WASCO COUNTY
POSTAGE STAMP
Mount Hood National Forest > Oregon Department of Forestry
3S-13E-19
3S-13E-19
September 1, 1926: "With only a big black cat for a companion, Miss Jean Frances Frey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Frey of the West Side orchard district, has been stationed since June at Postage Stamp lookout station of the United States forestry service. Miss Frey, who is 18 and who will return here before September 7 to begin her senior year in the Hood River high school, is fire dispatcher for the White River district of the Mount Hood National Forest. Interest in her work, she declares, prevents her from growing lonesome.
Miss Frey became interested in forestry work several years ago when her brother, George Frey, now a student of forestry at the Oregon Agricultural college, was stationed on Lookout mountain which rises above the Mt. Hood Loop highway just to the east of Hood. Visits with her brother gained her a knowledge of how to handle the Osborne fire-finder, by which fire dispatchers are able to locate with exactness forest fires when they start to telephone the information to rangers, who hasten to the point with crews and quench the blazes before they gain extensive headway." (Morning Oregonian)
Miss Frey became interested in forestry work several years ago when her brother, George Frey, now a student of forestry at the Oregon Agricultural college, was stationed on Lookout mountain which rises above the Mt. Hood Loop highway just to the east of Hood. Visits with her brother gained her a knowledge of how to handle the Osborne fire-finder, by which fire dispatchers are able to locate with exactness forest fires when they start to telephone the information to rangers, who hasten to the point with crews and quench the blazes before they gain extensive headway." (Morning Oregonian)
July 27, 1931: "Extreme caution will be the watchword of forest rangers of the Dufur and Wapinitia sections of the Mount Hood national forest, Eric Gordon of Dufur, district ranger, said Saturday.
Gordon said drouth conditions at the higher elevations are so severe as to present a serious hazard. For the first time in six years it is necessary to haul water to the Postage Stamp lookout station, from a distance of seven miles." (La Grande Evening Observer)
September 1933:
Don Bodley, Carpenter Foreman, construct a lookout house on Postage
Stamp using CCC labor from a side camp of Friend Camp, F-9. (Six Twenty-Six)
1933: A 12-foot timber tower with a 12x12 cab was constructed.
1936: The telephone ring assigned to this lookout was: one long, one short, one long.
September 1937: "At Postage Stamp Lookout station which seems to be the central headquarters for rattlesnakes on the Mount Hood, Guard Eugene F. Matthews recently killed his largest rattlesnake which had fourteen rattles and a button. This makes a total of five that he has killed at his station this season. He has learned not to enter his garage at night without a flashlight, and whenever he ventures out of his station during the day, he watches his step." (Six Twenty-Six)
March 13, 1950: “The State assumed ownership of Postage Stamp and Mill Creek Ridge stations as part of their protective setup responsibilities.” (I-information – Historical Report, Forest Supervisor - 1949)
1954: "A new garbage pit was dug." (North Central Unit Annual Report)
1960: "Postage Stamp LO reported the smoke of the White River #1 Fire at 5:55 AM on September 9, 1960.
Postage Stamp LO reported the White River #2 Fire at 4:10 PM on September 15, 1960." (North Central Unit Annual Report)
1962: "Two miles of telephone line maintained from Postage Stamp LO to the USFS line at $17.28 per mile." (North Central Unit Annual Report)
1963: "No major building construction during the year for the exception of Lost Lake Butte Lookout tower was salvaged. The material and hardware of this tower is intended for Postage Stamp Lookout. The Postage Stamp Lookout site was surveyed and the road right of way is now being taken care of for the legal section." (North Central Unit Annual Report)
1964: "All the material for Postage Stamp LO tower was purchased during the year and the tower was pre-cut and taken to a local treating plant for treatment.
The telephone line from Postage Stamp LO to Shady Brook was maintained at a cost of 3.02 per miles." (North Central Unit Annual Report)
1965: There were no first reports called in from this station during fire season.
Removed