Every now and again I come across a loose document that has no date or source, here is one of those:
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"When I arrived at Crowflat Ranger Station to take over the Burns District, there was no one around or to introduce me to the new territory so I found my way around alone. There was a short-term man located at Calamity Guard Station near Drewsey and a lookout-fireman at West Myrtle Butte on the opposite end of the district. When I reached Myrtle Butte on my Preliminary rounds, I found it to be a butte covered with a heavy stand of mature timber, with a commanding view when an opening could be found between the trees. An Osborne fire-finder was set up on a wobbly table about four feet high, constructed of small, round sticks wired together with emergency telephone wire. When a smoke was sighted, the lookout fireman would proceed to carry the table and fire-finder to a spot from which the smoke would be visible between the trees. He would set the table down and orient the finder as best he could, as the table wobbled and shook, then take a reading and report.
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I sized up the situation and said to the guard, "Don't you think we can rig up a better set-up than this?" He thought it might be worth a try. So we felled two fir poles about seventy-five feet in height and I prevailed on a road maintenance crew not far away to send a team and driver over and drag the poles over to one of the tallest trees. I found some lumber and nails, and we made a fifty-foot ladder and got it raised up the side of the tree. At the top of the ladder we built a platform. Then we made a thirty-foot ladder and pulled it up the side of the tree until it rested on the platform, we cut the treetop off and set up the fire-finder on the stub. We now had a platform which did not wobble and in a permanent location." By Grover C. Blake
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A 1961 Malheur National Forest Improvement Inventory indicates that a 240 square foot frame living quarters for this site was built in 1924. Another document shows that Mr. Blake came to the district in 1923, therefore one may assume the tree lookout was erected in 1923.
