AGENCY HILL
Klamath Indian Agency - Rogue River National Forest Co-op > Winema National Forest
34S-7E-7
34S-7E-7
1929: " The Agency Hill lookout will be in the form of a crow’s nest in a tall tree on the crest of the hill. To make this lookout effective it will be necessary to fell a number of surrounding trees which interfere with the view. This work will be done by regular employees during the coming winter Months. The Agency Hill Lookout would be a smoky weather lookout, and would be used during the months of May and June, when it is not possible to use Mt Scott as a primary lookout for the western portion of the reservation." (FY 1929 Annual Forestry Report, Klamath Agency)
April 3, 1930: " Reference is made to your letter of March 31, 1930; and we are pleased that you have decided to locate a lookout on Agency Hill. We will take this matter up immediately with the Washington Office in regard to procuring a permit, which will perhaps be issued in the form of a revocable permit. This office does not anticipate any difficulty or trouble in obtaining the same for the Forest service; and upon receipt of information from the Washington Office we will immediately notify you.
In the meantime, however, Mr. Zeh and Mr. Space would be very glad to get in touch with you to discuss lookout houses and towers with you for this point. We have already projected the road to the top of the hill and we are building the crows nest on the tree which we pointed out to you on your last visit to Agency Hill with Mr. White. In talking it over we feel that it may be possible for us, if agreeable to you, to cooperate in the building of a suitable tower which would serve your purpose and which would also be a help to us in the early part of the fire season. As you perhaps know Agency Hill is of prime importance to us during the months of May and June and really a secondary point later in the season after the other lookouts are on duty.
No difficulty is anticipated in granting you a right-of-way for your telephone line to the lookout. I assure you we will be glad to do everything we can for you to establish a lookout on Agency Hill, and we want you to feel free to call on this office for anything that we can do." (A letter to the Supervisor of the Crater National Forest from the Superintendent of the Klamath Agency)
July 23, 1930: "New forest lookout stations are being erected on four peaks in the Crater national forest this month, forest officials here announce. The buildings which arrive here ready made from service headquarters in Portland." One of these buildings will be erected on Agency Butte. (Morning Oregonian)
1930: " A 110 foot tower has been ordered and will be erected during the fiscal year 1931, which will make Agency Hill also a main lookout. The expense connected with maintaining a lookout at this point will be taken care of by the Crater National Forest until that expense equals the cost of constructing the lookout, after which this expense will be jointly taken care of by the Crater National Forest and the Klamath Indian Agency." (FY 1930 Annual Forestry Report, Klamath Agency)
July 8, 1930: " Tower purchased for Agency Hill." (Memorandum for the Superintendent)
July 22, 1930: " The Crater National Forest is putting a ready made lookout building at Agency Butte near the Klamath Indian reservation, this point never having had any buildings. The lookouts having been housed in tents." (Medford Mail Tribune)
1930: The 107-foot steel Aermotor model LS-40 tower constructed during September and October by the Indian Service at a cost of $2,496.94 and recorded as Building number 601.
December 2, 1930: " The plan as outlined by you is in accordance with our understanding, and the Forest Service will bear the cost of hiring a lookout on Agency Butte until the total expenditures by us have equaled your expenditure on the tower.
We have spent to date $359.33 for the lookout’s wages. The house has cost approximately $650. We will send you exact figures on this in January after all the costs have been compiled." (Letter from the Supervisor of the Crater National Forest to the Superintendent of the Klamath Agency)
June 11, 1931: "The steel tower lookout at Agency hill is 107 feet high. The Agency hill tower is reached from the Dalles-California highway and from the Agency and overlooks the Wood River country." (The Klamath News)
July 16, 1931: " Visitors are invited to climb the 107-foot tall Agency Hill lookout tower near the agency, Silas O. Davis, forest ranger in charge of fire protection, states. Newly placed signs along The Dalles-California highway show where to leave the highway to go to the agency tower hill." (The Evening Herald)
1933: The lookout operated as a co-op site between the Rogue River National Forest and the Klamath Indian Agency.
April 15, 1938: "Rev. A. J. Neufeld, pastor of the Chiloquin Methodist church, announced today the church would hold Easter sunrise service at the Agency lookout tower at 5:15 Sunday morning." (The Evening Herald)
August 8, 1941: " It is seldom that one can get an approximation of an airplane view such as may be obtained from the 107-foot steel tower on Agency Butte.
An interesting and convenient fact about this lookout is that it can be reached without driving up a long, rough, rocky road or climbing a steep trail. It is about five minutes from The Dalles-California highway at Klamath Agency, on a good dirt road. The view is good from the ground at the foot of the tower, but it is infinitely better from the glass cage on top. This can be reached by a safe winding stairs.
The present lookout is an Oregon State graduate, Mr. Yoder, who is going back to Harvard this fall on a scholarship. He welcomes visitors and is courteous and helpful in pointing out interesting points on the landscape and explain the problem of locating fires. Most lookouts lead a lonely life, but Mr. Yoder’s life is not too lonely. He has as many as 200 visitors in a single Sunday." (Klamath News)
August 14, 1941: “Roy A. Yader (Yoder), who has been employed as forest ranger lookout on Agency Butte left for Rebersboro, Massachusetts on August 9 for a short visit after which he will enter Harvard University in the autumn semester.” (The Chiloquin Review)
August 14, 1941: “Roy A. Yader (Yoder), who has been employed as forest ranger lookout on Agency Butte left for Rebersboro, Massachusetts on August 9 for a short visit after which he will enter Harvard University in the autumn semester.” (The Chiloquin Review)
May 13, 1943: " The Klamath Indian Agency is seeking applications from men or women who would like to serve as lookouts during the coming fire season. There are several positions open.
