From ea969cac0dfe3819a909e66b110fa79e08c6f989 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael Decker <123838726+DMecker@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 2 May 2024 12:20:20 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Updated Metadata --- _data/keepingwatch.csv | 809 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 791 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) diff --git a/_data/keepingwatch.csv b/_data/keepingwatch.csv index 8c3c4c9..0c10e1d 100644 --- a/_data/keepingwatch.csv +++ b/_data/keepingwatch.csv @@ -61,9 +61,101 @@ danskin-peak,,,Danskin Peak,,,,,,43.41321,-115.65884,,,record,compound_object,en deadwood,,,Deadwood,,,,,,44.1254,-115.70409,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, deer-ridge,,,Deer Ridge,,,,,,48.84532,-116.10351,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, diablo-mountain,,,Diablo Mountain,2021-07-16,"Built: 1926
Status: Staffed
Cabin: R-6
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","Diablo Mountain Lookout is located in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and is staffed by lookouts during peak fire season. This tower is populated by an interview with Bill Moore who has staffed lookouts for most of his life and now runs the volunteer fire lookout program at Diablo Mountain. Watch clips and his full interview for descriptions of his late father, Bud Moore's, tenure with the Forest Service, a demonstration on how to use the Osborne Fire Finder, a detailed panoramic explanation of Diablo Mountain's surrounding landscape, and why he has dedicated himself to preserving the tradition of lookouts, both structure and human. ",Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/diablo_theta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/diablo_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/diablo_theta_th.jpg,1926,Staffed,R-6,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, -diablo-mountain001,diablo-mountain,bill_diablo_final_1.mp4,The Diablo Mountain Scene Area,2021-07-16,Bill Moore provides a detailed panoramic description of the Diablo Mountain view shed,,Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_diablo_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_diablo_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_diablo_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, -diablo-mountain002,diablo-mountain,bill_diablo_final_2.mp4,Bill Moore Demonstrates the Osborne Fire Finder,2021-07-17,Bill Moore gives the Keeping Watch team a demo on the Osborne Fire Finder while locked in by smoke from the 2021 Lolo Complex Fires.,,Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_diablo_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_diablo_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_diablo_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,, -diablo-mountain003,diablo-mountain,bill_diablo_final_3.mp4,The Influence that Bud Moore had on Forest Service Policy,2021-07-17,"Bill Moore discusses the influence his father, Bud Moore, has had on Forest Service policy.",,Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_diablo_final_3.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_diablo_final_3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_diablo_final_3_th.jpg,,,,,, +diablo-mountain001,diablo-mountain,bill_diablo_final_1.mp4,The Diablo Mountain Scene Area,2021-07-16,Bill Moore provides a detailed panoramic description of the Diablo Mountain view shed,,Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_diablo_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_diablo_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_diablo_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:21 + +[Chris] Bill, could you just real quickly give us a kind of a walk through, maybe a 360-degree view here and what we're looking at there? + +[Bill] I'm chuckling about that because when I met ask him about staffing this lookout when we when we made the trip over and talked to Jack and me and my friend, he is hiring was what lookout do you want? + +00:00:30:23 - 00:00:51:07 + +[Bill] I took Hidden Peak because it was the furthest away and my buddy took Diablo and I've always considered that I took over his lookout even though it's like 50 years later, you know, I feel almost guilty. But when we talked about that, we were talking and the guy said, Man, it's hard to teach people how to know how to know the country. + +00:00:51:07 - 00:01:15:29 + +[Bill] And I said, I don't think so. I can stand right here in his office and tell you most of the seen area from Diablo, just, you know, and if I can learn it, anybody can learn it. So I'm not sure how to put it. We're sitting on a ridge between the Selway drainage and the Lochsa drainage. So that is Moose Crick goes down and runs into the Lochsa down around Lowell or somewhere there where it comes out. + +00:01:16:02 - 00:01:37:20 + +[Bill] So this is the Lochsa runs down this way, and they end up in the same place in the the border between the two districts is right on this line. So if you wanna say, “Hey”, I want to go down and we went in Lochsa, it's only two days down this way and you probably come out of. + +00:01:37:21 - 00:01:58:00 + +[Bill] Powell Well, you'll come out to that bridge they just wrapped, and this way it's two weeks and you come out of Lowell. The this goes deeper in the wilderness, that one doesn’t. So you've got Big Sand Lakes up here in the fog, here in the smoke. You can just see the tail end of it about a mile long, has a sandbar and went in. + +00:01:58:03 - 00:02:21:14 + +[Bill] Wonderful fishing. Great day, you could go in and spend the night and come back out eight miles. You come up over the ridgetop here. That's Jeannette Mountain. You go down into East Moose Creek. It's a little dead Elk Point right there, and there’s a little low one that’s footstool. Go down this way, that's the gold Lakes. Behind them is Wahoo Point, Battle Creek Ridge, and some of that. + +00:02:21:14 - 00:02:50:13 + +[Bill] This is all in what used to be the Nez Perce National Forest. On that side, it's now the Clearwater-Nez. And as if this they've merged and you go on down here, you go around this corner where that smoke's pretty heavy down there. That's Elbow Bend between the hill. Been enough to lose corners and the huge natural cedar grove that was written up in the National Geographic in 1935, if you can believe that. + +00:02:50:15 - 00:03:24:05 + +[Bill] But we'll see then Ridge ridges going down like that. That's the end of the Maple Ridge that’s Bell Point. Maple Ridge goes up along here. It's not it's generally the skyline bridge, but not always works its way up. There's a little mountain range here called the Graves Peak Range. Right out. There's Graves Peak ridges spur off and they go down on Saturday Ridge and they work their way down along the edge of the Lochsa between the locks in the Selway, uh, Bear Mountain lookouts down there. + +00:03:24:08 - 00:03:48:19 + +[Bill] Your camp went over White Houses down under, off that ridge. Anyway, that's Graves Peak. I knew the low. It's real hard to see now. That big ridge in the smoke goes down. Ridges come kind of meet like that. That's Savage Pass. And it's where you drove into this country. You go down this way. That's that road that was blocked off Pole Creek Road, that's looking right at the mouth of Storm Creek. + +00:03:48:21 - 00:04:09:00 + +[Bill] You go on up here, that big ridge goes this way it’s Hidden Ridge, Hidden Peak Lookout’s up there. I'm quite sure we can't see it today. It's named Hidden Peak for a reason. Big sand. And now you're back up to the ridgetop pretty much, generally. There's a lot more in here that sums up a lot of it. + +" +diablo-mountain002,diablo-mountain,bill_diablo_final_2.mp4,Bill Moore Demonstrates the Osborne Fire Finder,2021-07-17,Bill Moore gives the Keeping Watch team a demo on the Osborne Fire Finder while locked in by smoke from the 2021 Lolo Complex Fires.,,Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_diablo_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_diablo_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_diablo_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:32:11 + +[Jack] Yeah, it does. And maybe you could give us a quick little demonstration on how an alidade works. + +[Bill] Sure. It's also called an Osborne Fire Finder what I tell my volunteers, is they'll go, how are we going to do that? Well, this is not rocket science. They did not have rocket science in 1928 when they made this thing. So basically, any you guys work in machine shop or are Machinist? + +00:00:32:13 - 00:00:59:21 + +[Bill] Yeah, they even nowadays they're all electronics. But there's a thing called the vernier caliper that you measure with and you line up a veneer line. So what you do basically is you see a smoke and the smokes are too nice to have something to shoot at. But there’s a little knob and there's a smoke on that floating rail on top of it is actually smoked actually on the next novel over. + +00:00:59:22 - 00:01:19:20 + +[Bill] But see, there's a 1500 acre fire burning out in there just past its first range. So you put on what you see or smoke and then naturally you don't you kind of don't know where it is. But, you know, it's under this tape because you've just shot it. These are horsetail hairs. That's what you put on your alidade. + +00:01:19:23 - 00:01:53:05 + +[Bill] And unfortunately, I had to find that over with coarser horsetail. Because it’s 35 for night shoot. But you do like that. Then you come around on the alidade and you read the veneer of what it is. In this case, it's twenty, five, six, seven, eight, 28 degrees. And then there's another one you can read that’ll give you the exact minutes, looks to be about 28 degrees, 15 minutes depending on how close it is and how long you've been doing it. + +00:01:53:07 - 00:02:18:00 + +[Bill] Most of all time with ounces, they'll go, Yeah, that’s twenty eight and a quarter. But somebody that's just been taught how to will go that’s twenty eight and 14 minutes, you know. So anyhow, so now you look at that and you know that's the angle of it that that's part you write that down, then you read the terrain out to where you find out where where it is on the map. + +00:02:18:00 - 00:02:36:07 + +[Bill] You know, it's maybe three drainages over. And this is a contour map. And through the years you get to where you know what that is. So you look at it and then you put it in and then it goes across the section about where you think it is. And that section has a number. It's in a township in a range. + +00:02:36:07 - 00:03:09:06 + +[Bill] It's the old way of surveying. So you look, pick one out there. Oh, it's township 36, North 16 east section 15, northeast in the northwest corridor. So if you figure all that out, you're within 40 acres. You write all that down and then you've got your thing and then you then you look at it and you say, Oh, that's a South facing slope and it's mature timber and the fires a third of the way down and you have all these things you can check off in a book. + +00:03:09:09 - 00:03:48:04 + +[Bill] Well, this is a smoke report book. It looks like that. You go through that and then you you get all that done and you've got all this figured out. That's when you change your plan. She'll call it in, though. And from there, so that's kind of a real fast way of going through it. But basically they actually and this is designed so you can do something in a way, you can move it back and forth to get around a stovepipe or you can pick it up and put it over here if you just need it for that. + +00:03:48:04 - 00:04:13:02 + +[Bill] And then what we do is we buy a piece of plexiglass. Not plexiglass actually Lexan, because plexiglass is an acrylic and tends to shatter. But we put that on so that you could write with a grease pencil or something like that. And your map doesn't say wear out and do all that. So I think that's about it. You can do this. + +00:04:13:02 - 00:04:27:15 + +[Bill] I mean, this is we can find a location if you want to. You can do all that and you're happy to do that. So that's that answer goes. And I'm sorry. + +[Jack] That was great. +" +diablo-mountain003,diablo-mountain,bill_diablo_final_3.mp4,The Influence that Bud Moore had on Forest Service Policy,2021-07-17,"Bill Moore discusses the influence his father, Bud Moore, has had on Forest Service policy.",,Lochsa River; Selway River; Clearwater River; Powell Ranger Station; Diablo Peak; Bill Moore; Forest Service; Volunteer lookouts; Norman McClain; Osborne Fire Finder; Nez-Perce Clearwater National Forest; Magruder Corridor; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Smoke; R-6,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_diablo_final_3.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_diablo_final_3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_diablo_final_3_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:01 + +[Bill] I think his influence has been after he left the Forest Service, young folks, people like yourselves, who come and visit. And he they he could answer questions about why they did stuff clear back before World War Two. And it was like, you know, they didn't just do anything kind of like throwing a dart at the phone booth. + +00:00:28:01 - 00:00:48:11 + +[Bill] They had ideas and thoughts and were doing the best they knew and they could explain why they did it, how it turned out, were they right, how they're doing it now, it is going to turn out, and stimulate a lot of thought. And I think because of that, he still has influence, because those young people are now decision makers. So. +" diablo-mountain004,diablo-mountain,bill_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Fire Lookout?,2021-07-16,Bill Moore discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,systematic observation; volunteer lookouts; wilderness act of 1964,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.29622,-114.61786,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:32:25 [Michael] That's great. And thinking about that, do you think that with the kind of increasing obsolescence of the fire tower and the move towards new technologies to identify and spot fires, do you think that there's anything that is lost in the transition away from the human staffed fire lookout. @@ -130,7 +222,57 @@ fairfield,,,Fairfield,,,,,,43.34358,-114.79237,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,to faset-peak,,,Faset Peak,,,,,,47.93987,-116.33994,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, fire-lookout-museum,,,Ray Kresek's Fire Lookout Museum,,"Built: 1969
