MAIDEN PEAK
Deschutes County - Deschutes National Forest - 22S-6E-35
1908: The peak was used as an observation point for fire detection. At this time there were no improvements. (Honeymoon on Horseback, Margie Knowles)
July 10, 1912: "The forest service reports the completion of a telephone line from Crescent to the summit of Maiden Peak. This peak is about 8000 feet high and it is expected that the lookout there will be able to locate any fire that may occur in the forest and surrounding country." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 24, 1912: "Evidence of the great amount of territory that can be covered was shown by a report made to Supervisor Harvey last week. It came from Ed Mahn on Maiden Peak, some 75 miles southwest of here. He reported a big smoke which appeared close to Bend and wanted to know if the town was burning up. The smoke which he saw rising from the sawmill debris being burned at the former location of the Bend Brick and Lumber Company a mile and a half southeast of town." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 25, 1913: "Charles Bowers left Thursday for Maiden Peak where he will be stationed for the summer." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 19, 1916: "On June 20 the Maiden Peak lookout was manned by Mr. C. G. Bowers. This is the last of our primary peaks to be occupied by the men who will be on the constant watch for fires throughout the approaching fire season." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 2, 1918: "Three new lookouts have been established in the district and the one at Maiden Peak has been discontinued temporarily." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 10, 1920: “We rode up to Maiden Peak all the way on horseback to get a view of the summits and country to traverse north. This is the only system when we got out of the U.S.G.S. quadrangles. Took panorama. Lenzie took flower pictures. Johnson took road and trail notes. Result of today’s trip is plainly that we will take the trail to eastward of Mt Ray and save a high round about climb. Very good lookout point and has been used as such. Iron phone connection but could not raise anyone and it sounded dead.” (an entry from Fred W. Cleator's Diary, while laying out the Skyline Trail)
June 27, 1921: " Clarence Mahn will go to Maiden Peak, both sides of the Cascades may be observed and the lookout will be held responsible for the reporting of fires on the Cascade, as well as on the Deschutes forest." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 23, 1921: "A line will be constructed from McCredie Springs to Maiden peak in the Oekridge district. The Deschutes national forest has a line to Maiden peak now and the new line will hook up the systems." (Albany Democrat-Herald)
September 6, 1922: "One lookout station, that at Maiden Peak, has been discontinued for the year." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 25, 1923: " H. L. Plumb, supervisor of the Deschutes national forest, reports that another standard lookout station is to be erected this summer and will be on Maiden Peak. Jim Gauldon of Bend, who has been assigned to Maiden Peak, will construct the lookout station. The cost is approximately $650." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 4, 1924: "Danger from forest fires along the Natron cut-off right of way will be guarded by two lookouts, Ray Armstrong on Maiden Peak and A.A. Lambs on Pine mountain." (The Lebanon Express)
August 1924: "How Come? It may be a coincidence, but it is interesting to observe that the Forest has a man lookout on Maiden Peak, and a woman on Bachelor Butte. (Bend Bulletin)" (Six Twenty-Six)
July 20, 1925: " When forest service lookouts on Maiden Peak and Bachelor Butte flashed beams of light over many miles of forests and mountains this morning in orientating stations, primitive and modern methods of long distance communications were brought into use.
The primitive method of signal communication was used by the lookouts when E. T. Valliant, stationed on Maiden Peak, attempted to catch the beam of light from the heliograph on Bachelor Butte. This heliograph was used by Leslie D. Lloyd, lookout on the butte.
Unable properly to orientate his finder, Valliant called the central platting station in Bend, and the modern instrument of communication, the telephone, was brought into use. While Lloyd flashed the heliograph and Valliant attempted to adjust his finder, W. O. Harriman, assistant supervisor of the forest, directed the work of the two lookouts from Bend.
In the early days of forest service work, before the many connecting telephone line were built, the heliograph was used considerably in fire control work, forest officials explain. This method of signaling is not used very much now because of the difficulty of finding lookouts who can transmit and receive the Morse international code." (The Bend Bulletin)
October 3, 1925: "Belief that he has found on the storm swept summit of Maiden peak, 7750 feet above sea level, two species of flowers never classified by a botanist, is held by E.T. Valiant of Portland, forest service lookout on the peak this summer." (La Grande Evening Observer)
November 1925: "After coming down off the peak on my way to Portland thru Bend, the Super asked me a couple dozen questions, all of which I answered right or wrong. After he had unloaded, I volunteered a truck load of information, principally in the nature of the several bunches of electricity that playfully cavorted along the summit. One thing in particular that seemed to amuse him (not me, you understand) was the part our wood range took. You see, I haven’t a thing against wood ranges. They beat the gasoline of kerosene variety all hollow, except when the lightning was close aboard our craft, then ‘twas different; for instance, my assistant, friend wife, walked across to the west windows one day to help me locate “strikes”. She happened to kick a dishpan resting quietly on the floor about one inch from the stove leg. When the pan hit the leg – ps’s’s’t and the kicker got kicked. Yes sir, the old range was plumb charged. Also, a sauce pan of a fine lot of chocolate was cooking on said range, and believe me, it kept right on cooking until the storm passed on, as neither of us could take it off. We know, because we tried and got a nice juicy shot in the arm for our experiment. I phoned over to Paul on Walker Mtn and told him all about it and all the sympathy I got from that old leather-neck was a giggle. He said, “Hang on, old timer. No use to run from it, it’s too d---d fast.” So we hung on and live to enjoy the memory of our job on Maiden Peak. E.T. Vallient, Lookout" (Six Twenty-Six)
October 1926: "As of October this lookout had reported 4 false alarms for this fire season." (Six Twenty-Six)
September 3, 1927: "Maiden peak, in the south Deschutes country, was the center of a fierce electric storm last night, with bolts of lightning flashing from clouds into the forest, according to reports received here today by forest service officials. No fire, so far as known, have yet resulted from the 'hits'.