The work is not hard physically, but it does require a willingness to put in long hours in the tower, keeping an alert watch for fires. The lookout must live in a cabin at the tower constantly, with one or two over night trips to town each month. It is believed that the positions will pay $125 a month, less victory tax, but this has not yet been confirmed by the Indian Office in Chicago.
Those interested should get in touch with Mr. N. F. Caywood at the Klamath Agency Office." (Chiloquin Review)
May 27, 1943: " Marian Doty is one of the first women, in this district to man a fire lookout station. She started just a few days ago working on the lookout at Agency Butte.
The lookout, that she is manning, is one of the Indian Service group and is located just a short ways from Klamath Agency and overlooks a long stretch of the reservation between there and Chiloquin and northward." (Chiloquin Review)
September 9, 1943: “Marian Doty is home from the Agency Butte Look-out. Miss Doty spent the summer there serving as a lookout and reports that she liked the job immensely.” (The Chiloquin Review)
September 9, 1943: “Marian Doty is home from the Agency Butte Look-out. Miss Doty spent the summer there serving as a lookout and reports that she liked the job immensely.” (The Chiloquin Review)
1949: "Jessie Jara was terminated after 31 days on duty, Delphine Parazoo finished the season. Mrs. Parazoo was a good lookout but her husband’s drunken jealousy caused trouble.: (source lost)
July 30, 1953: " The main station of Agency Butte is connected by radio and telephone to the fire control officers office, his home and to the main office. Electricity had to be run up to the tower for the new installation. Poles were taken to the top of the butte and snaked down the nearly perpendicular drop. They connect with the main line near Seldon Kirk’s home on Crooked Creek. Now the Agency tower is the first one with electric power.
Mrs. Claude Parazoo, Chiloquin, is the lookout this summer, as she has been for the past eight years with the exception of a divided season spent on Calimus and on Swan Lake.
There is a cabin on the hilltop level where housekeeping is done. The actual tower is a steel structure 107-foot high, which is climbed from platform to platform by a series of eight steps. There are strong guy wires, but even so, the tower sways noticeably in a high wind.
As the lookout stays on duty during electrical storms, both the stool and the chair in the tiny lookout room at the top are well insulated. Mrs. Parazoo admitted that she was afraid during storms the first season but now she enjoys them.
At times the firewatcher has had all six of her children at the butte. Often the children placed their sleeping bags on the platforms and sleep one or two children to a story, nearly all the way to the top. Mrs. Parazoo laughingly admitted that even the family pet, an elderly dog, had joined in these unusual slumber parties.
Visitors at the Agency Butte lookout, just three miles from Klamath Agency, have always been welcome, but this year large signs are on the highway to remind tourists of the fact, “come anytime”.
On any days except Wednesdays and Thursdays you can even go into the control room at the top of the tower and have Mrs. Parazoo explain her job and point out landmarks." (Herald and News)
January 1961: " With the termination act, Agency Hill lookout became the responsibility of the Oregon Department of Forestry to maintain and operate." (Klamath Tribune)
1969: Two fires reported from this station in 1969. The living quarters remodeled and painted. A new railing installed on the tower.
1974: The lookout information summary shows that this lookout was under the control of the Oregon Department of Forestry.
1979: The lookout dismantled.
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 1931 (BHY)
STEEL LOOKOUT TOWER 105 FEET HIGH, BUILT BY U.S. INDIAN SERVICE AND OPERATED JOINTLY BY THE INDIAN SERVICE AND FOREST SERVICE, ON TOP OF AGENCY HILL, 1.5 MILES N OF KLAMATH AGENCY AND 1.5 MILES S OF STATE FISH HATCHERY.
A ROAD FROM KLAMATH AGENCY LEADS TO LOOKOUT TOWER.
STATION MARK AND SIGNAL--CENTER OF LOOKOUT TOWER.
REFERENCE MARK--U.S.R.S. STATION FORT, 250.2 FEET DISTANT.
STATION RECOVERY (1940)
RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1940 (LAM) SITUATED ON TOP OF AGENCY HILL, ABOUT 1.5 MILES NORTH OF KLAMATH AGENCY AND ABOUT SAME DISTANCE SOUTH OF STATE FISH HATCHERY. ROAD LEADS FROM KLAMATH AGENCY TO TOWER, WHICH IS ALSO KNOWN AS FORT LOOKOUT TOWER. LOOKOUT OPERATED JOINTLY BY U.S. INDIAN SERVICE AND BY U.S. FOREST SERVICE. SIGNAL AND STATION MARK IS CENTER OF STEEL LOOKOUT TOWER 105 FEET HIGH. REFERENCE MARK IS STATION FORT (USRS), 250.22 FEET DISTANT TO NORTHWEST IN AZIMUTH 132 DEG 58 MIN 47 SEC.
STATION RECOVERY (1967)
RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1967 (CAA) STATION IS LOCATED ABOUT 5-1/2 MILES NORTHWEST OF CHILOQUIN, 5 MILES SOUTHEAST OF FORT KLAMATH, AND 1-1/2 MILES NORTH OF THE KLAMATH INTERNATIONAL RESORT.
IT IS A FOUR-LEGGED STEEL STRUCTURE WITH AN OBSERVATION CABIN ON THE TOP AND ABOUT 105 FEET HIGH. THE APEX OF THE OBSERVATION CABIN WAS INTERSECTED.