Status: Open By Apointment from May-November
Cabin: L-6
Other Resources:
Fire Lookout Museum
","The Fire Lookout Museum is located in Spokane, Washington and is operated by Ray Kresek from May to November by appointment. He has assembled a rare L-6 cabin out of several disassembled lookouts. This tower is populated by an interview with Ray who has spent most of his life staffing lookouts and preserving land in the Pacific and Inland Northwest. Watch clips and his full interview for a description of his time on Heaven's Gate Lookout, creating and maintaining the Fire Lookout Museum, establishing the Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area, and writing his book Fire Lookouts of the Inland Northwest. ",,,47.7562823,-117.4156603,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/fire_lookout_museum_theta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/fire_lookout_museum_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/fire_lookout_museum_theta_th.jpg,1969,Open By Apointment from May-November,L-6,"Fire Lookout Museum",, fire-lookout-museum001,fire-lookout-museum,fire_lookout_museum.mp4,Tour of Ray Kresek's Fire Lookout Museum,2021-06-12,Ray Kresek gives the Keeping Watch team a tour of his fire lookout museum.,,Ray Kresek; Preservation;Forest Service; Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area; Caribou; Logging activity; Fire Lookout Museum; Fire Lookouts of the Inland Northwest; stevenson screen; rain guage; last rain; anemometer;,"Spokane, Washington",47.7562823,-117.4156603,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/fire_lookout_museum.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/fire_lookout_museum_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/fire_lookout_museum_th.jpg,,,,,, -fire-lookout-museum002,fire-lookout-museum,ray_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Fire Lookout?,2021-06-12,Ray Kresek discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Ray Kresek; fire lookout museum; fire lookouts of the inland northwest; systematic observation; ,"Spokane, Washington",47.7562823,-117.4156603,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/ray_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/ray_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/ray_lost_th.jpg,,,,,, +fire-lookout-museum002,fire-lookout-museum,ray_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Fire Lookout?,2021-06-12,Ray Kresek discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Ray Kresek; fire lookout museum; fire lookouts of the inland northwest; systematic observation; ,"Spokane, Washington",47.7562823,-117.4156603,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/ray_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/ray_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/ray_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00;00;00;00 - 00;00;53;03 + +[Chris] I have one more question here. Part of something that we're really interested in the project that we're doing is the transition away from fire lookouts towards using new technology to locate fires. Kind of the way in which the lookout is becoming or seems to become is becoming more obsolete. It's becoming—is being used for different purposes, like Air BNB lodgings. + +00;00;53;05 - 00;01;06;10 + +[Chris] And so we're curious to know what do you think is lost, perhaps, in the transition away from the human fire lookout + +[Ray] I'm really glad you asked that question. + +00;01;06;12 - 00;02;04;00 + +[Ray] Air Patrol goes back to the 1930s when they had sport planes, you know, biplanes and in the 1950s, air patrol really caught on. They would put up a plane, say, out of Coeur d’Alene. It would go up about 9:00 in the morning, 10:00. It would fly the entire area to Canadian border from Coeur d’Alene, the Coeur d’Alene forest, the Kaniksu forest, everything to Canada and how for how long are you going to see any acre of that you're looking at when you're flying over it a second jet? + +00;02;04;00 - 00;02;49;11 + +[Ray] And lightning has a tendency, especially in northern Idaho, to put out sleeper fires where you get a good rain, a good soaking rain after the lightning, and it'll put smoke down right away. A lookout’s going to see that when it comes up first and it will come up maybe at 3:00 in the afternoon every day, come up just a few puffs of smoke and die down again. It'll do that for ten, 15 days. The Sundance Fire did that. + +00;02;49;13 - 00;03;16;00 + +[Ray] An air patrol plane or just two sets of eyes in it are not going to see any given area long enough to catch a sleeper fire. And it's a sleeper fires that when they do take off two weeks later, when it dries up and gets blown dry again and the wind hits it and they're going to go, okay, so you better have some way to see it quick. + +00;03;16;03 - 00;03;45;00 + +[Ray] Well, there's where the lookouts are important. And back when we had plenty of lookouts, you didn't necessarily even have to be able to identify the exact location of it, because I could shoot an azimuth out there like that. And this lookout over here can shoot another azimuth. And the way they cross those two azimuth readings are going to be where that fire is. + +00;03;45;02 - 00;04;20;22 + +[Ray] And that pinpoints it, especially if you got a nice angle. You know, if you're like, this is not so hot, but this way. And back when in the day, when there were lookouts that could do that on any smoke, it pinpointed right to the notch. And that's been lost when they started reducing lookouts. Well, the cost of air patrol is significant compared to the cost of manning a lookout. + +00;04;20;24 - 00;05;03;18 + +[Ray] So they only put up an air patrol at most once a day. And except Coeur D’Alene, they've been known to put up two a day after lightning. But forests like the Colville, there were two weeks without putting up an air patrol and who's going to see it? Well, today, with people wandering around the woods with their cell phones and GPS, it’s great if you can have cell coverage, you know, GPS reading if you're sitting on the fire. + +00;05;03;20 - 00;05;25;02 + +[Ray] But if you're sitting two miles away from it and you're you don't know which direction it is, for sure, you think it might be north or east and you get on your phone and you call in a fire. And I got GPS reading so and so, and I'm sitting here, I'm looking, I think I'm looking north, but I might be looking east. + +00;05;25;04 - 00;06;14;15 + +[Ray] There's fire out there. Well, how far is it? Well, it looks like … see they're not accurate and there's another thing that's a factor that needs to be looked at that hasn't been: the urban interface, moving of people out into the country. You've seen houses everywhere in the woods now. Those people, most of them, work in town to pay for that nice home out in the woods. They're not even there in the daytime. So, who's going to see the fire that's on their property? + +00;06;14;17 - 00;07;21;19 + +[Ray] Uh, satellites absolutely has never been fire detected from a satellite. Commercial aircraft? Yes. They can pinpoint one. The latest thing is replacing manned lookouts with cameras down in Oregon and southern Oregon. They replaced almost all of their lookouts with cameras, and they've proven to be somewhat effective. But you have to have a person in that dispatch desk, uh, in the in the dispatch room watching a screen, because that camera makes you rotate about once a minute, makes a certain or makes a circle about once a minute, and you got to catch you an inch and it's got to be big enough smoke to see in the first place where the camera. Cameras are questionable. + +00;07;21;21 - 00;07;55;10 + +[Ray] They haven't really been perfected yet. The best of all worlds. The guy out there with the cell phone with G.P.S., uh, the air patrol, and lookout at all combined. There, you’ve got the best. Can’t we afford the best today? That's always been my argument. Don't hold much water, but that would be the best of all worlds. + +" fire-lookout-museum003,fire-lookout-museum,HFyif2JJX0Q,Ray Kresek - Full Interview,2021-06-12,Full Interview of Ray Kresek,,Ray Kresek; Preservation;Forest Service; Salmo-Priest Wilderness Area; Caribou; Logging activity; Fire Lookout Museum; Fire Lookouts of the Inland Northwest; lightning rods; lightning stools; fire finder; bird cage; anemometer;,"Spokane, Washington",47.7562823,-117.4156603,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/HFyif2JJX0Q,https://img.youtube.com/vi/HFyif2JJX0Q/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/HFyif2JJX0Q/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, fire-lookout-museum004,fire-lookout-museum,fire_lookout_museum_theta.JPG,Ray Kresek's Backyard Lookout 360 Degree Image,2021-06-12,Interior 360 degree image of Ray Kresek's L-6 backyard tower,,osborne fire finder; horse hair sight; rotating sight ring; seen area; systematic observation; township; range; l-6,"Spokane, Washington",47.7562823,-117.4156603,,,image;panorama,image/jpeg,eng,,,panorama,/objects/fire_lookout_museum_theta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/fire_lookout_museum_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/fire_lookout_museum_theta_th.jpg,,,,,, flynn-butte,,,Flynn Butte,,,,,,46.98829,-116.64866,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, @@ -145,7 +287,38 @@ hawley-mountain,,,Hawley Mountain,,,,,,43.99239,-116.03041,,,record,compound_obj heavens-gate,,,Heavens Gate,,,,,,45.36865,-116.49471,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, hell-s-half-acre,,hells_half_theta.JPG,Hell's Half Acre,,"Built: 1930
Status: Staffed
Cabin: R-6
