PINE MOUNTAIN
Deschutes County - Deschutes National Forest - 20S-15E-33
1913: "In return for the assistance rendered by the Forest Service $150.00 was contributed for the construction of a telephone line which will connect the Pine Mountain lookout with the trunk line running into Bend." (Report of State Forester - 1914)
1915: "A Forest Service crew hauled lumber to Pine Mountain, for use in constructing a lookout." (The Bend Bulletin - 'Bend Yesterdays' April 9, 1960)
November 1915: "But before the late fall storms struck, the Forest Service completed the work of painting and papering the Pine Mountain lookout station. A pasture was also fenced at that station." (The Bend Bulletin - 'Bend Yesterdays' November 26, 1960)
July 17, 1917: "Ranger Harold Smith, on Pine Mountain, reported two fires, and will be able to take care of both, while Ranger W. O. Harriman, in the Fort Rock country, is only able to handle two of the three fires which are raging in his territory." (The Bend Bulletin)
September 12, 1918: "A picture is on exhibition at the forest office of the assistant lookout at Pine mountain. This is a pet chipmunk, which has been made tame by the government lookout at the point, B.A. Johnson. When the picture was taken the animal was held in Mr. Johnson's hand." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 26, 1919: "Douglas Johnson is at Pine mountain today installing a fire lookout station." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 30, 1921: "J.B. Gauldin expects to enter the forest service on the first of the month, being stationed as lookout at Pine Mountain. He held this position last year. This season a house has been erected on the summit of the mountain, which will isolate one entirely from the outside world." (Silver Lake Leader)
July 13, 1921: "Lumber is being hauled today to Pine Mountain, where a standard fire lookout house is to be constructed as part of the Deschutes National forest fire protection system. Windows on every side of the building, as well as in the cupola, will permit the lookout to take complete observations without leaving the station." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 8, 1921: "Two fires were reported this morning from Pine mountain. One was sighted and controlled last night, the tree which had been struck being cut down before the fire could reach the ground. No details on the second was given." (The Bend Bulletin)
October 20, 1921: “J. B. Gauldin returned the first of the week from Pine Mountain, near the Millican postoffice, where he has been stationed the past three months as a fire lookout.” (Silver Lake Leader and Lake County Tribune)
October 20, 1921: “J. B. Gauldin returned the first of the week from Pine Mountain, near the Millican postoffice, where he has been stationed the past three months as a fire lookout.” (Silver Lake Leader and Lake County Tribune)
May 25, 1922: "To serve as fire lookout at the Pine Mountain station, Lela Shasta Hoover has arrived in Bend from Portland. Miss Hoover intends to gather material for descriptive and short story writing." (The Oregon Daily Journal)
July 24, 1922: "There's something about the job of a fire lookout that just naturally provokes versification. It's an unusual year that fails to reveal poetic ability in at least one of the men or women who keep lonely watch from mountain tops scattered over the Deschutes national forest says Supervisor H.L. Plumb. Usually the desire for expression in rhyme appears for the first time after the lookout has been stationed for weeks at his or her lofty, isolated post, but this season a writer of already recognized ability, Miss Shasta Leila Hoover, is occupying one of the most important of the mountain stations, that at Pine mountain.
Miss Hoover's first reaction to her new environment, written a few days after taking her post, follows:
DAYS OF A LONELY LOOKOUT
Sitting on a mountain top-
What a lovely sight!-
Watching for a smoke to rise,
Morning, noon, and night.
Pine-clad mountains, sunny plains,'
Heralds of delight-
Guarded from the fiend of fire,
Morning, noon, and night.
Mystic, snow-crowned mountain peaks
Call from height to height,
Welcoming the lookout guard
Morning, noon, and night.
O ye gods and sylvan nymphs-
Guardians of the Right-
Inspire me with thy faithfulness
Morning, noon, and night.
S.L.H.
Later, realization of some of the sacrifices which must be made by the guardians of the forest, brought the following humorous plaint:
Cherry time on Pine Mountain." (The Bend Bulletin)
October 2, 1922: "Four months of utter solitude would be enough for most people, but there are exceptions. Shasta Leila Hoover is one of them, and after being perched on the summit of Pine mountain as a forest lookout since June 1, she has asked permission of the forest supervisor to be allowed to spend three weeks more at the lookout station, as the fire season for her territory has closed. The desired permission was granted.
