CURRY COUNTY
MOUNT EMILY
Siskiyou National Forest
40S-12W-8
40S-12W-8
February 1917: "The Brookings Company expects to cut timber here about July 1 they have agreed to put a lookout on this summer and I am trying to get an allotment to equip Mt. Emily so as to call their bluff without delay, if they cooperate it will be a long step in the right direction for the Service in this locality. Ranger Jones" (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
April 1917: "Material has been ordered for the construction of a telephone line to the top of Mt. Emily where the C & O Company will maintain a lookout." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
June 1917: "Most of the month of June has been spent in maintenance work with a small amount of claims work on the side and the construction of the Mt. Emily telephone line, it was impossible to secure help for several days, finally Kramer and Hughes put in an appearance and the line was rushed to completion in a few days." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
March 1919: "The J-iron mine instrument on Mt. Emily was struck and badly damaged and the line fuse and protector block demolished and about 300 feet of line burned up." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
July 4, 1920: (For the 1919 season) "South in the Siskiyou reserve Mrs. Nellie W. Milbury kept watch and ward on Mount Emily." (The Sunday Oregonian)
January 1922: "We failed to secure the material for the Mount Emily lookout building and so were unable to get the cutting done." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
July 1922: "Arrangements have been made for the construction of Mt. Emily lookout and we have hope of completing it by the first of September." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
September 1922: "We didn't get our Mt. Emily lookout constructed but we have made a good start and are getting along nicely at the present time. Packers have been hard to get and their prices are high. After considerable dickering we decided to pack it ourselves." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
August 9, 1923: "Forest Ranger Wilke was in Brookings a few days ago attending business for his department. He states that the government has erected a new building at the look-out station on Mount Emily which is equipped with the latest charts, and other fire protection appliances." (Gold Beach Reporter)
1925: "The lookout was struck by lightning early in the year, tearing off two sides of the roof and shattering all the window glass." (A History of the Siskiyou National Forest - 1939)
May 1925: "The Mt. Emily Lookout has been struck by lightning and considerable damage was done. Two sides of the roof were torn off and all the windows were broken. This was the report brought in by a trapper." (Six Twenty-Six)
August 1925: "Mr. Bearse our Mt. Emily Lookout has been busy painting the new station on top of the mount inside and out and reports he is just about finished." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
April 1928: "Received a new type Osborne fire finder for Mt. Emily. It is the #6 or Junior type and is certainly a little dandy." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
April 1928: "Received a new type Osborne fire finder for Mt. Emily. It is the #6 or Junior type and is certainly a little dandy." (The Siskiyou Bulletin)
July 19, 1928: "On last Friday a party consisting of Emma, Thelma, Vernon and Merle Hanscam, Edda Burke, Wesley and Floyd Kindel, Bernadine Van Pelt and Mrs. Gladys Kindel hiked to the top of Mt. Emily. At noon a wonderful dinner was cooked by the lookout man, Will Lane. It is safe to say that everyone enjoyed it after a five mile climb up the mountain. If anyone wants a real hike and a wonderful trip they should climb Mt. Emily." (Curry County Reporter)
May 1940: "Suggested dates are supported by past fire danger data." (Plans, Guard Placement, Siskiyou National Forest)
1941: The lookout station staffed 100 days and reported to the Gold Beach station via West Coast Telephone Company.
Activated: March 21, 1942. Roseburg Filter Center.
September 15, 1942: "A foot-deep crater, apparently caused by an incendiary bomb, gave evidence today of what may have been the first aerial assault upon the United States home soil, an apparent attempt to set fire to an isolated forest on the southern Oregon coast.
The Army's western defense command, in a carefully worded communique, disclosed that an unidentified, small airplane of a type that might have been carried on a submarine was seen coming inland just before dawn September 9, and was heard roaring out to sea about an hour later.
Some time after the plane was seen circling the Mount Emily area nine miles northeast of Brookings, Ore., a fire was observed, and forestry patrols who extinguished the blaze found a crater and metal fragments which the army said bore 'markings of Japanese ideographs which may have been part of a code indicating the arsenal where the bomb was manufactured.'
Several hours after the appearance and disappearance of the seaplane was reported, an army patrol plane sighted and bombed a submarine 30 miles off the Oregon coast with unobserved results.'
The army communique noted: 'It is possible a plane of this type might have been carried on a submarine.'
Lieut. T.J. Runyon, area supervisor of the air raid warning system, said the plane was spotted on the filter center control board within seconds of its appearance over the coast, and observed: 'It was an excellent test, and the system proved fully effective.'
Forestry patrols reported the incendiary bomb left a crater about three feet in diameter and a foot deep.
Japanese submarines shelled an oil well area in southern California February 23, causing slight damage, and a beach near Seaside, Ore., June 22, but it was first evidence of an actual air bombing of the continental United States.
