CLACKAMAS COUNTY
BEDFORD POINT
Mt Hood National Forest
4S-5E-15
4S-5E-15
June 13, 1932: "A.W. Armstrong, district forest ranger, announces that the Squaw mountain forest service protection road will be open to restricted travel as soon as the spring maintenance work is completed and the road is dry enough. No travel will be permitted during or after rains, and all travelers will have to register with the patrolman at Bedford point, where a lookout house is to be erected, of which Everett Osborne will have charge this season. This new lookout will overlook the entire North Fork and LaDee burn." (Morning Oregonian)
July 3, 1932: "A new lookout station has been completed for the forest service at Bedford point, on the Squaw mountain road." (The Sunday Oregonian)
September 1935: "Lookout-fireman Joyce Pederson, who presides at Bedford Point, is being expert in directing traffic. Be it hiking or huckleberries, fishing or fooling, nutting or nudist, Joyce can tell 'em where to go to get the most for their money. It so happens that our nudist colony is hard by--(in a blind area, however). Recently while busily engaged in directing a beknickered gent where to fish and a housewife where to huckleberry, a plane flew low over the lookout--"NUDIST", shouted the pilot, shutting off his motor. The visitors looked embarrassed but Pederson without interrupting the conversation automatically pointed the way and the plane zoomed away to fly in long, lazy circles over a certain spot hard by to the west. Foster Steele" (Six Twenty-Six)
1941: The lookout manned 120 days this year. The report station located at the Oak Grove Station and communications by Estacada Telephone and Telegraph.
July 5, 1956: “Another of the stations is Bedford Point Lookout. This is a primary lookout meaning that this station would relay messages to the main ranger station in Estacada should a fire break out in an area outside of the radio range of the main ranger station. This point is manned by Bob Bywnn of West Linn.
Bedford Point station is about 14 x 14 square and the fire finder is in the center of the room. This apparatus will locate a fire to within a few miles of its actual being.” (The Sandy Post)
February 10, 1958: " Aerial markings were painted on Bedford Point Lookout, Squaw Mt. And Indian Ridge Lookout.” * “Linoleum was placed on the floor at Bedford Point Lookout and Indian Ridge Lookout.” * “Bedford Point Lookout was painted.” (I-information – Historical Report, Estacada District - 1957)
1964: The lookout deactivated.
Removed
DESIGNATION - BEDFORD POINT LOOKOUT HOUSE
PID - RD2421
STATE/COUNTY- OR/CLACKAMAS
COUNTRY - US
USGS QUAD - BEDFORD POINT (1997)
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1947 (WRH)
THE STATION IS ON THE SUMMIT OF A BARE HILL THAT IS ABOUT 9.0
MILES SOUTHEAST OF ESTACADA AND ABOUT 2.0 MILES NORTH OF THE
CLACKAMAS RIVER. THE LOOKOUT HOUSE IS A WOODEN BUILDING ABOUT
12.0 FEET SQUARE, AND ABOUT 15 FEET HIGH WITH A PEAKED ROOF. THE
PEAK OF THE ROOF WAS INTERSECTED.
STATION RECOVERY (1955)
RECOVERY NOTE BY US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 1955
RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED BY NGS (INTERSECTED PEAK OF ROOF ONLY).
NEW DESCRIPTION FOLLOWS.
LOCATED ABOUT 13.5 MI SSE. OF SANDY, 9.5 MI SE. OF ESTACADA. IN
SEC 15, T4S, R5E.
TO REACH FROM ESTACADA POST OFFICE, DRIVE 0.2 MI S. ON STATE HWY.
211 TO RD. FORKS. TAKE LEFT FORK 7.6 MI TO NORTH FORK GUARD
STATION AND FORKS. TAKE LEFT FORK AS PER SIGN SQUAW MTN 17
NORTHERLY AND UP GRADE TO SUMMIT, THEN EASTERLY ON MAIN-TRAVELED
RD. 7.5 MI TO RD. FORKS. TAKE LEFT FORK 0.9 MI TO RD. FORKS. TAKE
LEFT FORK AS PER SIGN BEDFORD LO 3 2.5 MI ON MAIN-TRAVELED RD.
TO SIDE RD. RIGHT. TURN RIGHT 0.1 MI TO LO AND STATION.
STATION MARK--USDA BRONZE DISK STAMPED---BEDFORD PT LO---, CEMENTED
IN ROCK UNDER LOT.