Pine mountain is 'such a nice place to study,' Miss Hoover explained." (The Bend Bulletin)
May 17, 1923: "Shasta Leila Hoover, who is a stenographer in the Bend Red Cross office, will return as lookout." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 29, 1923: "Headquarters of the Deschutes forest in Bend this morning were notified that two fires had been spotted, but upon investigation it was found that the alarms were false. The reports were telephoned in from the Pine mountain lookout. One of the fires was reported southwest of the Tumalo reservoir, but it was found that the smoke came from mills operating in that section. The other blaze was reported west of Bend. The supposed pall of smoke was dust stirred up bu a band of sheep trailing into the mountains. False alarms are not held against lookouts, for, as stated by forest officers, it shows that they are on the job." (The Bend Bulletin)
September 1924: "The lookout on Pine Mt. recently picked up a fire on the side of Mt. Jefferson 72 miles away. It wasn't a big one either." (Six Twenty-Six)
June 28,1925: "The start of a forest fire in the Fort Rock district was witnessed late last night by H. S. Nedrey, lookout stationed on Pine Mountain. Nedrey saw the bolt of lightning dart from the clouds to the timber, and later saw the flames eating their way through the pines". (The Bend Bulletin)
October 1926: "This lookout reported the most false alarms of any lookout on the forest, a total of 16. Most of these false smokes were limited to the Brooks-Scanlan logging area, loaders, skidders and engines." (The Six Twenty-Six)
July 1, 1927: "Experiencing their first clear day in weeks, the lookouts were somewhat nervous. As a result some 16 false forest fires were reported.
A smoke was called into the central platting station from Pine Mountain. Leslie Colvill, central platting agent, charted the location as in the Bend city dump, a good distance to the northwest of the lookout." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 29, 1927: " Ernest Putnam, lookout on the lonely peak of Pine Mountain, took his violin in hand and under chin at twilight last night, primarily for the purpose of entertaining Clifford Martin, fire guard located at the foot of Fort Rock Mountain, and, without knowing it, entertained forest service employes scattered over some 1,296,142 acres of land. It happened in this manner:
Putnam, who is a good violinist, realized that Martin, in his camp at the base of the mountain, was lonely. So Putnam attached a loud speaker to the transmitter of his telephone, gave Martin, who is on the same line, the high sign and tuned up. Down the mountain, over the telephone line, floated notes from La Paloma, Red Wing, Turkey in the Straw, et al.
All went fine until Leslie Colvill, central fire platting agent located in Bend, heard the music coming from one of the ever-open voice magnifiers in the Bend office. He listened. The music was good—in fact, much to good to waste on an audience of two, Martin and Colvill. It was then, while Putnam played from his lonely peak, under the bright stars of Central Oregon skies, that Colvill had an inspiration.
Colvill, who is in touch by telephone with all the Ranger Stations, lookout posts and fire guard encampments in the Deschutes national forest, “plugged in everything” and all points listened to Putnams broadcast. And Putnam played on, his mind on the music and Martin. He supposed Martin was the only person listening in. Putnam played from 7:45 until 8:20.
After Putnam had signed off, Colvill informed him that messages of congratulations were being received from outposts of the Deschutes forest, as well as from lookouts perched above the snow line on dominant peaks of the Cascades. It was then that Putnam took the count and moaned:
“Gosh, Les, I was only playing for Martin.' " (The Bend Bulletin)
September 1927: "Ernest Putnam, lookout on Pine Mountain, took his violin in hand and under chin at twilight on July 28, primarily for the purpose of entertaining Clifford Martin, fire guard at Fort Rock Mountain, and, without knowing it, entertained Forest Service employees scattered over some 1,296,142 acres of land. It happened in this manner:
Putnam, who is a good violinist, realized that Martin, in his camp at the base of the mountain, was lonely. So Putnam attached a loud speaker to the transmitter of his telephone, gave Martin, who is on the same line, the high sign and tuned up. Down the mountain, over the telephone line, floated notes from La Palma, Red Wing, Turkey in the Straw, et al.
All went fine until Leslie Colvill, central fire platting agent located in Bend, heard the music coming from one of the ever-open voice magnifiers in the Bend office. He listened. The music was good--in fact, much too good to waste on an audience of two, Martin and Colvill.
