DESCHUTES COUNTY
PLOT BUTTE
Deschutes National Forest
22S-16E-08
22S-16E-08
1932: A road was constructed to the top of the butte in the spring.
1932: In early June the telephone was constructed and with the continued weather conditions brush removed from the site will be burned.
July 18, 1932: "Gilbert McCleary, lookout-fireman at Plot Butte, in the Fort Rock, late yesterday found it necessary to report that a bolt of lightning had struck into the Deschutes woods, but he was somewhat at a loss as how he should chart the location. The lightning, it appears, was most noticeable directly under him. He was sitting on a steel cot when the bolt came down a nearby tree and went into the earth through a telephone ground wire. From the ground, the lightning came up the legs of the steel cot and shocked McCleary.
Lookouts have instructions to keep a careful check on all places where bolts are seen to strike into the forest and watch these places for the first sign of smoke. McCleary indicated that no smoke developed from bedding on his steel cot.
The bolt which hit McCleary’s telephone was one of two seen striking into the Deschutes woods yesterday."
(The Bend Bulletin)
NOTE: No permanent structures built on this site.