SNOW MOUNTAIN
Grant County - Malheur National Forest - 18S-27E-32
July 2, 1915: "Snow mountain lies within the Ochoco National Forest, about 40 miles northwest of Burns. The lookout station at the summit commands a view of a large portion of the Ochoco Forest and much of the western portion of the Malheur. The station has direct telephone connections with the Forest headquarters at Prineville and John Day. The patrolman is maintained by both Forests under a cooperative arrangement." (Blue Mountain Eagle)
1915: A lookout house was established.
August 26, 1920: "Ranger Donnelly is in charge of this unit of the Ochoco National Forest and demonstrated his usefulness and originality just after the recent severe electrical storm. This storm set eleven fires which started almost simultaneously and which were scattered over his entire district comprising of some 400,000 acres. Incidentally, a bolt of lightning struck the Forest service telephone line only a short distance from the Snow Mountain Lookout cabin and was warm enough to burn a section out of the wire. It also burned out some essential parts of the telephone at the lookout station and left Ranger Donnelly in a rather embarrassing position with only one man in sight as a helper to extinguish the eleven fires smoking up before him.
Mr. Donnelly remembered that some years ago he had operated more or less successfully one Henry Ford car and that when he sold or gave away this parcel of tinware that he reserved for possible future emergencies, one of the ignition coils. He proceeded to find old coil and took it to Snow Mountain lookout where with a screwdriver, hammer, etc., he dissected the instrument, installed the old Ford coil and now has the instrument working about 150 percent efficient." (Crook County Journal)
1927: Chester Jones, fire season ended earl and Al Frey was needed to man the lookout through September. Snow Mountain reported four fires this season.
June 1928: "Buford Wilkerson, a student at Pacific University in Forest Grove, will occupy Snow Mountain lookout." (The Ochoconian)
July 1928: "Among the Ochoco summer force are the following: Buford Wilkerson, a student at Pacific University in Forest Grove, who will occupy Snow Mountain lookout." (Six Twenty-Six)
October 1929: "Lookout Shalor Eldridge was called away from Snow Mountain on September 19 on account of the illness of his father in Portland. Jesse Allison finished out the season on Snow Mountain." (The Ochoconian)
1929: The lookout was staffed until after the first of November.
August 21, 1930: "A glass ribbed ready-cut lookout house has recently been received by the local forest, which is to be installed on Snow Mountain, the house at that point being a very old structure in bad repair. The work of putting up the house will be in charge of Ira swift of Prineville." (Central Oregonian)
September 1930: "The new lookout house on Snow Mountain is completed. It is the new type, R-1 Aladdin Jr., and it is a good looking job. The old cabin which was built in 1914 had to be wrecked in order to make room for the new one." (The Ochoconian)
November 1930: "When the old lookout cabin was constructed on Snow Mountain way back in 1915 it was necessary to take down the U.S.G.S. cairn which was built over the triangulation station tablet. This cairn was six feet across at the base and ten feet high. Permission was secured from the Geological Survey to destroy the cairn provided the cabin was centered directly over the bronze tablet. This was done and a trap door left in the floor of the cabin so that inspection of the tablet could easily be made. The flag pole which was on the roof of the old cabin was centered over the tablet with plumb-bob.
This summer we replaced the old cabin with a new Aladdin Jr. lookout house. This house was set on a concrete foundation and was centered over the triangulation tablet. The fire finder stand which is a rigid affair is set on the ground in the center of the cabin and comes up through the floor in a box shape. One side of this stand has a door that opens forming a cupboard with shelves inside. The bottom shelf, which lifts out, is level with the floor. So, if you want to see the U.S.G.S. tablet, just open the door, lift up the bottom shelf, and there it is." (The Ochoconian)
August 2, 1934: "A lightning fire which had smoldered for a month unobserved in a white fir tree with a punk center, within half a mile of the Snow Mountain lookout, broke out Monday and was one of two very small fires on the Ochoco forest the past week." (Central Oregonian)
August 9, 1938: "Mrs. Jennie Nolen has returned to her Corvallis home from a stay in eastern Oregon where she had been vacationing and spending several weeks with relatives. Mrs. Nolen went to Prineville to spend one week at the lookout station on Snow Mountain with her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Nolen, and their son Dick. Roy Nolen is lookout forest guard on the mountain, a 7200-foot high peak in the Ochoco range of mountains." (Corvallis Gazette-Times)
1944: Twelve fires were reported from this station.