Howard 'Razz' Gardiner, forest service lookout, observed the plane and saw the fire break out from his post on Mount Emily, nine miles from Brookings, Ore.
Looking into the darkness at 6 a.m.. September 9, when he heard the sound of a single motor, Gardiner saw a circling plane overhead - saw it so closely he identified it as a small seaplane.
Shortly afterwords he saw flames break through the tree roof below - in the same general area where a disastrous fire in the middle thirties destroyed a great forest and most of the coastal city of Bandon.
Gardiner sounded the alarm on the forest telephone, gathering some equipment and plunging through the forest by a short cut to battle the flames single-handed. He succeeded so well he had them under control by the time the forest fire suppression crew arrived - a four and a half hour battle through brush and over rugged terrain from their station." (Herald and News)
The Army's western defense command, in a carefully worded communique, disclosed that an unidentified, small airplane of a type that might have been carried on a submarine was seen coming inland just before dawn September 9, and was heard roaring out to sea about an hour later.
Some time after the plane was seen circling the Mount Emily area nine miles northeast of Brookings, Ore., a fire was observed, and forestry patrols who extinguished the blaze found a crater and metal fragments which the army said bore 'markings of Japanese ideographs which may have been part of a code indicating the arsenal where the bomb was manufactured.'
Several hours after the appearance and disappearance of the seaplane was reported, an army patrol plane sighted and bombed a submarine 30 miles off the Oregon coast with unobserved results.'
The army communique noted: 'It is possible a plane of this type might have been carried on a submarine.'
Lieut. T.J. Runyon, area supervisor of the air raid warning system, said the plane was spotted on the filter center control board within seconds of its appearance over the coast, and observed: 'It was an excellent test, and the system proved fully effective.'
Forestry patrols reported the incendiary bomb left a crater about three feet in diameter and a foot deep.
Japanese submarines shelled an oil well area in southern California February 23, causing slight damage, and a beach near Seaside, Ore., June 22, but it was first evidence of an actual air bombing of the continental United States.
Howard 'Razz' Gardiner, forest service lookout, observed the plane and saw the fire break out from his post on Mount Emily, nine miles from Brookings, Ore.
Looking into the darkness at 6 a.m.. September 9, when he heard the sound of a single motor, Gardiner saw a circling plane overhead - saw it so closely he identified it as a small seaplane.
Shortly afterwords he saw flames break through the tree roof below - in the same general area where a disastrous fire in the middle thirties destroyed a great forest and most of the coastal city of Bandon.
Gardiner sounded the alarm on the forest telephone, gathering some equipment and plunging through the forest by a short cut to battle the flames single-handed. He succeeded so well he had them under control by the time the forest fire suppression crew arrived - a four and a half hour battle through brush and over rugged terrain from their station." (Herald and News)
September 25, 1942: "The Siskiyou National Forest Service and two of its lookout men, stationed on Mount Emily and another nearby point, were commended this week by Brig.-Gen. Barney M. Giles, commanding general of the Fourth Air Force at San Francisco, for their 'material assistance' in supplying information from their observation posts concerning an unidentified plane seen near Brookings the morning of September 9.
Later the same day a forest fire was started by an incendiary bomb of apparent Japanese origin, and a patrol plane attacked a submarine 30 miles off the Oregon coast.
'The vigilance of these two observers (Howard Gardiner and Ed Conley) is highly commendable. The information they furnished the IV Fighter Command was of great value in the investigation of this incident,' the general wrote." (Herald and News)
January 19, 1944: "Mr. and Mrs. L. Rauch of the Mount Emily Lookout station, are spending a few weeks in Marshfield." (The Coos Bay Times)
October 5, 1944: "Mr. and Mrs. L. Rauch, who have been on the Mt. Emily lookout all summer are moving to their place on the Chetco river." (The Coos Bay Times)
September 28, 1945: "Mrs. Martin Guchee drove to Gold Beach Sunday to meet her son, Martin Jr., who had been at the Mt. Emily lookout station during the summer months." (The Coos Bay Times)
1948: A 20-foot creosoted timber tower and cab constructed to replace the old cupola building.
1948: A 20-foot creosoted timber tower and cab constructed to replace the old cupola building.
July 10, 1963: "Manning the tower on 2,926 foot high Mt. Emily, is the only woman lookout on the Chetco District, Mrs. Miriam Christensen. From her forty foot tower, she has a panoramic view of the mountains and forests as far as the Pistol River drainage to the north, the Trinity Alps in California to the southeast, the mountianous Curry county to the east and the coastal areas of the southern Oregon and Northern California at her feet to the west." (The World)
March 12, 1966: "One lookout will be needed from the middle of June to man the Mount Emily fire lookout tower during the summer. All applicants must file and application for federal employment with the district ranger, Brookings, by the end of the recruiting period." (The World)
1973: Removed