COOS COUNTY
EDEN RIDGE
Siskiyou National Forest > Coos County FPA
31S-11W-24
31S-11W-24
October 11, 1939: "The main building at Eden Ridge probably will not be built until spring, as its tower is but half done." (The Coos Bay Times)
May 1940: "Station has usually been manned about July 10 on an average and has been carried fairly late in September. Fuel moisture records do not always indicate this manning has been entirely necessary. Suggested dates are believed to be more in line with actual needs." (Plan. Guard Placement, Siskiyou National Forest)
May 9, 1940: "Three new fire lookouts will serve the Siskiyou national forest in the Coos-Curry county area this year. Supervisor Ed Cliff reported during a brief visit in Marshfield Wednesday.
One lookout will be on Eden ridge in Coos county." (The Coos Bay Times)
July 22, 1940: "Thursday evening saw the completion of the new project on Eden ridge, a lookout station, according to Ranger Boyd Rasmussen. The lookout is 40 feet tall and the house is 14 by 14 feet. The work was done by a crew of CCC boys from China Flats, and Wayne Peterson is the lookout. His communication with the local forest service headquarters is by short wave radio." (The Coos Bay Times)
July 25, 1940: "Louis Hostetler has been in charge of construction for the Eden ridge lookout station." (Myrtle Point Herald)
1941: The lookout was staffed 105 days. The reporting station was the Powers Ranger Station, communications were by West Coast Telephone lone.
October 25, 1945: "Boys are believed to have been the ones who broke into the Eden ridge lookout station Tuesday and took bed rolls, compass, tools and other equipment, and cut all telephone wire and radio lead-ins.
First of the boys was apprehended at the Coos Bay Lumber company where he was take following an accident when some of the stolen powder exploded blowing off his thumb and two fingers. Ben Miller brought him by speeder to the forest station here where first aid was administered by Elwin Frye before he was taken to the hospital." (The Coos Bay Times)
July 13, 1955: "The Eden Ridge lookout, formerly maintained by the federal and state forest agencies, was discontinued this year under their program but was taken over by the Coos patrol." (The Coos Bay Times)
September 18, 1959: "A call from the Eden Ridge lookout in southeast Coos county at 6 p.m. Thursday sought permission for the fire lookout to leave the high lookout tower as south winds of up to 60 miles an hour were swaying the tower and shaking shutters loose. Shutters were reported torn from several stations in the southern part of the district." (The World)
1960: "At Eden Ridge the lookout tower was condemned, demolished and replaced with a new CT-3 40 foot treated timber tower with a 14 x 14 cabin at a cost of $5,663.52 for material and labor." (Coos District Annual Report)
September 23, 1965: "Anne Guerin, who has served as Lookout on Eden Ridge this summer, returned here Monday, her mother, Mrs. Tom Guerin, driving to Eden Ridge to bring her out. Anne reported the forest fires in that area were only three miles from the Lookout. Anne left Wednesday for Eugene to enroll as a sophomore at the U. of O. Mrs. Guerin drove her to Eugene." (Myrtle Point Herald)
1976: "Major repairs were made on the Eden Ridge Lookout Tower as a result of the severe winds of November 9 and 10, 1975." (Coos District Annual Report)
October 4, 1995: "It's a long, bumpy ride to Sherry Agnew's summer home, a 14x14 foot cabin atop a 50-foot tower that stands in the middle of lush Douglas fir forest.
About an hour and a half--and several wrong turns--after leaving Powers, where Agnew, 46, lives most of the year, a couple of visitors pull up to the tower, where the woman works as a dire lookout for the Coos Forest Protective Association.
Agnew's black Labrador Maggie runs eagerly down the five levels of stairs to the ground.
'She's the official greeter,' Agnew shouts, grinning as she peers over her balcony.
Except for ice cream, which would melt during the drive from the Powers store to the tower, Agnew says she wants for nothing here. Above all, she gains an incredible panoramic view of the world.
Agnew is one of six people stationed each summer at a half-dozen protective association lookout towers in Douglas, Coos and Curry counties, said Ginger Tyler, association administrative assistant.
Most of the lookouts work from early July until the fall rains, usually in October, Tyler said. Agnew is the last lookout still working in a tower this year.
She has the necessities: a bed, an outhouse [located at the end of a dirt path near the tower] and enough food 'to feed an entire fire crew for probably a week.'
The cabin contains a mini-kitchen against one wall and an Osborne Firefinder in the middle. The firefinder is a horizontal, circular map of the surrounding forest. By peering through the firefinder sights, Agnew can pinpoint the location of any smoke she spots.
She calls in her sightings, by radio, to the Bridge office of the protective association. Most summers, Agnew makes only a handful of calls, and the smoke she spots tends to be permit burns she hasn't been told about.
Uncurtained windows wind their way around the cabin. On clear days, Agnew can watch ships sail in the ocean and admire the snowcapped beauty of the Cascades.
'What's not to like about this job?' she asks.
She's too busy enjoying the benefits of her isolated spot-a gorgeous view and wildlife spottings to be lonely.
A couple of summers ago, a bear and her cub sat in Agnew's 'yard,' contentedly slurping up huckleberries. Once every summer, an owl circles overhead, checking out the seasonal inhabitants.
Her eyes glow and her voice softens as she remembers the time she held a hummingbird in her hands.
'I was so overcome,' she whispers. 'God, how many people get to hold a hummingbird?'
'It's an ideal job,' she says. 'It's a paid vacation of a job.'
'You better not say that,' she adds, grinning, 'or they'll stop paying me.'" (Coos World)
2010: The Coos FPA installed a smoke detection camera system to improve the associations forest fire detection abilities