DOUGLAS COUNTY
DEVIL'S KNOB
Umpqua National Forest
31S-1W-23
31S-1W-23
1912: A lookout house constructed, this was the first lookout building constructed on the Umpqua National Forest.
November 7, 1914: “S.C. Bartrum, supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest, is installing a system of fire detection and location, which is something entirely new in the service, and which he has been endeavoring to get the department to adopt for several years, Three principal lookout stations located on the highest points of the mountain ranges are being equipped with plate glass observation towers in which are to be kept instruments with powerful telescopes and with the capacity for fine adjustments equal to the finest surveying instruments. In the present case these stations are located at points of a triangle, which gives a practical outlook over a very great portion of the forest.
The three observation points to be used at principal stations in the Umpqua Forest are to be Devil's Knob, Abbott's Butte and Black Rock." (Roseburg Review)
August 14, 1919: "Mrs. Fred A. McMillan, who has been visiting Mt. and Mrs. P. McMillan in this city, returned to Devil's Knob, yesterday evening where her husband is employed as lookout for the forestry department." (The Evening News)
August 30, 1919: "Prof. F. A. McMillan and wife, who have been spending the summer at Devil's Knob lookout station, where Mr. McMillan was employed as forestry lookout, returned to this city last night. They will leave on Monday for Wenatchee, Washington, where Mr, McMillan has accepted a position in the high school as biology instructor, and also as city bacteriologist of Wenatchee." (Roseburg Review)
July 4, 1920: "Mrs. F.A. McMillan, an instructor in the Wenatchee (Wash.) high school, served at Devil's Knob, in the crater district of the Umpqua forest." (The Sunday Oregonian)
1927: A cupola added to the lookout house.
August 1929: "Jake Smith is Lookout on Devils Knob in the South Umpqua District. As a lookout, Jake is pretty good and performs his duties cheerfully and conscientiously. As an artilleryman, however, he is perhaps not so good. At least he knows by this time that a loaded 22 around a lookout station is apt to go off and harm somebody. This lesson was brought home to Jake on June 30. He set his rifle down against the door facing while he strapped a 5-gallon water can to a packboard, inadvertently setting the rifle on a pack strap. In fastening the can to the packboard he pulled the strap, upsetting the gun which fell to the floor discharging and the bullet hitting Jake in the hip. Fortunately for Jake the wound was slight, being only a flesh one with a slight nicking of the bone. One of our cooperators, E.T. Hamlin, who is a rancher living in the vicinity of Devils Knob brought Smith out to the road at the Summit Ranger Station on horseback from which point he was taken to a hospital in Roseburg.
If Jake had left his rifle at home he would have been able to spend the Fourth of July at the lookout station rather than in bed in the hospital. However, we are now glad to say that Jake is at Devils Knob rendering efficient service on the lookout for fires and we venture to say that he will leave his rifle at home next time." (Six Twenty-Six)
1932: Seven feet of half inch pipe from the spring to a trough installed at a cost of six dollars.
1933: "Much of the territory that is around the lookout is burned. The man in charge showed us the way they locate fires. They have a map which is exactly correct with an axle in the center. Devil's Knob is the center. The map is round and there are two sights on opposite sides of the circle with a piece of tape between. The scale of the map is 1 mile = 1/4 of an inch. When he sees a fire he signals it and then picks the range it is in. There are 360 degrees to the circle. He calls another lookout and gets his degree reading and where they cross is the fire. The lookout then picks out the road or trail there and number of men needed to fight (the fire). (Letters to Home: Life in CCC Camps, Douglas County, Oregon - by Norman A. Myers)
1934: A corral of constructed of poles built at a cost of $40.82.
October 1936: "On September 11 one of the oldest protective improvements on the South Umpqua District, and the oldest lookout house on the Umpqua became 'the ivy's food at last' -- though I have failed to ever find such a thing as ivy at an elevation of approximately six thousand feet.
Anyhow, we started on this date to raze the old Devils Knob Lookout house which will be replaced by a new 14x14 Aladdin.
Built in 1912 of hewn logs and native shakes and with one quarter inch thick plate glass windows, the house has withstood all the storms the great god Thor could muster in the last twenty four years, but of late years the joints have opened, the floor has almost worn away, and was therefore doomed to the discard.
We will look with pride upon our new structure, but may we also be permitted a touch of sadness as we consider the passing of the old. Avery E. Berry" (Six Twenty-Six)
1936: The 14x14 L-4 lookout house built on six foot tall concrete pillars.
1962: The lookout structure removed by burning on site