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","Hell's Half Acre Lookout is located in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness on the Idaho-Montana border and is staffed seasonally. This lookout is populated by an interview with Patrick McCarron who works on both Hell's Half Acre and nearby St. Mary's Peak near Lolo, Montana. Watch clips and his full interview for descriptions of the tour guide component of lookout life, stewardship that lookouts provide to alpine environments, and the socio-environmental nexus lookouts exist within.",Magruder Corridor; Selway River; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Hell's Half Acre; Forest Service; Smoke; St. Mary's Peak; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Magruder Corridor ,45.64579,-114.62838,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/hells_half_theta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/hells_half_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/hells_half_theta_th.jpg,1930,Staffed,R-6,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, hell-s-half-acre001,hell-s-half-acre,patrick_hellshalf_final_1.mp4,Recording Fire Conditions at Hell's Half Acre Lookout,2021-07-13,Video of Patrick McMarron recording fire conditions in July of 2021 on Hells Half Acre Fire Lookout,,Magruder Corridor; Selway River; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Hell's Half Acre; Forest Service; Smoke; St. Mary's Peak; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; rain guage; systematic observation; ,Magruder Corridor ,45.64579,-114.62838,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/patrick_hellshalf_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/patrick_hellshalf_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/patrick_hellshalf_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, -hell-s-half-acre002,hell-s-half-acre,patrick_hellshalf_final_2.mp4,The Importance of Human Beings on the Lookout,2021-07-13,Patrick McMarron discusses the importance of humans staffing fire lookouts,,Magruder Corridor; Selway River; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Hell's Half Acre; Forest Service; Climate Change; Smoke; St. Mary's Peak; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Magruder Corridor ,45.64579,-114.62838,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/patrick_hellshalf_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/patrick_hellshalf_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/patrick_hellshalf_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,, +hell-s-half-acre002,hell-s-half-acre,patrick_hellshalf_final_2.mp4,The Importance of Human Beings on the Lookout,2021-07-13,Patrick McMarron discusses the importance of humans staffing fire lookouts,,Magruder Corridor; Selway River; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Hell's Half Acre; Forest Service; Climate Change; Smoke; St. Mary's Peak; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Magruder Corridor ,45.64579,-114.62838,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/patrick_hellshalf_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/patrick_hellshalf_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/patrick_hellshalf_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:42:11 + +[Chris] So one of the things that we're interested in, in this project that we're doing is, um, the increasing obsolescence of the + +[Patrick] Oh, you're going to get me started. + +[Chris] Uh, yeah. So if you just talk a little bit. + +[Patrick]Yeah, well, obviously, as far as technological advancement goes, I’m at the sticks and rocks stage, but, you know, this is as if these have a huge historical significance or and I'm talking some of the stuff I tell people at St Mary these this is probably the first lookout here is probably in the thirties it’s what they call a rag top. + +00:00:42:11 - 00:01:05:07 + +[Patrick] There is no there's no look out as a post here, maybe a tree. And the guy who lived in the tent and then from there you escalate. In the thirties there were about 50 lookouts in Reveille County in the Bitterroot National Forest. It gave a lot of people jobs and yeah, I guess be redundant. But there is there are things to be said about a human being being here, you know? + +00:01:05:07 - 00:01:29:20 + +[Patrick] Yeah, you can set up the machinery and you can monitor the weather and the winds and everything else, but just walk around the catwalk every 15 minutes or so. You see things that, you know, when you're here long enough, there's a difference. You can tell also on these steep canyons, especially here, it's just canyon country. Fire crews are working on a fire down here and they have to stay overnight on it. + +00:01:29:20 - 00:01:56:25 + +[Patrick] They can't radio out. They can radio here, but they can't radio. They can't reach dispatch. So the lookouts are all relaying messages that can get really critical, that can be, you know, a life or death situation. And there are a lot of just little, you know, things. I know we're in the modern age. The whole management of the Forest Service is changing to, you know, new people who don't really understand the significance of having to pack all your supplies in. + +00:01:56:25 - 00:02:18:16 + +[Patrick] On a mule train is this is a little different here. You can drive here, but there are quite a few lookouts. There's still pack in. So and also, you know, financially, you know, what does it cost to pay a lookout through the season? Probably what it costs an hour for the helicopter. You know what it costs in a day for the aerial reconnaissance. + +00:02:18:18 - 00:02:36:29 + +[Patrick] And there are aerial reconnaissance winds clear enough to see fire season and then go along between the lookouts and radar ridge lookout. And we radio back what to look at, what to look for, what we saw. So end of sermon is that enough? + + +" hell-s-half-acre003,hell-s-half-acre,AQWvoYnmiSQ,Patrick McCarron - Full Interview,2021-07-13,Full interview of Patrick McCarron,,Magruder Corridor; Selway River; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Hell's Half Acre; Forest Service; Climate Change; Smoke; St. mary's Peak; Staffed Lookouts; R-7; township; range; seen area; rotating sight ring; slope position; slope steepness; fire finder; ,Magruder Corridor ,45.64579,-114.62838,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/AQWvoYnmiSQ,https://img.youtube.com/vi/AQWvoYnmiSQ/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/AQWvoYnmiSQ/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, hell-s-half-acre004,hell-s-half-acre,hells_half_theta.JPG,Hell's Half Acre Lookout 360 Image,2021-07-13,Panoramic image of the interior of Hells Half Acre lookout,,Magruder Corridor; Selway River; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Hell's Half Acre; Forest Service; Climate Change; Smoke; Saint Maries Peak; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Magruder Corridor ,45.64579,-114.62838,,,image;stllimage,image/jpeg,eng,,,panorama,/objects/hells_half_theta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/hells_half_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/hells_half_theta_th.jpg,,,,,, hemlock-butte,,,Hemlock Butte,,,,,,46.47352,-115.62924,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, @@ -175,7 +348,54 @@ lunch-peak,,,Lunch Peak,,,,,,48.37478,-116.19349,,,record,compound_object,eng,,, mahoney-creek,,,Mahoney Creek,,,,,,44.76014,-114.95913,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, mallard-peak,,,Mallard Peak,,,,,,46.93809,-115.52486,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, mcconnell-mountain,,mcconnell_place_holder.jpg,McConnell Mountain,,"Built: 1935
Status: Burned down in 2013
Cabin: 6x6 Log Cupola
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page
Photo Credit:
Montana History Portal","McConnell Mountain Lookout is located in the Clearwater National Forest and burned down in the 2013 California Point Fire. This lookout is populated by an interview with Bill Moore whose late-father, Bud Moore, helped build and staff this lookout in 1935. Watch a clip and read the story of Bud's time on this lookout, how the cabin burned down in a forest fire, and why Bill sees these events as interconnected in the wilderness world. ",Bud Moore; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Powell Ranger Station; Lightning; Lookout Remains; Forest Service; mcconnell mountain; montana history portal; ,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.35874605,-114.9158207,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/mcconnell_place_holder.jpg,/objects/small/mcconnell_place_holder_sm.jpg,/objects/thumbs/mcconnell_place_holder_th.jpg,1935,Burned down in 2013,6x6 Log Cupola,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page:","Montana History Portal", -mcconnell-mountain001,mcconnell-mountain,bill_mcconnell_final_1.mp4,Bud Moore's Time On McConnell Mountain,2021-07-16,Bill Moore tells the story of his father Bud Moore's time on McConnell Mountain as a lookout. ,,Bud Moore; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Powell Ranger Station; Lightning; Lookout Remains; Forest Service; mcconnell mountain,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.35874605,-114.9158207,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_mcconnell_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_mcconnell_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_mcconnell_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, +mcconnell-mountain001,mcconnell-mountain,bill_mcconnell_final_1.mp4,Bud Moore's Time On McConnell Mountain,2021-07-16,Bill Moore tells the story of his father Bud Moore's time on McConnell Mountain as a lookout. ,,Bud Moore; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Powell Ranger Station; Lightning; Lookout Remains; Forest Service; mcconnell mountain,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.35874605,-114.9158207,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/bill_mcconnell_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/bill_mcconnell_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/bill_mcconnell_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:27:16 + +[Bill] Yeah. So. So he went out to this McConnell Mountain lookout. And at that time, I don't have a picture of it in my phone. The Alidade was just a map board on a staff out on a rock pile. So you couldn't be out there in a lightning storm. I mean, you just couldn't be out in the middle of nowhere. + +00:00:27:18 - 00:00:48:14 + +[Bill] And so the other lookouts would get first discoveries on him all the time. And in that those days, that was kind of important. But that didn't happen to you, you know? And so he built a little thing. They called it a cupola, but it was probably about six feet square, maybe smaller our of logs. And he put it out on this rock pile. + +00:00:48:17 - 00:01:08:12 + +[Bill] So that he could go out there and not be in the weather and the rain and the blowing and the lightning and all of that. So the Ranger came up. Ranger’s name was Ed McKay, and he came up. Pop was there, and Pop said he saw him ride enough. He could see his hat on him. You know, he should gradually top and out over the ridge. + +00:01:08:12 - 00:01:27:19 +[Bill] You can see the hat. And pretty soon the guy and then the horse. So and so he went down and put the coffee on. In those days when the ranger came, you always, you'd have a peach pie or something. You made out of cans and fruit for the ranger and you'd have a coffee on. It's kind of tradition. + +00:01:27:21 - 00:01:49:29 + +[Bill] But Ed didn't even stop. He just rode right out on to that, looking at that and so Pop though oh boy, you know, he didn't know for sure what went and talked, Ed, And it said, you know, this is totally why I did it. And he's such a damn good idea, Bud. He said, Let's write down some measurement and I'll send up some windows and lightning protection. + +00:01:50:02 - 00:02:13:12 + +[Bill] So he ended up having this little place he could go, and that stayed there ‘till what was it? I think it was 2013. Meanwhile, Pop, you know, was the lookout for about five seasons, four or five, and then worked trail crews and worked his way up and went to war and became the ranger and then went to Washington and all that other stuff. + +00:02:13:12 - 00:02:47:23 + +[Bill] And he came back. The first thing he did when he came back as part of that story, he went back to took a backpacking trip and went up over Fish Lake and then McConnell Mountain and all around back just to get back in the country and kind of, you know, get to feel again. And but anyway, this all gone on till we get up to about 2013 and a lightning strike comes down on California point which is maybe 8 to 10 miles away from McConnell, maybe a little further. + +00:02:47:25 - 00:03:16:09 + +[Bill] And they put jumpers on it and then decided not to staff it. And it took, I believe, 21 days for that was called the California Point Fire to work its way down Wounded Doe Ridge until it finally got to the point where McConnell Mountain was on it. And by then there was some concern about people that knew the country that they knew that old lookout was up there. + +00:03:16:12 - 00:03:45:09 + +[Bill] And but bottom line was it burned down in the California Point fire. So the interesting thing about that is the I wrote a little article about it and I called it “The Circle of Life and Fire”, cause he was the guy that built that in 1935 so that he could better manage fires and get them out faster and all of that kind of stuff in the wilderness because that's what you did at the time. + +00:03:45:13 - 00:04:08:22 + +[Bill] And then he went through his whole career and eventually changed how people looked at it back in the wilderness. And they did leave. It burned and it burned down the very thing that he built so that he could fight fire better in the wilderness, just kind of like. And so yeah, yeah. Ask about him in that story and how would he think about that. + +00:04:08:22 - 00:04:35:19 + +[Bill] And I think that he would think that's just fine, you know, that just natural and that's kind of what happened to the thing. Unless he'd have been sitting on a lookout like some of us were and heard all of the screwing around they did when they didn't even know it was there, you know, And it just the lookout is saying, hey, you know, guys, we're going to lose McConnell Mountain. + +00:04:35:21 - 00:04:41:02 + +[Bill] And yeah, it was just kind of a what's the word for cluster? + +" mcconnell-mountain002,mcconnell-mountain,circle_of_life.jpg,Circle of Life and Fire,2015,Bill Moore Writes about his late-father Bud Moore's experience as a lookout on McConnell Mountain and the cyle of life and death wilderness. ,,Bud Moore; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; Powell Ranger Station; Lightning; Lookout Remains; Forest Service; mcconnell mountain; fire lookout association,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.35874605,-114.9158207,,,text,application/pdf,eng,,,pdf,/objects/circle_of_life.pdf,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/circle_of_life_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/circle_of_life_sm.jpg,,,,,, mcconnell-mountain003,mcconnell-mountain,mcconnell_place_holder.jpg,McConnell Mountain from a Distance,,,,Lookout Remains; Forest Service; mcconnell mountain; montana history portal; ,Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ,46.35874605,-114.9158207,,,image;stillimage,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/mcconnell_place_holder.jpg,/objects/small/mcconnell_place_holder_sm.jpg,/objects/thumbs/mcconnell_place_holder_th.jpg,,,,,, meadow-creek,,,Meadow Creek,,,,,,44.86819,-115.389,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, @@ -195,7 +415,42 @@ oregon-butte,,,Oregon Butte,,,,,,45.52164,-115.6688,,,record,compound_object,eng osier-ridge,,,Osier Ridge,,,,,,46.82736,-115.0155,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, pilot-knob,,,Pilot Knob,,,,,,45.90547,-115.70838,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, pilot-peak,,pilot_peak.jpg,Pilot Peak,2021-06-21,"Built: 1919
