KLAMATH COUNTY
BOUNDARY BUTTE
Klamath Indian Agency > Winema National Forest; 32S-7E-18
1934: " Under ECW projects three additional lookout stations are being constructed within the reservation. Boundary Butte, located on the western boundary of the reservation between Agency Butte and Mt. Scott, will consist of a forty-seven foot Aermotor tower, cabin, fire finder, etc., and will be used as an emergency lookout to cover the heavy lodgepole flats west and north of Kirk, north and northeast of Soloman Butte and the lower part of the Klamath Marsh. During times of decreased visibility this station will cover the above areas “unseen” to Mt. Scott." (FY 1934 Annual Forestry Report, Klamath Agency)
July 30, 1934: " Boundary Butte truck trail, this project consists of the construction of a truck trail about one mile in length to the top of Boundary Butte, a much needed lookout point. Work started on the project on July 25, but progress is seriously handicapped by reason of the lack of a bulldozer." (Report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs)
1934: " Building number 672 was a 12x16 foot cabin built for living quarters for the lookout. This building was erected for a cost of $1396.11." (1944 Klamath Agency evaluation report)
1935: Ten acres of Reservation land set aside for the administrative purpose of fire detection
1935: " A 60 foot Aermotor steel tower was constructed by the CCC for the Klamath Indian Agency. The structure was given building number 671. Construction of the lookout had a cost of $1400.78." (1944 Klamath Agency evaluation report)
June 6, 1947: "Mrs. Alice Hamilton was a business visitor in Klamath Falls on Thursday. She is now stationed at Boundary Butte as a fire lookout." (Herald and News)
August 23, 1951: "She (Alice Hamilton) vows that the minute the fire season is closed and her duties are over, it is her intention to camp at the mountain (Huckleberry Mountain) and pick huckleberries as long as weather permits. She likes her job as lookout on Boundary Butte except during the times when lightning flashes too close for her peace of mind." (Herald and News)
September 16, 1952: "Stopping here Tuesday en route to her station as lookout on Boundary Butte on the Klamath Indian Reservation line was Alice Hamilton, who had just made her 62nd annual trip to Huckleberry mountain. She is now 69, and has made the trip since she was seven years old. Accompanied by her only companion at the lookout post, her part Chow dog Frisky, Mrs. Hamilton was very much disappointed this year to find there are practically no huckleberries, the early June frost and subsequent dry weather combined to ruin the crop of fruit." (Herald and News)
August 26, 1953: “It’s A Woman’s World”
"If your bones “crick” when you climb the cellar stairs and the thought of a bear in your shrubbery leave trickles of perspiration down your backbone and your “skeered” of driving mountain trails with only a “purp” for a sidekick, don’t apply for the job of forest fire lookout, for only a staunch heart can fill the bill.
One of the Klamath County’s most interesting women is Alice Hamilton of Klamath Falls, who since 1942 has spent her summers in a swaying, weaving, wind-whipped fire tower, atop some high mountain in Southern Oregon.
This astonishing native of our nook in our state, smiles as she tells that she’s 70 years old, but she’s the “youngest” 70 to ever trip lightly up the ladder to the tiny cranny where she spends practically every waking moment from early spring until mid-October watching for smoke signs across the forest, who knows by dust signs, the way cattle on the meadow, and by early morning cloud drifts whether the day will be sunny from dawn to dark.
Mrs. Hamilton was born at Keno with a bit of pure American ancestry in her veins. Her mother was one-half Klamath and Mrs. Hamilton enjoys the privileges of the members of the tribe of which she is justly proud. Her Scotch father was Lewis Allen who spent 35 years of his life in the outdoors on the famous Fairchild Ranch of early days at Dorris.
From this union probably came her heritage to enjoy the greatness of nature, her love of wildlife, her fearlessness.
Few women of ANY age would face the night alone in a wilderness of trees, miles from civilization, unafraid. But Alice Hamilton takes it all in stride. If porcupines come seeking salt, she shoos them away with her trusty gun – she keeps her larder full of venison she shoots on trips alone each fall – she has bagged elk and bear, counting up seven bruins on her fingers that have fallen to her prowess – she knows that there are four kinds of huckleberries, where huckleberries grow because, since she was seven years old she has never missed one summer on Huckleberry Mountain where the wild things vie with humans for the ripened fruit.
Long ago she drove the winding way in a horse-drawn buckboard, today she steers her covered pickup to the camp ground where pickers charge $1 a gallon for the purple berries. Time was – when the fruit was brought down the mountain for 50 cents a gallon and the bucket filled to the brim for that pittance.
She knows where the wild celery grows for seasoning and where the fish bite in the cool streams below the willows – how to skin and hang her kill and cook venison steaks over an open fire.
She keeps an hour by hour record of the movement of trains, of planes, of wind velocity, clouds, visibility, haze, temperatures and a radio log, down to the last minute detail, for the Forest Service.
Alice Hamilton knows the pot holes that pit the great marsh where cattle range – the breathless majesty of storms, the peace of winter, the thrill of learning, the memory of unhampered land.
She hauls her own water to the fire tower, chops her own fire wood – asks no help from any man – do you envy her?"
(Herald and News, By Ruth King)
January 1961: " With the termination act, Boundary Butte lookout became the responsibility of the Oregon Department of Forestry to operate and maintain." (Klamath Tribune)
1967: Improvements made this year included two new window sashes in the tower cabin, also a new deck put on the porch of the living quarters, plus a new screen door. Both the tower and living quarters painted.
1974: The lookout information summary shows that this lookout, under the control of the Oregon Department of Forestry.
The tower has been removed, the living quarters cabin remains.
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1967 (CAA)
STATION IS LOCATED ABOUT 16-1/2 MILES NORTH OF CHILOQUIN, 8 MILES
NORTH-NORTHEAST OF FORT KLAMATH, 4 MILES WEST OF STATE HIGHWAY 97
AND IS ON THE HIGHEST POINT OF BOUNDARY BUTTE.
THE TOWER IS A 4-LEGGED STEEL STRUCTURE, 60 FEET HIGH AND THE
POINT INTERSECTED WAS THE TOP-CENTER OF THE TOWER. TRIANGULATION
STATION BOUNDARY WAS MEASURED TO, THE DISTANCE BEING 31.41 FEET
OR 9.573 METERS SOUTH.
STATION RECOVERY (1971)
RECOVERY NOTE BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1971 (WMJ)
THE LOOKOUT TOWER WAS VISITED AND RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED IN
1967. A TRAVERSE CONNECTION WAS MADE TO TRIANGULATION STATION
BOUNDARY 1967, THE DISTANCE BEING 31.49 FEET OR 9.600 METERS.