The Parched Puppy

While at the National Archives last month I found a folder of the "Umatilla Buckaroo", an early gossip sheet for the Umatilla National Forest. The July 1936 issue carried this little tale:

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"It seems a lady drove up to the station and asked for a drink of water. Elmer only has to pack his water half a mile and she had to pass at least two well marked springs regardless of the way she came. However, Elmer is an obliging fellow and readily agreed to quench her thirst.

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But this lady, apparently "had been around" and was going to be sure that everything was on the up and up. Was the water fresh, cool and clear? Was he sure that the source of supply was free from disease and germs, etc? Elmer assured her that everything was O.K. but couldn't help feeling that she seemed a bit fussy about it. But as the saying goes, "he ain't heard nothin' yet" - the drink was for her "little doggie." Contributed by Don C. Rohn"

Motor Sports

"The Ochoconian", July 1927:

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"Sam Warg, lookout for Hash Rock and Tamarack Point, has been busy with his regular work not to mention playing Chauffeur to the Cleveland motorcycle. Sam is developing a wonderful vocabulary because of the peculiarities of the machine, and has been asked not to express his opinion of it except in places where it would be considered absolutely safe to smoke or build a fire. Some of Sam's remarks would scorch asbestos to a very dark brown."

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"The Ochoconian", June 1928:

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"Sam Warg will again be on the job this year as lookout, and will be camped at Tamarack Point. He will also use Hash Rock as a secondary point. His method of travel between points will be by means of the Cleveland Motorcycle."

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The old Cleveland motorcycle was used at the Ranger District, but was so cantankerous nobody wanted to mess with it, so Sam hauled the thing out and got it to run and was allowed to use it at his post. Throughout the 1920's Hash Rock was a secondary lookout and was connected to Tamarack Point (later Ingram Point) by foot trail. This trip was made once or twice every day, so the motorcycle saved a lot of travel time.

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"The Ochoconian" was a news letter printed by and for the personnel of the Ochoco National Forest.

Early Calimus Butte Lookout

Two views of the first lookout structure, the tent was for additional housing and the pickup truck delivering supplies. All these photos were taken during the 1926 fire season. The other cupola structure is an early undated photo of the present lookout house.

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The first half of December I spent almost two weeks at the National Archives in Seattle digging through box after box of documents, searching for early lookout history. In one of those boxes I found some rare photos of Calimus Butte lookout from 1926. Also I gathered bits and pieces from other boxes to put together a short history of the lookout.

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In 1919 the Klamath Indian Agency constructed a telephone line to the summit of Calimus Butte, late in the season, in preparation of placing a lookout building at that point. The following year a 16x16 lookout house was constructed with a 12x12 cupola that was set off to one corner of the building instead of the standard centered cupola. The reasoning behind this strange design was that it was easier to construct and offered a larger area for lookout activities. At the same time a 14x20 cabin was built "at good grass and water" two and a half miles south of the lookout for the living quarters of the lookout. These building weren't constructed until about the end of the fire season. Prior to these structures the lookout had no shelter for at least two fire seasons.

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In 1922 a 14x20 foot building was constructed on the summit for a guard cabin, this building being only a couple hundred feet below the lookout house. Also in 1922, the lookout was a married woman with two children that lived in the lookout house, so the larger dimensions made life a little more comfortable.

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An Osborne fire finder was purchased and installed during the 1923 fire season, which was a major improvement over the old method of using a compass. The lookout person for this season was an interesting individual by the name of Charles Brophy. Mr. Brophy was an older gentleman in his mid-sixties and had a disability, missing one leg. Apparently, he may have been diabetic for his symptoms indicates that may be the case. In 1925, his bosses argued with the powers that were, that Brophy, passing his 65th birthday and with all his health issues, liked his job at the lookout and wasn't looking forward to being dependent on relatives, besides he was a very good lookout.

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In 1930 this spacious lookout structure was torn down and replaced with the current structure, a 16x16 building with an 8x8 cupola centered on the roof. The first cabin was poorly constructed and failed quickly, the builder was criticized as being a scoundrel!