Colvill, who is in touch by telephone with all ranger stations, lookout posts and fire guards, 'plugged in everything' and all points listened to Putnam's broadcast." (Six Twenty-Six)
July 17, 1928: “Ernest Putnam, a man of three season’s lookout experience, assumed his duties on one of the Deschutes peaks last year equipped with a big telescope,” recalls Colvill, continuing: “His record for the season was very commendable, and while inspecting his station last fall, I learned the secret of his success. I had just gained the top of the peak and stood looking down over the logging area when I spotted a smoke which looked suspicious. I called Putnam’s attention to it.
“’She’s all right,” he answered ‘I have been watching it for several minutes. Let’s go up to the tower and take a look.’ It was then that I found the big telescope, wired to the side of the vertical posts on the Osborne firefinder. I looked into the telescope and could make out the movement of men about a fire on a right of way. Presumably they were burning ties.” (The Bend Bulletin)
October 8, 1929: " The Pine Mountain lookout station, southeast of Bend, was struck by lightning at 4:45 Monday evening. When the bolt hit, Putnam, the lookout, was resting on his bed and did not feel the shock, but he reports that he was temporarily blinded by the flash. The lightning was carried into the earth by a standard insulating system, but telephone fuses were burned out. Although the insulation equipment was placed on Pine Mountain several years ago, this was its first real test." (The Bend Bulletin)
October 9, 1929: "Lightning struck a lookout house on Pine mountain last night, but did not injure Ernest Putnam, forest service lookout, who was in the tower. The bolt was carried into the earth by an insulation system, but burned out telephone wires." (Morning Oregonian)
August 26, 1930: "Work on the new mountain road was recently completed and forest service road building equipment was removed from Pine Mountain this week.
According to information from Jack F. Campbell, assistant supervisor of the Deschutes national forest, the Pine Mountain road branches from the Central Oregon highway just east of Millican, follows a draw to the base of the mountain, then ascends on an easy grade to the summit of the mountain. The new road to the top of Pine Mountain was constructed primarily for the purpose of making the lookout station accessible, but it also provides an improved road into the Antelope Spring country." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 22, 1931: "The Pine mountain forest lookout puzzled for a long time over the origin of electricity which sent the needle of the station static meter, an instrument used to detect approach of thunder storms, into convulsions when there was no storm coming.
Today he discovered the cause -- a large American flag, part wool, which whipped in the breeze above the station." (The Oregon Statesman)
September 11, 1931: "The construction of a new lookout tower is planned for this fall or early next spring.
The tower will be 50-feet high and will enable forest service lookouts to cover the vast pocket of timber southeast of the mountain. The present tower on the mountain is to be moved up the hill a short distance.
Timber for the tower is now being prepared under the supervision of Ranger Fenton Whitney of the Fort Rock district." (The Bend Bulletin)
May 25, 1932: This station has been designated as a precipitation recording point and will be supplied with a rain gauge. (The Bend Bulletin)
July 21, 1932: " A forest fire spotted by a lookout 30 miles distant, was controlled late yesterday evening in the Big springs burn of 1930, just west of Bend, by Walker Range Patrol association crew. The blaze, of unknown origin, was checked after it had spread over one-fourth of an acre. The smoke from the fire could be seen from Bend.
Although a number of lookouts were stationed comparatively near the scene of the timber blaze, it was first spotted by Ernest Putnam, lookout on Pine Mountain, far to the east. The fire was charted at 6 P.M." (The Bend Bulletin)
1934: A plan T-1E 16 by 18 wood frame garage built.
April 13, 1936: "Marking the advent of the forest fire season in the Deschutes woods, a lookout, Jess Lindsay today was on duty on Pine mountain, overlooking the rapidly drying Panhandle and Fort Rock areas, where two blazes occurred last week end. Lindsay took his station on the lofty peak Saturday. It was on that evening that a 35-acre fire flared up on the Watkins butte sale, in cutover land. On Friday, a fire blacked about 75 acres of yellow pine timber near Sand springs road." (The Bend Bulletin)
1952: A 28-foot CT-2 ring connected tower was completed with a 14x14 L-4 model 1936 cab, at a cost of $5,040.73.
1968: The lookout was salvaged and removed.