Status: Staffed
Cabin: L-4
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","Pilot Peak Lookout is located near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and is staffed seasonally. This lookout is populated by an interview with Jim and Caroline Huntley who staffed lookouts in the early and mid-2000's. Watch clips and their full interview for descriptions of the remote appeal of lookout life, living together in an L-4 cabin, and the influence that Zen Buddhism had on their decision to become lookouts. ",Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; l-4,,43.9601833,-115.68675,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/pilot_peak.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pilot_peak_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pilot_peak_th.jpg,1919,Staffed,L-4,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, -pilot-peak001,pilot-peak,huntley_pilot_peak.mp4,"Marriage, Literature, Religion",2021-06-21,"The Huntley's talk about their time on Pilot Peak and Sheepeater Mountain, religion and lookouts, and a very memorable hike.",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; Gary Snyder; Jack Kerouac; Naropa Institute of Zen Buddhism; Salmon River,,43.9601833,-115.68675,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/huntley_pilot_peak.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/huntley_pilot_peak_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/huntley_pilot_peak_th.jpg,,,,,, +pilot-peak001,pilot-peak,huntley_pilot_peak.mp4,"Marriage, Literature, Religion",2021-06-21,"The Huntley's talk about their time on Pilot Peak and Sheepeater Mountain, religion and lookouts, and a very memorable hike.",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; Gary Snyder; Jack Kerouac; Naropa Institute of Zen Buddhism; Salmon River,,43.9601833,-115.68675,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/huntley_pilot_peak.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/huntley_pilot_peak_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/huntley_pilot_peak_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:39:25 + +[Chris] You've kind of already answered this question in some ways, but, um, what was it that that drew you both to, um, the job of the lookout to be out in, especially to do it together, um, at Pilot Peak? + +[Jim] Well, my original inspiration was some of the Adirondack Hermits back in the Adirondacks. Noah John Rondeau and, uh, French. + +00:00:39:25 - 00:01:09:07 + +[Jim] Louie was this guy's name. And these were guys that just got sick of society and moved out into the woods and hunted and fished for their food. And that always fascinated me when I was a youngster. And so, so yeah, I, I was really drawn towards that. And that's what got me up on Hadley for the first time, uh, the Hadley Mountain Fire Tower in the Adirondacks there. + +00:01:09:09 - 00:01:45:04 + +[Jim] And when I was there, I started, I started getting into writers like Jack Kerouac and that gang, Philip Whalen and, and, uh, Gary Snyder, And they all did the fire lookouts. Um, and there they were also kind of associated with the university that I went to, to Naropa University. But those guys really inspired me as well. So that was kind of the, the second wave when we met, um, you know, basically we were working restaurant jobs, stuff like that. + +00:01:45:04 - 00:02:02:21 + +[Jim] And I was like, Hey, I have this idea, you know, we ought to, you know, go do a fire lookout. And, you know, if we're not going to make a ton of money being, you know, working in a restaurant, we might as well not make a ton of money and, you know, sit on top of a mountain and, you know, do something interesting like that. + +00:02:02:23 - 00:02:20:02 + +[Jim] And yeah, so we got the job and… + +[Caroline] It was amazing. Yeah. I had never even known that there were fire lookouts, to be honest with you, until we got together. But when we had met, we, you know, we were both living in the mountains and was like, you know, you were in a wall tent at 10,000 feet. + +00:02:20:02 - 00:02:43:10 + +[Caroline] And I was in this little ramshackle little cabin trailer, you know, just loving being in the woods and stuff. And we both knew that we could, you know, kind of rough it in a certain regard. And we like that aspect of things. And then when we got together, we lived in a little cabin with, you know, no running water, you know, just solar, just, you know, a teeny little things that we knew we could handle that. + +00:02:43:13 - 00:03:08:03 + +[Caroline] But then, yeah, when you got the job as a lookout, that was really exciting. And I remember before we went up, we came across a quote from Edward Abbey that said something like, you know, I'm totally paraphrasing, and he says it much better. But basically, like, you know, if you're meant to be with someone and if you live in a 14 by 14 foot, you know, one room, a little place, you know, and like, you know, you're meant to be together. + +00:03:08:03 - 00:03:28:07 + +[Caroline] And we both had that like, alright, like, can we do this? Like, we knew we knew we loved each other. We knew we wanted to be together. Like that wasn't a question, but that was kind of like our little, like, underlying like, can we do this? You know? And so yeah, so it was really exciting to do that, actually. +" pilot-peak002,pilot-peak,iIHtf_JSmUc,Jim and Caroline Huntley - Full Interview,2021-06-21,Full interview of Jim and Caroline Huntley,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; Gary Snyder; Jack Kerouac; Naropa Institute of Zen Buddhism; Salmon River,,43.9601833,-115.68675,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/iIHtf_JSmUc,https://img.youtube.com/vi/iIHtf_JSmUc/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/iIHtf_JSmUc/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, pilot-peak003,pilot-peak,huntleys_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Fire Lookout?,2021-06-21,Jim and Caroline Huntley discuss what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; staffed lookouts; man-wife lookouts; geist; patrol points; systematic observation; ,,43.9601833,-115.68675,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/huntleys_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/huntleys_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/huntleys_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:09:22 - 00:00:35:10 @@ -326,7 +581,37 @@ rock-rabbit-point,,,Rock Rabbit Point,,,,,,45.26107,-115.2389,,,record,compound_ rocky-point,,,Rocky Point,,,,,,46.58222,-114.66587,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, rocky-point-2,,,Rocky Point #2,,,,,,46.84568,-116.87758,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, roughneck-peak,,roughneck-theta1.jpg,Ruffneck Peak,2021-08-23,"Built: 1932
Status: Staffed
Cabin: L-4
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","Ruffneck Peak Lookout is located near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and is staffed seasonally. This lookout is populated by interviews with Andy Baca and Don Scheese. Andy Baca is a fire lookout, teacher, and hunting guide. Don Scheese is the author of Mountains of Memory: A Fire Lookout's Life in the River of No Return Wilderness. Watch clips and their full interviews for descriptions of the lookout's place in the landscape, the tension between human settlement and wilderness areas, and information about a recent earthquake near Ruffneck Peak. ",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,record,firetower,,,,firetower,/objects/roughneck-theta1.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/roughneck-theta3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/roughneck-theta3_th.jpg,1932,Staffed,L-4,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, -roughneck-peak001,roughneck-peak,andy_final_3.mp4,A Few Words on Life as a Lookout,2021-08-23,"Andy explains that he began working on lookouts the year A River Runs Through it (1992) came out, and that its soundtrack ""epitomizes the lookout life."" ",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Mountains of Memory; Don Scheese; Earthquake Activity; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/andy_final_3.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/andy_final_3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/andy_final_3_th.jpg,,,,,, +roughneck-peak001,roughneck-peak,andy_final_3.mp4,A Few Words on Life as a Lookout,2021-08-23,"Andy explains that he began working on lookouts the year A River Runs Through it (1992) came out, and that its soundtrack ""epitomizes the lookout life."" ",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Mountains of Memory; Don Scheese; Earthquake Activity; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/andy_final_3.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/andy_final_3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/andy_final_3_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:14 + +[Andy] My name is Andy Baca. Gosh, I got interested. I began working for the Forest Service at Kirkwood Historic Ranch in Hell's Canyon, and I went to school with Mark Schreiter, who did who did War Eagle and Miner's Peak and Pilot Peak and Williams Peak. So he had a long history of lookouts and just my association with him. He did Heaven's Gate one year and all my days off at Kirkwood, I'd go up and visit him. + +00:00:34:16 - 00:01:00:25 + +[Andy] And that was the year that A River Runs Through It came out and the music, you know, it epitomizes the lookout life, you know, in my mind. But anyway, I got interested in doing lookouts through him. And my first look out was Stormy Peak up on the north end of the Salmon. At that point, it was still the Salmon Forest and Challis Forest. + +00:01:00:27 - 00:01:29:15 + +[Andy] So I was on the Salmon Forest at that time, and then that was mid-nineties, early to mid-nineties, and it was a big fire year too. And they ended up moving me, splitting my wife and I up and she stayed there and I went to Middle Fork Peak and I did Middle Fork Peak for two years. So yeah, I've done lookouts all around and in the Frank Church, I'm probably one of the unique individuals to have done that. + +00:01:29:18 - 00:02:06:10 + +[Andy] So and I've done like 13, 14 different lookouts. And that's only because, you know, I've been a teacher, so I didn't do that every year since the early nineties. Otherwise I had 30 something years in. But um, I've had my family up here, four kids. Um, I enjoy the peace and the solitude. The lookout life was always a, uh, a reprieve from nine months in the classroom and a chance just to renew my spirit, you know, touch base with who I am. + +00:02:06:12 - 00:02:34:00 + +[Andy] So that's me in a nutshell, I guess. So my wife will be up here hopefully next week. + +[Jack] Yeah. I was going to ask you, what was your favorite thing about being a lookout is. +[Andy] Uh, my favorite thing about being a lookout is just the peace and the solitude, the opportunity. I mean, I work out up here, so, you know, I get in shape, and I guide in the fall, and I've been guiding big game, guiding. + +00:02:34:03 - 00:02:59:24 + +[Andy] So, you know, I do. I like, I can go down back pretty easily now with a pack on my back, no problem. And for my age is pretty good. So I enjoy the opportunity to get in shape just to study nature, to read. You know, I used to write a fair amount. Um, I was an outdoor columnist for a number of years when I was back in PA doing my doctorate work. + +00:02:59:27 - 00:03:08:11 + +[Andy] So, yeah, I just, I don't know, just being out here, it beats the city. That's all I can say. +" roughneck-peak002,roughneck-peak,andy_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Fire Lookout?,2021-08-23,Andy Baca discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Earthquake Activity; Terminator; A River Runs Through It; Geist; Staffed Lookouts; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/andy_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/andy_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/andy_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:08 [Jack] Can you talk about what the purpose of a look at it is what your what your job is here. @@ -374,7 +659,43 @@ roughneck-peak002,roughneck-peak,andy_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Aw [Andy] You know, it's kind of like Terminator. Remember the Terminator movies, you know, Skynet and all that. What was happening, It was a transition from killing, you know, from humanity to technology and machines and, uh, you know, what kind of life is that? " -roughneck-peak003,roughneck-peak,scheese_on_wilderness.mp4,Wilderness as Human Modified Space,2021-08-23,Don Scheese describes Wilderness as a human modified space,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Mountains of Memory; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/scheese_on_wilderness.