1961: "Construction of Snow Mountain Lookout Tower, Snow Mountain District, Ochoco National Forest, Grant County, Oregon"
Contractor for this project was Wayne L. Korish of Camp Sherman, Oregon - Contract No. 12-11-206;29159.
Estimated cost for this project was $4,000.00 for purchase and erection of structure, $296.00 for C.O.R., $109.00 for force account moving of old cabin and preparing the site for the new tower and, $177.00 for force account moving of tower and cabin from Allison Guard Station to construction site.
Plans and specifications were prepared by Regional Engineering and contract let by Regional Administrative Services.
Cost of the house and ten-foot tower was $2,924.39 plus freight from Portland to Allison Guard Station and construction cost of $2475.00.
A 60-day time allowance was made for this project which is more than adequate.
A start work order was issued for August 1, 1961 and final inspection of the tower was made on August 24, 1961.
There were some discrepancies in construction detail of the tower. Normally, we place the door of the house on the northeast corner due to southwest winds. The entrance to the stairway is dictated primarily by the easiest access from the road or, at a very few sites, stairways can be placed where we have adequate area for approaches. In this instance the district requested that the door and stairs be placed on the south side of the building and tower to compensate for a generally northeast wind and allow for greater protection from ice forming on the stairs during storms. The tower was laid out and the concrete footings for the tower and stairs were poured and the tower was constructed to accommodate this. A discrepancy was discovered when the supports and H-braces that support the catwalk were being put in place. According to the plan, the tower had been designed for an outside-the-catwalk stairway instead of an instead of an inside one. If this plan was followed, the stairway would have to be moved to the west side instead of the south. The contractor asked and was allowed to modify the tower rather than pour a new footing for the stair.
There was some shortage of material. Roofing nails were not included with the roofing. Some nails furnished were of too large a size for the material and caused splitting. Smaller nails were furnished from the forest. Metal sheet was installed as a tie between the corner post and the roof as a safety precaution against the hazard of severe winds of this area.
Contractor's construction organization was good for a project of this size." (Malheur National Forest Archive file)
October 10, 1961: "Concerning the rapid deterioration of the concrete footing on the Snow Mountain tower construction in Fiscal Year 1962; on October 5, 1961 while in Burns, Oregon, I contacted Mr. John Wooster of Harney Homes, Inc., the supplier of Ready Mix concrete for this project to determine what had happened to cause the concrete to fall apart the way it has.
The first item I asked about was water, thinking that some alkali water had been used. Mr. Wooster assured me that the water had come from the City of Hines water system.
The second item was the source of materials used and he assured me that Ontario sand and gravel had been used, and the type of cement called for had been used. (Only Ontario Sand and Gravel is approved as meeting our specifications in this area.)
Mr. Wooster mentioned, and it could be true, that possibly the cause was neglect on the part of the contractor to properly cure the cement.
Mr. Wooster also stated that as of this date he had not received payment of $132.50 for the concrete furnished to the site.
In my absence Mr. Lindquist, Administrative Officer, received a letter from Mr. Wooster about this and referred it to the Contracting Officer." (Marvin McCoy, C.O.R., Ochoco - Malheur National Forest Archive files)
DESIGNATION - SNOW=SNOW MTN LOH
PID - PA0713
STATE/COUNTY- OR/GRANT
COUNTRY - US
USGS QUAD - WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (1990)
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1935 (EBP)
STATION IS ON SUMMIT OF SNOW MOUNTAIN, IN EXTREME SW CORNER OF
GRANT COUNTY, AND ABOUT 45 MILES S OF E, BY ROAD, FROM PAULINA,
CROOK COUNTY. ROAD LEADS DIRECT TO STATION.
STATION MARKED BY DISK IN ROCK DIRECTLY UNDER CENTER OF
SNOW MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT HOUSE, AND IS REACHED THROUGH HOLE IN FLOOR
DIRECTLY UNDER FIREFINDER. STATION SNOW MOUNTAIN IS 8.910 METERS
(29.23 FEET) EASTWARD N 78 DEG 23 MIN E.