A blaze was reported from Brooks-Scanlon holdings in the vicinity of Swamp wells yesterday. This was listed as a logging fire. Brooks-Scanlon men controlled the blaze.
Rain fell in scattered parts of the Deschutes country last night." (The Bend Bulletin)
1927: On September 6th Fred McNeil, the lookout, reported a half foot of snow mantled the top of the volcanic cone, and extending low into the timber belt.
1928: Thomas R. Roe, principal of the Metolius School in Jefferson County had the lookout duties.
1928: A conflicting report has Ward W. Stran being moved to the lookout on Maiden Peak in a July 6 news story.
June 14, 1928: "Tuesday's Dalles Chronicle told of the marriage of Miss Cecelia McCorkle to Thomas R. Roe, principal of the Metolius schools. The wedding took place on Friday last and the newlyweds left immediately after the ceremony for a wedding trip to Salt Lake City. After a short visit there they will return and spend the summer on a lookout station on Maiden peak." (The Maupin Times)
June 22, 1928: "Devises designed to protect against lightning and developed by two electrical engineers from the school of engineering at O. A. C. will be tried out in the Deschutes national forest this year. O. F. McMillan and E. L. Starr, experts in high-tension electricity, designed the device which they will try on Maiden Peak in cooperation with T. T. Munger, director of the forest service experiment station.
Maiden Peak was selected as the base of operations for the experiments because a map prepared by the local forest service covering a 10-year period indicates it is the center of the lightning fire belt of the forest.
Types of protection which Starr and McMillan have developed include protection for lookout cabins and telephone lines. Equipment for measuring the effectiveness of the protection has been developed, according to information received by the local forest service. The men desire to try it out in the field and will take the place of lookouts on Maiden Peak while there. One man will be able to act as lookout while the other experiments and is free to visit other points in the forest after electrical storms.
Possibility that the project being undertaken in the Deschutes forest may be taken up by the forest service in a national way is indicated by Munger’s report of an interview with H. S. Rogers, dean of the school of engineering at O. A. C. Lightning protection is of interest to the entire western district, he states.
Starr and McMillan will take the place of Thomas Roe as lookout. Roe will be stationed at Black Crater."
(The Bend Bulletin)
July 6, 1928: "Ward W. Stran, lookout on Maiden peak, is being moved to his station by Leslie Colvill of the local office, and C. C. Olsen, Crescent ranger." (Bend Bulletin)
1929: W. C. Howard, who has been the principal of the LaPine school for the past five years has accepted the position of fire guard on Maiden Peak for the summer.
July 29, 1929: " The night of July 30th, Maiden Peak was the center of a fierce electrical display. So many bolts of lightning struck into this part of the forest that the fire chart in the local forest office was a mass of thumb tacks, each bearing the number of a fire. On the board, tacks were piled on top of each other, indicating how closely the fires are located.
This morning, eight of the 23 fires charted had been controlled and crews were on the others." (The Bend Bulletin)
September 24,1930: " The Maiden Peak lookout, W. J. Allen, has been moved to the lower slopes of the southern mountain, below the storm clouds." (The Bend Bulletin)
September 24,1930: "Arctic weather prevailed on the high mountains of Central Oregon Monday afternoon and last night, with lookouts on Paulina and Maiden Peaks reporting an inch of ice plastered on the outside walls of their living quarters. The temperature last night was not far above zero at levels above the 7000 foot mark.
The ice which formed on the sides of the lookouts’ houses was the result of cloud vapor congealing as it touched the chilling surfaces. A high wind whipped the clouds across the high peaks through the night hours." (The Bend Bulletin)
September 24,1930: "Maiden Peak, in the south end of the Deschutes forest, received snow which was six inches deep in places, with considerable drifting reported. W. Allen, forest service lookout on Maiden Peak, was to be taken down from his chilly station today." (The Bend Bulletin)
1942: James Stearns, the last person to staff this lookout in this final year of use.
1955: In the fall District Ranger Tom Greathouse and Ray Koski burned the lookout house.