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/scheese_on_wilderness_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/scheese_on_wilderness_th.jpg,,,,,, +roughneck-peak003,roughneck-peak,scheese_on_wilderness.mp4,Wilderness as Human Modified Space,2021-08-23,Don Scheese describes Wilderness as a human modified space,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Mountains of Memory; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/scheese_on_wilderness.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/scheese_on_wilderness_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/scheese_on_wilderness_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:35:22 + +[Don] So one of the reasons I chose Ruffneck to work on is because it was in, you know, an official wilderness area, the River No Return Wilderness, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest and one of the most famous. And I also worked on Oregon Butte Lookout in the Gospel Hump Wilderness. So I’m really privileged to have worked in actual wilderness areas. + +00:00:35:22 - 00:01:38:04 + +[Don] And I mean even Horse Mountain, which was a drive up lookout, you know, you could you could still see wilderness and you could still experience wildness, if not wilderness all around you, and especially in early mornings or evenings. And, you know, there would be lots of elk or other wildlife around. And so I think working a Fire Lookout is very integral to wilderness experience, even if you don't necessarily live directly in a wilderness area, because you're always going to experience some degrees of wildness, you know, whether it's, you know, watching Hawks dive bomb ground squirrels in the meadow below you or, you know, an incredible lightning storm there are going to be things beyond human + +00:01:38:04 - 00:02:12:14 + +[Don] control that you'll be able to witness. And so I think that's one of the gifts to being a fire lookout. +[Michael] And then I'm going to read a passage from your book really quickly and then a question about it. Okay. And you say, “I prefer the way the late cultural geographer Jamie Jackson defined landscape as a synthetic space, a manmade system of spaces superimposed on the face of the land. + +00:02:12:16 - 00:02:36:18 + +[Don] In other words, landscape is human modified space. Usually, the result of deliberate changes in the land made by people and its people, especially the various inhabitants of the Frank Church over millennia who have affected this land. Who have left their cultural imprints on it, who interest me most.” So when you think of the landscape, you inhabited as a lookout. + +00:02:36:20 - 00:02:45:16 +[Michael] What would you say your role became as a component of this landscape? + +00:02:45:18 - 00:03:21:07 + +[Don] That's an interesting question, and certainly as an observer of the landscape, I think that's one of the key functions of a fire lookout is just to observe. But, you know, I don't think I had much of an impact on the landscape itself as somebody who lived there for three or four months. + +00:03:21:09 - 00:04:03:18 + +[Don] I think being an observer, it can it should make you conscious of, you know, the small part that you play in a landscape that's so vast. But it's also easy to remember being reminded that, you know, there's so many signs of human activity around you, whether it's fire scars or mining activities or, you know, occasionally you could see signs of civilization, like in the Stanley Basin. + +00:04:03:18 - 00:04:18:04 + +[Don] And at night I could see the lights of Stanley Basin, the town of Stanley. It was a reminder that, you know, civilization is only 20 miles away. + +00:04:18:06 - 00:05:04:04 + +[Don] There was something else I was going to say on, you know, the trail, the trails themselves, the lookout, it’s a structure, the outhouse. You know, everything is an artifact of human activity, You know, things that we've created. They didn't exist before, you know, the 19th century, most likely, or the 20th century. Excuse me. So I think, you know, all of those things are reminders that, you know, we do live in human modified space, even in so-called wild, pristine places. + +" roughneck-peak004,roughneck-peak,andy_on_catwalk.jpg,View from the Deck of Ruffneck,2021-08-23,Andy Baca sitting on the catwalk of Ruffneck Lookout,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;stillimage,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/andy_on_catwalk.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/andy_on_catwalk_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/andy_on_catwalk_th.jpg,,,,,, roughneck-peak005,roughneck-peak,InTGtiC3-Ww,Andy Baca - Full Interview,2021-08-23,Full interview of Andy Baca,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Earthquake Activity; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/InTGtiC3-Ww,https://img.youtube.com/vi/InTGtiC3-Ww/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/InTGtiC3-Ww/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, roughneck-peak006,roughneck-peak,ur7lHaKpJdg,Don Scheese - Full Interview,2021-08-23,Full interview of Don Scheese,,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Mountains of Memory; Don Scheese; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; ruffneck peak,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,44.48270554,-115.155742,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/ur7lHaKpJdg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/ur7lHaKpJdg/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/ur7lHaKpJdg/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, @@ -391,7 +712,27 @@ scurvy-mountain,,,Scurvy Mountain,,,,,,46.68944,-115.13384,,,record,compound_obj sedgewick-peak,,,Sedgewick Peak,,,,,,42.51574,-111.92338,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, shafer-butte,,,Shafer Butte,,,,,,43.77149,-116.08848,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, sheep-hill,,sheep_hill.JPG,Sheep Hill,2021-06-01,"Built: 1928
Status: Staffed
Cabin: R-6
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page
Photo Credit:
United States Forest Service","Sheep Hill Lookout is located in the Nez Perce National Forest and is staffed seasonally. This lookout is populated with an interview by Betsy Booth (see Sheepeater Lookout for Betsy's full interview) who spent years staffing lookouts in the Nez Perce National Forest and the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Watch Betsy discuss a memorable storm. For more information on the above panoramic photograph, which was provided with the permission of the United States Forest Service, you can read the National Park Service's ""History of the Panoramic Lookout Project.""",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.58851,-115.0882,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/sheep_hill.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/sheep_hill_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/sheep_hill_th.jpg,1928,Staffed,R-6,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page:",United States Forest Service, -sheep-hill001,sheep-hill,the_best_storm.mp4,"""The Very Best Storm I've Ever Been In""",2021-06-01,Video of Betsy Booth describing a particuarly memorable storm on Sheep Hill Lookout,,Sheep Hill; Lightning Storms; Staffed Lookouts; Hail; R-6; last rain; lightning rods; lightning stool; strike; wind vane; systematic observation; ,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.58851,-115.0882,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/the_best_storm.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/the_best_storm_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/the_best_storm_th.jpg,,,,,, +sheep-hill001,sheep-hill,the_best_storm.mp4,"""The Very Best Storm I've Ever Been In""",2021-06-01,Video of Betsy Booth describing a particuarly memorable storm on Sheep Hill Lookout,,Sheep Hill; Lightning Storms; Staffed Lookouts; Hail; R-6; last rain; lightning rods; lightning stool; strike; wind vane; systematic observation; ,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.58851,-115.0882,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/the_best_storm.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/the_best_storm_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/the_best_storm_th.jpg,,,,,,"00;00;00;00 - 00;00;24;11 + +[Betsy] The very best storm that I have ever been in. Most of the storms around here track kind of up from the south, they might come a little bit from the southeast or a little bit from the southwest. But out of the south. And one afternoon in August, there was just this wall of black, out to the west and just boiling over toward me. + +00;00;24;11 - 00;00;57;00 + +[Betsy] And you could see like it was blocking out all the light because it was in the west and the sun was over there. And just you could see in the, you know, kind of like what should have still been broad daylight, lightning just dropping out of this thing all the way across, you know, like as it came across both the Payette and the and the Nez and like Oregon Butte got lit up and then it came across Dixie, and then it came across Boston Mountain and, as you know, crossed Bargemen and that it's right there like it is just it and it's a shelf cloud. + +00;00;57;00 - 00;01;15;02 + +[Betsy] So it was all squared off at the leading edge because it was just moving so fast. And I like that thing. And I'm sitting on my lightning stool in the middle of the lookout like that thing is below the elevation of this mountain that's going to have to either like that's just going to have to lift up to get over here. + +00;01;15;02 - 00;01;52;10 + +[Betsy] And so it did when the wall of air in front of that cloud finally hit Sheep Hill, it just boiled up and over me. This cloud just kind of like washed all around me and still dropping lightning. And there was just enormous hail like, you know, like dime size or a little bit bigger hail and still lightning, you know, just going on all around me and the lookout either got hit or came, you know, like splash over from a strike that was right nearby. + +00;01;52;10 - 00;02;06;25 + +[Betsy] And it was crazy. It was so awesome. Just like being literally in the middle of the storm for however long it took. Felt like a while. It was probably like 15 minutes or something like that, that I was just like, Whoo hoo hoo! + +" sheep-hill002,sheep-hill,betsy_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Lookout?,2021-06-01,Betsy Booth discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Sheep Hill; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; ,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.58851,-115.0882,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/betsy_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/betsy_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/betsy_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:39:26 [Michael] So as we move away from fire lookouts, they kind of become, you know, obsolete in a way as new technology is implemented. Do you feel like that transition away from the human staffed fire lookout. Do you feel like anything is lost in that transition? @@ -458,8 +799,112 @@ sheep-hill002,sheep-hill,betsy_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from " sheep-hill003,sheep-hill,sheep_hill.JPG,Sheep Hill Panoramic Photograph,2023-04-02,Panorama of Sheep Hill lookout,,Sheep Hill; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.58851,-115.0882,,,image;panorama,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/sheep_hill.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/sheep_hill_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/sheep_hill_th.jpg,,,,,, sheepeater-mountain,,,Sheepeater Mountain,,"Built: 1934
