 60,000 miles of trail and 600 lookouts.
Lookouts covers the history of individual lookouts in Washington State in meticulous detail. Included in the book are photographs of the towers—whose shape, size and situation varied greatly—and colorful stories about the rangers who manned the lookouts, their trials and tribulations. One of the more famous lookouts was Jack Kerouac who spent the summer of 1956 on the not inappropriately named Desolation Peak. His book Desolation Angels describes that summer.
Lookouts is not a trail book, it’s a historical interest book that reveals places you will want to go, but you will need an auxiliary guidebook and maps to get there. I’ve never written a guidebook but I imagine that one of the difficult choices authors face is between wanting to be thorough and historically accurate but also concise and lively. Unfortunately many of the towers covered in this book were torn down after technology made them obsolete. As a result many of the sites covered in this book are no longer standing nor were they historically significant in any real way except that they were there at one point.
I enjoyed this book as a historical record but, like all history, the chance to make it come alive by actually getting to see it myself is what I really crave. To that end, here’s a cheat sheet on the watch towers still standing that I’d most like to visit. There is a similar list at the end of this book. I rather imagine this is a book I’d keep on hand to see if I’m near an old tower when I’m hiking. Or it’s a book I’d use as a reference to plan hikes to spectacular view sights. In either event, I’d like to know up front which towers still exist and can be visited so I’m breaking the list out below. Travel at your own risk, as you might imagine, some of these lookouts are quite precariously positioned.
Lookouts still standing (some you can even rent):
Aeneas Lookout
Alpine Lookout
Big Butte Lookout
Buck Mountain Lookout
Burley Mountain Lookout
Cleman Mountain Lookout
Columbia Mountain Lookout
Copper Mountain Lookout
Desolation Peak Lookout
Evergreen Mountain Lookout
Fire Lookout Museum Lookout
First Butte Lookout
Flagstaff Lookout
Flattop Mountain Lookout
Fosback Lookout
Funk Mountain Lookout
Goat Peak Lookout
Gobblers Knob Lookout
Graves Mountain Lookout
Green Mountain Lookout
Hidden Lake Peak Lookout
High Rock Lookout
Indian Mountain Lookout
Kelly Butte Lookout
Kloshe Nanitch Lookout
Knowlton Knob Lookout
Kresek Fire Tower
Leecher Mountain Lookout
Lookout Mountain Lookout (both of them)
Miners Ridge Lookout
Mount Adams Lookout
Mount Bonaparte Lookout
Mount Constitution Lookout
Mount Fremont Lookout
Mount Pilchuck Lookout
Mount Spokane Vista House Lookout
North Twentymile Peak Lookout
Oregon Butte Lookout
Park Butte Lookout
Puyallup Ridge Lookout
Red Mountain Lookout
Red Top Lookout
Salmo Mountain Lookout
Shriner Peak Lookout
Slate Peak Lookout
Sourdough Mountain Lookout
South Baldy Lookout
Stranger Mountain Lookout
Sugarloaf Mountain Lookout
Suntop Lookout
Thorp Mountain Lookout
Three Fingers Lookout
Timber Mountain Lookout
Tunk Mountain Lookout
Tyee Mountain Lookout
Watch Mountain Lookout
Winchester Mountain Lookout
Details
Title: Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and the Olympics
Author: Ira Spring and Byron Fish
Publisher: Mountaineer Books
Pages: 218
Published: 1996 (second edition)
Follow Us!