LANE COUNTY
LAUREL MOUNTAIN
Eastern Lane District, Oregon Department of Forestry
22S-3W-Sec.24
22S-3W-Sec.24
1942: A hip-roof cab on a seven foot tower erected.
March 1945: "The Laurel Mountain lookout cabin, located about 20 miles south of Cottage Grove, burned to the ground recently, according to James H. Walker, district warden of the Eastern Lane County Fire Patrol Association. The cause of the fire has not been established. The building was constructed in 1942. Reconstruction plans call for a new 50-foot tower with 14 by 14 cabin on top, providing the priorities can be secured for the new materials." (The Forest Log)
September 1945: "Four standard 14 feet by 14 feet ground lookout houses have been ordered for three of the forest protective associations. The Eastern Lane building is now under construction on Laurel Mountain in the southern end of the district." (The Forest Log)
1945: " A standard live in lookout house on a 50 foot tower was constructed at a cost of $1900." (Eastern Lane District Annual Report)
January 28, 1946: " 'Manning' lonely mountain fire lookouts with girls has proved successful for the forest service.
One is 18-year-old Mary Bea Hall, University of Oregon sophomore, who has done a man's work for the last two summers. She has spotted and reported all forest fires within the 256 square miles of Oregon Douglas fir visible from Laurel Mountain in the Cascades Range.
Mary Bea had taken a study course for lookouts when she was a 17-year-old Eugene high school senior. She applied for a job that summer and dubious forest service officials sent her to the lonely Laurel Mountain.
Mary Bea thus gave up the fun of a summer vacation--down to the last banana split at the corner drugstore fountain on a warm evening. She traded it for dark, lonely nights with only clouds and stars visible and the moaning of the wind in the fir trees.
In place of the comradeship of friends, she saw one person a month, the service employe who drove the supply truck.
Mary Bea had to swap mother's home cooking for her own, to carry her water up 200 yards from a canyon spring, and to do everything for herself.
As for fires, let a 'smoke' appear and within seconds she was on her two-way radio, telling the dispatcher in Eugene the township, section and sometimes the quarter section where she spotted the base of the smoke column on her range finder." (Toledo Blade - Ohio)
1954: A 25-foot treated timber tower with a 14x14 Amort style cab constructed at a cost of $3452.
1979: The lookout was dismantled and salvaged. Vandalism had become a severe problem and repair costs exceeded the worth of the structure. The timbers will be used in the 1980 construction of a vehicle storage building at headquarters.