Status: Staffed (only during peak fire sesaon)
Cabin: R-6
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page
Photo Credit:
University of Idaho Archival Idaho Photograph Collection","Sheepeater Mountain Lookout is located in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness and is staffed seasonally. This lookout is populated with interviews by Betsy Booth and Ed Allen. Betsy Booth has staffed lookouts in the Nez Perce National Forest and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Ed Allen built, restored, and transported lookouts for the Forest Service. Watch clips and their full interviews for descriptions of the Native American history of Sheepeater Mountain, the role women have played in lookout history and culture, the struggles of staffing lookouts, and how lookouts are built and maintained. ",,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/sheepeater_construction.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/sheepeater_construction_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/sheepeater_construction_th.jpg,1934,Staffed (only during peak fire sesaon),R-6,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page:","University of Idaho Archival Idaho Photograph Collection", -sheepeater-mountain001,sheepeater-mountain,betsy_final_1.mp4,"Native American Presence and an ""Awareness""",2021-06-17,Betsy Booth on Sheepeater Mountain and its indigenous history,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning storms; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; Gary Snyder; Beatnicks,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/betsy_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/betsy_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/betsy_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, -sheepeater-mountain002,sheepeater-mountain,ed_final_1.mp4,The View from Sheepeater Mountain Lookout,2021-06-18,Ed Allen gives description of the view from Sheepeater Mountain Lookout and talks about the ways that fire policy has shaped that view over the years.,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning storms; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/ed_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/ed_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/ed_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, +sheepeater-mountain001,sheepeater-mountain,betsy_final_1.mp4,"Native American Presence and an ""Awareness""",2021-06-17,Betsy Booth on Sheepeater Mountain and its indigenous history,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning storms; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; Gary Snyder; Beatnicks,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/betsy_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/betsy_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/betsy_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:39:26 + +[Michael] So as we move away from fire lookouts, they kind of becomes, you know, obsolete in a way as new technologies is implemented. Do you feel like that transition away from the human staffed fire lookout, do you think anything is lost in that transition? + +[Betsy] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for one, it's usually cheaper to staff a lookout for the summer than it is to put an aerial resource up. + +00:00:39:28 - 00:01:16:18 + +[Betsy] Um, whenever you've had a lightning bust. So that's kind of a thing. Um, that it's a, uh, it's a shift in, um, how budgets can be, you know, kind of sold, I guess, um. And it also you lose all of that human como, um, between the person who's there all of the time versus the people, maybe the resources who just responded to a fire or some jumpers who aren’t from this forest, who got chucked out, and they need an idea of how to hike out best. + +00:01:16:21 - 00:01:41:04 + +[Betsy] You know, and you can give them real time on the ground experience of where, you know, knowledge of where they should maybe head. Um, that weather watching, uh, you know, the fact that the cameras in particular, you know, will catch smoke and they're getting better at it, but generally it's not nearly as little smoke as the lookouts going to notice, um, in their day of watching out there. + +00:01:41:04 - 00:02:05:10 + +[Betsy] And, uh, you wind up with bigger fires generally before the cameras pick them up than the human one, because it takes kind of a lot of smoke. Like if it's if it's at the time when, uh, when to look at when a camera can see it, it's usually beyond a spot, unless it's in some really unusual timber or something like that. + +00:02:05:12 - 00:02:28:18 + +[Betsy] Yeah. And also lookouts track the lightning where it came in the first place. So, you know, like you're looking for smoke to arise for weeks afterward in these spots that lightning hit. So you just kind of have a little bit of advance knowledge on things. I think that loses a lot. +[Michael] So thinking about the spaces that fire towers are in. + +00:02:28:22 - 00:03:00:29 + +[Betsy] Mm hmm. + +[Michael] Do you think there's a relationship between the fire lookout and wilderness? + +[Betsy] Um. Ask that again. Sure. + +[Michael] Yeah. Um, do you think that the. The concept of wilderness in Idaho as a as a wild space that sort of as free from human interference as possible. Do you think that there's any sort of relationship between the reality of wilderness and what the fire lookout is? + +00:03:01:02 - 00:03:29:22 + +[Betsy] Sure. Like just a, uh, a disconnect between the two things or connect either way. + +[Michael] Um, yeah! + +[Betsy] Um, well, the first thing comes to mind is like, you know, um, here in Idaho, we have the largest, you know, we have the Frank Church and then the 50 yard corridor between it with the Magruder road, you know, um, and then the Selway-Bitterroot and then the, uh, what you call it, Gospel Hump is just right there. + +00:03:29:22 - 00:04:00:24 + +[Betsy] Off to the side, separated by a few dozen miles. Um, but all of those have airstrips grandfathered into them, right? So. And private and inholdings that are still in the centers of them. And so as far as like humans and structures on the ground that, um, don't fit the wilderness. Um, uh, you know, structure as it's written and everything like that. + +00:04:00:26 - 00:04:31:02 + +[Betsy] There are already a lot of exceptions here, but I think they're a little more truthful maybe than, um. I don't know. I think humans, humans kind of should be out there a little bit. Humans would be out there if we hadn't chased the Tukudeka, you know, out of out of, uh, The Church and, um, blah, blah, blah. You know, the, the, the history there is that people were on the ground, you know, since the late 1800s, to which in Idaho terms is ancient history. + +00:04:31:05 - 00:05:11:28 + +[Betsy] Um, look out started being up there in the early 1900s. So as far as West Coast history, they kind of belong, um, and uh, but yeah, they're, they're an exception. You know, my, um, all of my lookouts had, uh, solar panels, so I, you know, I had propane stove, propane or solar fridge. Um, I had, uh, the ability to hook, um, my iPod and my coffee grinder into, into the battery bank and, uh, you know, and kind of live it up. + +00:05:11:28 - 00:05:38:14 + +[Betsy] I had ice cubes at most of my lookouts because, again, the, you know, the refrigeration that I had available to myself, um, that's kind of crazy. And totally different. And, you know, of course, what it was for decades and decades and decades, I had enough, um, just enough phone service that I could text and even make phone calls, you know, to the outside, uh, friends and family, instead of just being confined to the radio or the crank telephone. + +00:05:38:17 - 00:06:02:26 + +[Betsy] Um, it's, it's, it's a whole different deal than it used to be, but I think it still just kind of fits the other thing as well here, Krassel only has Sheepeater. I mean, the Payette only has Sheepeater left as a lookout. You're left as a wilderness lookout. Um, salmon-Challis has a couple. Uh, I guess the as the Clear-Nez has a few. + +00:06:02:26 - 00:06:22:26 + +[Betsy] Right. Kind of sprinkled in. Um, but so many more of them are more front country lookouts or outside of the wilderness, um, than we used to be. I guess I really wandered around a lot there. I'm not sure I answered any kind of question, but it was kind of funny question too, and I didn't know where to go with it, so. + +" +sheepeater-mountain002,sheepeater-mountain,ed_final_1.mp4,The View from Sheepeater Mountain Lookout,2021-06-18,Ed Allen gives description of the view from Sheepeater Mountain Lookout and talks about the ways that fire policy has shaped that view over the years.,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning storms; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/ed_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/ed_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/ed_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:52:00 + +[Michael] If you could describe the view from Sheep Eater. + +[Ed] Well, that is definitely has changed over time since our first experience with Sheepeater. But yeah, Sheepeater’s like around 8000, 8500 or something like that elevation and it's you're looking out from if looking out to the east off of it you know you see looking down at Sheepeater Lake and then falling a little bit to the north there's Flossie Lake and in the early days when I was there, of course, the fire was to us almost like it's kind of a wasn’t a stranger, but we didn't have, you know, huge burned areas. + +00:00:52:00 - 00:01:29:03 + +[Ed] So it was pretty much a mature timber area of all the lodgepole spruces and spruce sub Alpine for habitat and had a lot of it was always a place for, you know, people to go visit in that area. If you look in Chamberlain area, there's kind of a rolling hills kind of lodgepole. So pretty typical, I guess zone in the northern hemisphere, I guess they call it. + +00:01:29:05 - 00:02:04:08 + +[Ed] But I can’t come up right now the type of term for it. But in a way, you have a lot of a lot of spruce lodgepole. And at that time, early days when I first went, there were days it was all timbered. It was just, you know, so usual, looking out over this huge timber rolling forest area to the And if you look down like, say over in the, the Sheepeater Lakes area and there's all these beautiful little mountain lakes in there, but in all this country and has a lot of that mostly glacial. + +00:02:04:10 - 00:02:35:03 + +[Ed]…marine lakes and then if you look farther to the east, of course you looking over into the cottonwood view called Meadows country and a couple of you know, little range of mountains between there in the Middle Fork of the Salmon area. And so in the shade or the expansive view if you look to the west, to the west you’s looking out over the South Fork of the Salmon River. + +00:02:35:03 - 00:03:11:24 + +[Ed] So Sheepeater probably offers one of the biggest view areas in the backcountry that’s probably one of the reasons why it’s remained a lookout all these years. And when I first went to the district there in 1972, we had I think four active lookouts there was Rush Creek Arctic Point, one over towards Cold Meadows, having a hard time coming up the name right now a little bit later, and then Sheepeater. + +00:03:11:26 - 00:03:43:19 + +[Ed] So about four or five lookouts four lookouts, I guess at that time. Now it's dwindled away to one. I believe, Sheepeater, and of course, prior to that seemed to me like there was a couple of dozen of them, maybe back in the early days when we had smoke chasers. They call them. So basically climb a tree, you know, I could see how far down you could down and get your little pack and go, and that was before my day. + +[Michael] So you've watched the landscape change over time? + +00:03:43:19 - 00:04:07:21 + +[Ed] Oh yeah and so when you get into that the changes which I have kind of referred to. Now we get you go up there and look off of Sheepeater, you're looking at miles and miles of burned over forest. Some of it's been, you know, long enough now that it’s starting to come back. There's last time I was in Chamberlain area and there seem to be a lot of regeneration. + +00:04:07:21 - 00:04:45:07 + +[Ed] Some of the early fires, you know, 67, 68, ‘9, 10 in that area. And then the 94 was a big year. Well, that's pushing 20 years now. I mean, it's you know, there's the new forest, you know, not like not like what I experienced from the first winter, but we've had our policies changed a little bit with fire in the wilderness, of course, you know, and we're allowed most of the fires that start natural to burn naturally, if they can, with some monitoring and that sort of thing. + +00:04:45:09 - 00:05:20:17 + +[Ed] But, you know, yeah, the landscape has changed that way. Last time I was there was my daughter here a couple of years ago and we did some hiking around Chamberlain and July. And you couldn't find anything in shade to get under, you know, for quite a bit of the area that was in. So, yeah, you know, it’s changed and, and much different, all of the rocks and the lakes are still there and a little more visible now than there were in 1972. +" sheepeater-mountain003,sheepeater-mountain,brTUkXA5bNw,Betsy Booth - Full Interview,2021-06-17,Full interview of Betsy Booth ,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; wilderness act of 1964; systematic observation; seen area; lightning stool; lightning rod; ,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/brTUkXA5bNw,https://img.youtube.com/vi/brTUkXA5bNw/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/brTUkXA5bNw/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, sheepeater-mountain004,sheepeater-mountain,-mWkVuV9EpY,Ed Allen - Full Interview,2021-06-17,Full Interview of Ed Allen,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning storms; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/-mWkVuV9EpY,https://img.youtube.com/vi/-mWkVuV9EpY/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/-mWkVuV9EpY/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, sheepeater-mountain005,sheepeater-mountain,sheepeater_construction.jpg,Early Photo Sheepeater Mountain Construction,2021-08-23,Image of current Sheepeater lookout being constructed,,Sheepeater Mountain; Tukudika; Lightning storms; Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness,45.38986,-115.34687,,,record,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/sheepeater_construction.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/sheepeater_construction_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/sheepeater_construction_th.jpg,,,,,, @@ -479,7 +924,121 @@ sourdough-peak,,,Sourdough Peak,,,,,,45.727,-115.81589,,,record,compound_object, south-mountain,,,South Mountain,,,,,,42.74,-116.91395,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, spot-mountain,,spot_theta.jpg,Spot Mountain,,"Built: 1922
Status: Staffed
Cabin: R-6
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","Spot Mountain Lookout is an actively staffed lookout in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. This tower is populated by an interview with Rhett and Mark Moak who have staffed lookout towers for over forty years and have been described as ""the finest eyes on the forest."" Watch the full interview to hear the Moaks discuss the daily role of lookouts, why lookouts should continue to be staffed by human beings, and being evacuated by helicopter during the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire. ",,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/spot_theta.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/spot_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/spot_theta_th.jpg,1922,Staffed,R-6,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, spot-mountain001,spot-mountain,moak_final_2.mp4,The Lynx and Eagle Creek Fires,2021-09-25,Rhett Moak discusses calling in the Lynx Fire and being evacuated during the Eagle Creek fire,,Lynx Fire; Osbourne Fire Finder; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; FMO false smokes; legitimate smokes; trigger point; man-wife lookouts; patrol points; fire shield; cover; blow-up; ,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/moak_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/moak_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/moak_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,, -spot-mountain002,spot-mountain,moaks_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Lookout?,2021-09-25,The Moaks discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Staffed Lookouts; legitimate smokes; trigger point; man-wife lookouts; patrol points; blow-up; water dog,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/moaks_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/moaks_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/moaks_lost_th.jpg,,,,,, +spot-mountain002,spot-mountain,moaks_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from the Human Staffed Lookout?,2021-09-25,The Moaks discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,Staffed Lookouts; legitimate smokes; trigger point; man-wife lookouts; patrol points; blow-up; water dog,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/moaks_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/moaks_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/moaks_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:29:01 + +[Rhett] The longer you are in a place you know, you know, you become very familiar with your territory, with your area. It's like, you know, kind of you can kind of compare it to walking in your living room and, you know, there's painting or something. + +[Mark] Or the tables a little bit different or crooked. + +[Rhett] And you say, Oh, look quite right. + +00:00:29:01 - 00:00:54:09 + +And you can, you know, become so familiar. You can you can just say, oh, that's not right. A lot of times it will be light or maybe a rock + +[Mark] or a dust devil or pollen, but, you know, dust + +[Rhett] You become I mean; your brain just helps you have that information. I don't know. + +[Mark] Most of the smokes we've seen, I would say, happened. + +00:00:54:10 - 00:01:15:00 + +[Mark] I mean, sometimes when you're intensely looking after a lightning storm, for sure. But smokes don't often come and they often will come much later. I mean, we've had a hold over a bona fide hole over for three weeks at a time. So you can't just, you know, hang out and not look, you have to be looking all the time. + +00:01:15:00 - 00:01:39:26 + +[Mark] Plus the human element as well. Even though most of our smokes, the vast majority are lightning caused you know, you do have people out there and that makes a difference. You know, as Rhett was saying this, you know, you're looking for something that's different for the anomaly. You know, the change. And even though, you know, that's a rock slide over there and you've seen it every afternoon light up with the sun, it still gets you going. + +00:01:39:29 - 00:02:06:20 + +[Mark] You know. + +[Rhett] So you get binoculars and double check. + +[Mark] Also, we have some things that can confuse you are water dogs. Do you know what I mean? These columns of steam or it's ground fog that can take on a variety of shapes. And some of those things can look just like smoke. And they'll come up right where the lightning has been. + +[Rhett] Frequently after storms have come through and you really have watch it. + +00:02:06:21 - 00:02:33:19 + +[Mark] Right? We do. Of course, we have cell coverage up here, which is good and bad, I suppose. Back in the day, all we had was the radio, you know, and, uh. And what was your you can contact people by phone and you can get on your lightning tracker app and which I have discovered are not very accurate. + +00:02:33:26 - 00:02:58:12 + +[Mark] They don't jive with what we are seeing. So it's sometimes, sometimes yes, but not all the time. So you can't really rely on that. + +[Michael] Do you think that there's something we're thinking about this a lot in our project is, you know, there's an even though there are many remaining lookouts in specifically Idaho we're thinking about, but there was once over a thousand or close to a thousand. + +[Mark] Probably, yeah. + +00:02:58:13 - 00:03:21:29 + +[Michael] Yeah. And now there's, you know, far fewer that standing, and far fewer than that staffed now. And so, there's obsolescence kind of occurring, you know, where the fire tower is—because of technology— becoming a little bit less essential and in some ways, right. + +[Mark]. Yeah. + +[Michael] And do you think that there is something lost in the transition away from the human staffed fire look? + +00:03:21:29 - 00:03:51:08 + +[Mark] Hell yes, I do. Uh, I'm not biased or anything, you know, but I definitely do. Uh, number one, if this was if we had a webcam up here, okay, the webcam is not talking to you right now, by the way you know, or any other visitor who might come, come through. Plus, somebody has got to be reading that somewhere in an office, perhaps, uh, uh, there's something about about being up here. + +00:03:51:08 - 00:04:12:09 + +[Mark] There is kind of a feel that you get, you know, as, as we've spoken earlier for the forest and that can use technology. We use the radio, you know, we use the cell phone, we do that and we, I will we will look at the lightning tracker, the radar for sure to see what's coming. You know where it is. + +00:04:12:09 - 00:04:34:07 + +[Mark] But, uh, you know, but I think those things in… there are satellites, there's an infrared flight, we have one last night that comes over and checks out the boundaries of the fire. We'll look at that for sure. And I think that, you know, we have the fire finder, the Osborne Firefighter right there, which has been popular since the thirties, I believe. + +00:04:34:09 - 00:04:57:15 + +[Mark] That wasn't always around. You know, we'll use that. And binoculars, too. I mean, it's and better and better binoculars for sure. But I think that, you know, if you take away, can you really remove the human element from it, you know, from this whole idea of of detecting fires? Not really. Somebody has got to be, you know, watching somewhere. + +00:04:57:18 - 00:05:15:22 + +[Mark] And I just think it's so much better, you know, up here at a tower. Are there risks? Yeah. I mean, you know, because you could fall down the stairs, you know, or, uh, but I think it's personally, particularly in this day and age, it's one of the best places in the world to be—talk about social distancing. + +00:05:15:24 - 00:05:44:10 + +[Mark] But, uh, but no, I think, I think that, you know, there are, there are some traditions that, that we have in the various institutions in our country. And I, I think with the Forest Service that the lookout, you know, the pack train, you know, the packer who still have, you know, knows the art of packing animals and managing animals. + +00:05:44:13 - 00:06:23:02 + +[Mark] Those traditions are valuable and worth keeping asking them for. I don't know. What do you think? + +[Rhett] Well I think so and lookouts main job of course is reporting fires but you also serve as communication in backcountry situations for people working our, you know, in remote areas. So that’s another function. + +[Mark] There's not constant radio coverage everywhere out here. You can be, you know, in a you know, in a valley somewhere, a canyon that you're not going to be able to get out. + +00:06:23:07 - 00:06:52:05 + +[Rhett] and also you if you have people on a fire, you have eyes, you know, on the fire, you know where people are. So, you can alert people on a fire to the incoming weather, any kind of changes that you happen to see, maybe a fire gets really active in an area that you need to let people that are actually on the ground working… + +00:06:52:08 - 00:07:14:26 + +[Rhett]…know, that's dangerous. You know, there are other aspects to the job other than spotting and reporting fires. + +[Mark] Trail crews, too. We had one when we were in in 2013, after the or during the Gold Pan Fire, we got moved over to Salmon Mountain Lookout and had a trail crew out and they were unaware of a fire coming in from the Nez. + +00:07:14:26 - 00:07:49:12 + +[Mark] And, uh, + +[Rhett] They were sending them to camp at a cabin that was… + +[Mark] very close to the advancing fire. In 2003, uh, we were at Hell's half, and, uh, and our daughter was a firefighter. I think it was her first year as a firefighter. Our eldest daughter. And we were listening to the Salmon in a fire. They had several, about seven fires going on down there, and one of them was called the Cramer Fire just over the border, maybe, I don't know, 20 air miles away. + +00:07:49:12 - 00:08:13:13 + +[Mark] And and we listened as a series of events unfolded and and two helitech guys got burned up. And, uh, it was horrible. And our daughter was on a fire just just to the east of us and getting ready to go into a another fire that was blowing up. And we've always felt a responsibility for for firefighters. + +00:08:13:13 - 00:08:45:25 + +[Mark] But on the ground, and particularly in fires that are in our area. But I'll tell you, when you have one of your own out there, it really makes you think about it even more. And that's as Rhett was saying, that's one of our, I think, greatest responsibilities up here and a satellite is not going to help those guys, you know, uh, and anyway, so, yeah, we think it's it's worth having the tower up here and people staffing it. + +" spot-mountain003,spot-mountain,rhett_with_dog.jpg,Eagle Creek Fire Evacuation,2021-09-25,Photo of Rhett Moak and her dog being evacuated during the Eagle Creek Fire,,eagle creek fire; Osbourne Fire Finder; Staffed Lookouts; R-6,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,image;stillimage,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/rhett_with_dog.