LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
Wallowa County - Wallowa-Whitman National Forest - 3S-49E-8
June 9, 1932: "A lookout will be established at Lookout mountain, which will be a 50 foot tower with a house 6 feet square." (Enterprise Record Chieftain)
1932: A tower with cabin erected
1954: "Charles V. Marks worked as a patrolman for years before the Lookout Mtn. tower and cabin were built. During this time his headquarters was at the Marks Boys Cabin. In 1932 he helped build the cabin and tower at Lookout Mtn. He then held the position of Lookout Fireman at this station until the end of the 1952 season. Altogether he was stationed at Lookout Mtn., 20 years and 10 years acted as patrolman of the same area with headquarters at Marks Boys Cabin." (Historical Sketches of the Wallowa National Forest, 1954)
September 19, 1963: "Fred Talbott packed Bernie Harris and his wife out from Lookout Mountain Friday. They then went on to Spokane where he will enter college." (Wallowa County Chieftain)
1963: "One new tower at Lookout Mountain." (1963 Annual Report)
August 24, 1967: "A 1100-acre blaze in the Imnaha-Snake river country that started dramatically by destroying the relatively new Lookout Mt. tower itself was still uncontrolled and the Himmelwright Spring blaze, also lightning caused burned into the Lookout fire lines and suppression became a joint effort Wednesday.
Lookout Fireman Vernon Wadman was fighting a lightning strike on the ground one eighth mile from the tower. The thicket crowned instantly, however, and embers started many spot fires including some trees near the tower and old cabin. Intense heat generated by the cabin blaze ignited the tower, built in 1964, and the cabin atop it which was said to have actually exploded from the intense heat. No sign of the cabin remains on the tower legs still standing, a forest official said.
Wadman lost his personnal possessions in the tower as well as a collie dog." (The Record-Courier)
Lookout Fireman Vernon Wadman was fighting a lightning strike on the ground one eighth mile from the tower. The thicket crowned instantly, however, and embers started many spot fires including some trees near the tower and old cabin. Intense heat generated by the cabin blaze ignited the tower, built in 1964, and the cabin atop it which was said to have actually exploded from the intense heat. No sign of the cabin remains on the tower legs still standing, a forest official said.
Wadman lost his personnal possessions in the tower as well as a collie dog." (The Record-Courier)
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 1954
RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED BY USFS. THEIR DESCRIPTION FOLLOWS.
LOCATED 18 MI SSE. OF IMNAHA, 5 MI S. OF FREEZEOUT SADDLE. ON
SUMMIT OF DIVIDE BETWEEN SNAKE AND IMNAHA RIVERS, IN HIGHEST
POINT OF LOOKOUT MTN.
TO REACH FROM IMNAHA, GO 18 MI S. ALONG GRIZZLY RIDGE RD. TO
FREEZEOUT TRAIL. GO ABOUT 9 MI S. BY TRAIL THROUGH FREEZEOUT
SADDLE TO LOT AND STATION.
STATION MARK--USFS DISK STAMPED---LOOKOUT MTN LOT---, SET UNDER
CENTER OF TOWER IN BURIED BOULDER.