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Calimus Butte was the first lookout on the Reservation, the second coming in 1929 at the north end on Yamsay Mountain. In 1925 the Indian Agency teamed up with the Crater National Forest and the Crater Lake National Park, and established the lookout on Mt. Scott, which was put to good use by the Indian Agency. In May and June, before Mt. Scott could be staffed and during low visibility days the Agency used Steiger Butte as a secondary lookout site, this was used until a permanent lookout was established on Agency Butte in 1930. North of Calimus Butte is a tract of timber land carved out of one corner of the Reservation that was owned by the Long Bell Lumber Company. During the 1920's, Long Bell maintained their own lookout in connection with the Klamath Forest Protective Association, on a point that later became known as Hambleton Butte. This lookout was connected by telephone to Calimus.

BUILDING A TREE HOUSE

"A 90-foot steel ladder salvaged from the old Baker Point lookout in northwest Oregon was transported to Gunter on the upper Smith River in one piece. At the mouth of Yellow Creek, below Gunter, on the Smith River the ladder and supplies were loaded onto two rough lumber boats and floated down to the old Damewood homestead, a distance of twelve miles. At one point one of the boats had to be flooded in order to go under a windfall. From the river the ladder was drug over two miles of trail.

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A couple of months later the materials for the 8x8 crow's nest and guy wires were brought in and the lookout construction completed.

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The tower was constructed to oversee an area that was destroyed by the Smith River burn in 1937."

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The above story was assembled from articles found 25 years ago when researching in the attic at the State Forestry Office in Salem. The source: "Forest Log", May and August 1942 issues.

Panic over a little furry critter...

The "Bend Bulletin" printed the following story on August 20, 1928:

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"The trail up Bachelor Peak is becoming entirely too popular, in the opinion of Ferdinand Strauss, forest service lookout. Strauss sent out a frantic S.O.S. last night over the telephone when a black bear started the long climb to the summit and reached a point well up in the snowfields before deciding that the prospects for a meal at the top weren't good enough to justify the climb.

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Strauss, who was unarmed, put in several phone calls while the bear was apparently determined to reach the lookout station. Strauss called for volunteers, well armed, to argue with the bear and it was only after bruin gave up the trip that peace settled down over the phone line system of the Deschutes National Forest. Leslie Colvill reported this morning.

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Strauss described the bear as "a big, black one" and was very earnest in his pleas for aid, Colvill said. Assurances that the black bear is friendly by nature and inclined to be playful rather than hostile had little effect until the animal had headed back down the slope.

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Today Strauss is inclined to view the incident less gravely, although he is still convinced that he should be supplied with an armament."

A LITTLE CARE CAN SAVE A LOT OF PAIN

"Jake Smith is lookout on Devil's Knob in the South Umpqua District. As a lookout, Jake is pretty good and performs his duties cheerfully and conscientiously. As an artilleryman, however, he is perhaps not so good. At least he knows by this time that a loaded 22 around a lookout station is apt to go off and harm somebody. This lesson was brought home to Jake on June 30. He set his rifle down against the door facing while he strapped a 5-gallon water can to a pack board, inadvertently setting the rifle on a pack strap. In fastening the can to the pack board be pulled the strap, upsetting the gun which fell to the floor discharging and the bullet hitting Jake in the hip. Fortunately for Jake the wound was slight, being only a flesh one with a slight nicking of the bone. One of our cooperators, E.T. Hamlin, who is a rancher living in the vicinity of Devil's Knob brought Smith out to the road at the Summit Ranger Station on horseback from which point he was taken to a hospital in Roseburg.

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If Jake had left his rifle at home he would have been able to spend the Fourth of July at the lookout station rather than in bed in the hospital. However, we are now glad to say that Jake is at Devil's Knob rendering efficient service on the lookout for fires and we venture to say that he will leave his rifle at home next time."

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This story was reported in the August 1929 issue of the "Six Twenty-Six". Over the years a number of lookouts have had misfortunes with firearms, some much more serious than in this story. On the other hand, some found it very relieving they had the back-up, others that wished they did. Appears in the earlier years firearms safety wasn't taught or practiced to any great extent.

OOPS!!!

"The lookout cabin at Whiskey Peak was destroyed by fire Sunday, caused by fire starting near the flue. Cal Winningham, lookout man, tried hard to put out the fire but wood, which is stored inside caught on fire, making it impossible. The government loss was $1,000 and Mr. Winningham lost his clothing and bedding. Whiskey Peak is about eight miles from the Steamboat Road."

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This story appeared in the October 11, 1929 issue of the "Medford Mail Tribune". The actual cause of the fire was that Cal was on the roof, cleaning out the chimney, when a gust of wind came out of nowhere and hot ashes where blown out of the stove, through the open stove door. Whiskey Peak is on the old Star Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest.