DOUGLAS COUNTY
GRASSHOPPER MOUNTAIN
Umpqua National Forest
29S-3E-18
29S-3E-18
c.1915: An alidade established on this point.
July 21, 1917: "Victor Boyd left Friday morning for Tiller, where he will be stationed at the Grasshopper ranger lookout." (Evening Roseburg Review)
1925: A D-6 cupola lookout house constructed.
July 27, 1927: "The record of the South Umpqua firemen in this emergency is exceptionally good. Walter Lerwell, lookout-fireman on the Grasshopper lookout reported the first fire at 4 p.m., and before night had it under control." (Roseburg News-Review)
1928: A wing fence of four strands of barbed wire constructed at a cost of $10.00.
1932: An additional $21.46 spent on pasture fencing.
September 14, 1933: "A 14 x 14 lookout to be constructed by the CCC before the snow flies. This new primary lookout will replace the current lookout." (Roseburg Chieftain)
1933: The L-4 lookout cabin built on a round timber tower of @ 10 foot in height.
December 4, 1934: "It is reported by forest service men that snow at Grasshopper lookout station is four foot deep." (Roseburg News-Review)
July 21, 1958: "The U.S. Forest Service will open bids Aug. 5 for erection of a prefabricated forest lookout house and tower at Grasshopper Mountain about 33 miles northeast of Tiller on the South Umpqua District of the Umpqua National Forest.
Present plans are to ferry materials for the station by helicopter some 3 1/2 miles from the lookout site. Foresters estimate that several hundred dollars will be saved over packing the materials to the site." (The News-Review)
August 16, 1958: "A helicopter will take to the air in about a week in southern Douglas County to deliver segments of a prefabricated lookout house to a remote mountain top in the Umpqua National Forest.
Herb Rudolph, fire control officer for the forest, said the lookout will be put together atop Grasshopper Mountain, in the South Umpqua District east of Azalea.
Flying the house will be Robert Trimble, pilot for Aetna Helicopter Service, Etna, Calif. He is the man who a year ago flew in at Illahe Rock about 15 miles east of Steamboat to recover the body of another helicopter pilot who crashed and rescue a man injured in the wreck.
The parts of the house should be delivered in about 10 hours flying time, Rudolph said. Costs to the Forest Service will run in excess of $100 per hour of flying time.
Rudolph said that as many as 10 flights an hour can be made. Trimble will pick the material up in the vicinity of Camp Comfort.
M.M. Manning, Roseburg, will put the house together. He was low among four bidders for the job at $1,970." (The News-Review)
September 4, 1958: "The U.S. Forest Service was using a helicopter to deliver segments of a prefabricated lookout house to the top of Grasshopper Mountain. A total of 3,800 pounds of building materials were delivered to the mountain top.
The materials were flown from the start of the Emerson Trail, which is about 4,200 feet high, to 5,400-foot Grasshopper Mountain. Start of the Emerson Trail is located in the general vicinity of Fish Lake and Camp Comfort. Distance from the logged-off airlift point and the top of Grasshopper Mountain is approximately 2 1/2 miles.
M.M. Manning of Roseburg was awarded a $1,970 contract for constructing the house on the top of mountain. He was low among four bidders.
Grasshopper Mountain has been manned this summer by Euberto Newton of Tiller. Newton has been living in a tent for about a month since the old lookout house was torn down to make way for the new one." (The News-Review) (R-6 flat-roof cab atop a ten-foot timber tower)
August 4, 1962: "The line up of college students stationed this summer at lookout posts in the Umpqua National Forest:
Grasshopper Mountain -- Roger E. Lamb comes to the Umpqua from Rochester N.Y. He is a student in his junior year at Hasting College in Hasting, Nebr., where he majors in Philosophy and mathematics." (The news-Review)
1977: The lookout removed.