JACKSON COUNTY
MOUNT STELLA
Rogue River National Forest
30S-3E-26
30S-3E-26
1931: "The site for Stella Mountain Lookout was selected and work started there." (History of the Rogue River National Forest, Volume 1, - Carroll E. Brown)
c.1932: A 20-foot native timber tower with an L-4 hip-roof cab erected.
May 31, 1934: "Ralph Watson has been stationed at Mt. Stella lookout station during the recent storm. Mrs. Watson is with him for a few days." (Medford Mail Tribune)
June 10, 1934: "Mrs. Florence Watson was home over the week end. She is staying at Mt. Stella, where Mr. Watson is stationed at the lookout station for a few weeks." (Medford Mail Tribune)
June 12, 1936: "Joe Kelby, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Kelby, returned Saturday from Corvallis, Oregon, where he had been attending Oregon State university, taking a course in forestry. He left Thursday to take a position as a lookout on Mt. Stella, near Union creek, Oregon, in the Crater Lake national park district." (The Dunsmuir News)
1942: Lowell and Zella Ash, as AWS observers, staffed the lookout during the winter under as much as nine feet of snow.
May 21, 1943: "Miss Helen Madden returned to the lookout station on Mt. Stella. recently, after coming out and going to Medford for medical attention for a broken finger." (Medford Mail Tribune)
May 27, 1943: "Lady Lookouts Watch For Fires In Western Forests"
"Who says it isn't a woman's world.
Assembly lines, shipyards, truck driving, even working in the railroad yards has nothing on the new invasion with the girls going out into the forests as fire season nears.
On top of at least five mountains in southern Oregon, some 7,000 feet up, women will serve as lookouts until next October, or until the fire season is officially ended. They will go well equipped with everything from magazines, nail polish and battery radios, to warm top coats for chilly nights.
First to leave Klamath Falls was Mrs. Alice Hamilton who will serve as lookout on Mt. Stella. Mrs. Hamilton, possibly the Rogue River National Forests only lookout, left a week ago accompanied by Mrs. Caroline Hoskins and her son Robert. The party left by way of Medford and from there will be accompanied to their new home by forest men.
Mrs. Hamilton's chief job will be as air raid warden and observer. The shift is a 24-hour one and it means a sharp eye. Mrs. Hoskins and Robert are going along as companions. Old timers in these parts, when they hear Mrs. Hamilton's name, remember her for the extraordinary record she holds, fifty-two years of consecutive trips to Huckleberry Mountain. Maybe Mrs. Hamilton can get a half day off to visit the berry patch in order that her enviable record will not be broken.
Mt. Stella is seven miles by mountain road off the Diamond Lake highway and affords a beautiful view of the lake country. But it also protects a wealth of timber which must be jealously guarded. Mrs. Hamilton served as ranger at Huckleberry Mountain last year and is a veteran of the forest country." (Herald and News, by Lois Stewart)
Activated: August 11, 1942; Deactivated: June 14, 1943. Roseburg Filter Center.
June 14, 1943: Aircraft Warning Service Station "How 9-6" was inactivated. The service utilized existing Forest Service structures and at the end of service the improvements reverted back to the Forest Service for it's original functions. (Report of Aircraft Warning Service Stations, May 1, 1944)