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/rhett_with_dog_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/rhett_with_dog_th.jpg,,,,,, spot-mountain004,spot-mountain,spot_at_night.jpg,Spot Mountain Lookout at Night,2021-09-25,Photo by Mark Moak of Spot Mountain Lookout under the Milky Way,,Staffed Lookouts; R-6; milky way galaxy; ,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,image;stillimage,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/spot_at_night.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/spot_at_night_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/spot_at_night_th.jpg,,,,,, spot-mountain005,spot-mountain,wrapped_tower_eagle_creek_fire.jpg,Spot Mountain Fire Lookout Wrapped in Protective Material During the Eagle Creek Fire,2021-09-25,Photo of Spot Mountain Wrapped in Fire Resistant Material During the Eagle Creek Fire,,eagle creek fire; Staffed Lookouts; R-6; fire shield; blow-up,Magruder Corridor,45.78728,-114.85466,,,image;stillimage,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/wrapped_tower_eagle_creek_fire.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/wrapped_tower_eagle_creek_fire_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/wrapped_tower_eagle_creek_fire_th.jpg,,,,,, @@ -490,7 +1049,40 @@ square-mountain,,,Square Mountain,,,,,,45.5969,-115.86155,,,record,compound_obje squaw-butte,,,Squaw Butte,,,,,,44.00331,-116.41141,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, st-joe-baldy,,,St. Joe Baldy,,,,,,47.36367,-116.41182,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, st-marys-peak,,stmarytheta.JPG,St. Mary's Peak,,"Built: 1931
Status: Staffed
Cabin: L-4
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","St. Mary's Peak Lookout is located in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and is staffed during the peak of both hiking and fire season. This lookout is populated by an interview with Patrick McCarron who is the regular staff on St. Mary's Peak Lookout and also helps staff Hell's Half Acre Lookout where you can find his full interview. Watch Patrick discuss the tour guide component of lookout life and the stewardship lookouts help provide to precarious alpine environments. ",,,46.500517,-114.204018,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/stmarytheta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/st_mary_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/st_mary_theta_th.jpg,1931,Staffed,L-4,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, -st-marys-peak001,st-marys-peak,patrick_stmaries_final_1.mp4,Modern Lookouts as Tour Guides,2021-07-07,Video of Patrick McCarron discussing his time as a fire lookout on St. Mary's Peak. ,,Bitterroot National Forest; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; Wildflowers; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; St. mary's Peak ,Bitterroot National Forest,46.500517,-114.204018,,,image;MovingImage,image/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/patrick_stmaries_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/patrick_stmaries_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/patrick_stmaries_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, +st-marys-peak001,st-marys-peak,patrick_stmaries_final_1.mp4,Modern Lookouts as Tour Guides,2021-07-07,Video of Patrick McCarron discussing his time as a fire lookout on St. Mary's Peak. ,,Bitterroot National Forest; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; Wildflowers; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; St. mary's Peak ,Bitterroot National Forest,46.500517,-114.204018,,,image;MovingImage,image/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/patrick_stmaries_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/patrick_stmaries_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/patrick_stmaries_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:21 + +[Chris] I mean, if you could if you could just talk a little bit about your experience at St Mary's and in kind of the tour guide aspect. That's kind of interesting. + +[Patrick] Oh, good. Well, same here, I guess. A lot a lot of visitors and a lot a lot of people that's their first walk into the wilderness is just across the wilderness boundary. + +00:00:25:24 - 00:00:48:09 + +[Patrick] And I want to encourage people. This is there is a phenomenal blessing here. You can spend the rest of your days just noodling around the Selway-Bitterroot. So, you know, I've tried to tell with, you know, you know, the you know, the flora, the flora, you know the what to look for the flowers. They're trampling over. Encourage… + +00:00:48:10 - 00:01:15:10 + +[Patrick] …them to be cautious up there. And the one thing that sticks in my mind was on or near near the 15th of August there’s a big Catholic presence. The 15th of August is the Feast of the Assumption of Saint Mary and St Mary's Peak, which was named by the Saint Mary Parish. So anyway, Saturday is a group comes up from Idaho and I'm blanking on where they come from. + +00:01:15:10 - 00:01:30:25 + +[Patrick] I was, you know, I got to know them pretty well. And then Sunday the local parish from St Mary walks up and they have a whole ceremony. They do a mass right one top. But the first time I was up there and nobody including me here, that there was going to be a, you know, a mass of people. So all of a sudden it's inundated. + +00:01:30:27 - 00:01:52:03 + +[Patrick] I've got people crowded into the lookout, I got a woman around here changing a diaper. So no, I was getting a little stressed there. And then I looked out. Maybe I walk around the catwalk and there's the little girl out here picking flowers. Okay, You know this. Please. You know, this is the wilderness area. This is at 9000 feet. + +00:01:52:03 - 00:02:08:19 + +[Patrick] You know, it's tough. Everything growing here is really hearty and just hanging out. Please don't pick the flowers. Okay. So then I looked up and there's a group of young men, nothing I would have done at that age. But they're on the edge of my cliffs. Just pitching the rocks off as fast as they can pick up. So I went over there and unloaded on them. + +00:02:08:21 - 00:02:29:08 + +[Patrick] So I'm coming back and there's this old man walking on his facing away where I go picking flowers. So I had it, I walked up. I just unloaded on him, and he turned around. He was wearing the collars. The priest. Oh, Father. I said I asked him to quit picking flowers. So as Father Kasick, I got to know him pretty well. + +00:02:29:08 - 00:02:54:11 + +[Patrick] And we look forward to seeing each other after that each year. But it's an intro for a lot of people, and I want to make it a positive one. And you can see Missoula from St Mary. You can see from oh about the courthouse to the university along Broadway, you see up the rattlesnake, up the you can see the lower peaks on the mission range. + " st-marys-peak002,st-marys-peak,AQWvoYnmiSQ,Patrick McCarron - Full Interview,2021-07-07,Full interview of Patrick McCarron,,Bitterroot National Forest; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; Wildflowers; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; St. mary's Peak ,Bitterroot National Forest,46.500517,-114.204018,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/AQWvoYnmiSQ,https://img.youtube.com/vi/AQWvoYnmiSQ/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/AQWvoYnmiSQ/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, st-marys-peak003,st-marys-peak,stmarytheta.JPG,St. Mary's Peak 360 Degree Image - From a Distance,2021-07-07,Panoramic image looking at St. Mary's Peak fire lookout from a distance,,Bitterroot National Forest; Staffed Lookouts; L-4; Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness; St. mary's Peak,Bitterroot National Forest,46.500517,-114.204018,,,image;panorama,image/jpeg,eng,,,panorama,/objects/stmarytheta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/stmarytheta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/stmarytheta_th.jpg,,,,,, stanley-butte,,,Stanley Butte,,,,,,46.24777,-115.2104,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, @@ -499,9 +1091,154 @@ stoddard-creek,,,Stoddard Creek,,,,,,45.21797,-114.73649,,,record,compound_objec stormy-peak,,,Stormy Peak,,,,,,45.35326,-114.21408,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, sturgill-peak,,,Sturgill Peak,,,,,,44.61991,-116.94246,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, sundance-mountain,,,Sundance Mountain,,"Built: 1928
Status: Staffed
Cabin: R-6
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page","Sundance Mountain Lookout is located on Idaho Department of Lands Forest in the Selkirk Mountains and is staffed seasonally. This tower is populated by an interview with Pam Aunan with photos taken by Michael Decker. Pam Aunan runs the volunteer lookout program on Sundance Mountain Lookout for the Idaho Department of Lands. Michael Decker is a project lead for Keeping Watch and occasionally staffs Sundance Mountain Lookout as a volunteer. Watch clips and Pam's full interview for descriptions of the 1968 Sundance Mountain Fire, a demonstration of the Osborne Fire Finder, and how the view from a lookout is always changing. ",L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer Lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/sundance_theta.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/sundance_theta_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/sundance_theta_th.jpg,1928,Staffed,R-6,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page",, -sundance-mountain001,sundance-mountain,pam_final_1.mp4,Pam Spots a Smoke,2021-06-18,Pam Aunan spots smoke from a permit burn,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer Lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire; false smoke; waterdog; slope position; slope steepness; smoke; systematic observation; fire finder; burn index; horse hair sights; probable cause; seen area; ,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,image/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,, -sundance-mountain002,sundance-mountain,pam_final_2.mp4,The Sundance Mountain Fire and How Landscapes Change Over Time,2021-06-18,Pam Aunan discusses the landscape and history of Sundance Mountain Lookout.,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,, -sundance-mountain003,sundance-mountain,pam_final_3.mp4,Pam Aunan Discusses Her First Lookout Experience,2021-06-19,Pam Aunan discusses her first experience on a lookout. ,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_final_3.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_final_3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_final_3_th.jpg,,,,,, +sundance-mountain001,sundance-mountain,pam_edited_final_1.mp4,Pam Spots a Smoke,2021-06-18,Pam Aunan spots smoke from a permit burn,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer Lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire; false smoke; waterdog; slope position; slope steepness; smoke; systematic observation; fire finder; burn index; horse hair sights; probable cause; seen area; ,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,image/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_edited_final_1.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_edited_final_1_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_edited_final_1_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:27:21 + +[Jack] Can you site me if I were a smoke using the fire finder? + +[Pam] If you were a smoke? + +[Jack] Yeah. + +[Pam] Yeah. You know, so we don't want to touch the map if we can. So I would put you… take these off before I break them. These are old, and they're the best ones ever. I like them. From World War Two, I think. Navy. See, there's a smoke down there right now. + +00:00:27:24 - 00:01:14:16 + +[Pam] Sorry. I got to pay attention. I'm sorry I can't sight, you now, cause I have to do this. So my azimuth. Then you get to see me work. 75, 76, 78, 79 and about a half. What do you think that is 76, 75. Is he still coming up? +[Jack] No + +[Pam] No, I see. This is. This is this is when it gets like, should I call it or not. + +00:01:14:18 - 00:01:44:23 + +[Pam] Yeah. 279 and a half. Seven. I said, Yeah, from Sundance Mountain. I have two, seven, nine and a half. And I'm putting it kind of in 50 north five west section 30. And it's not that far off the road, but it is in timber. Wait a minute. Not 15 yards. What am I saying? 50, not 60 North.. +[Dispatcher] 60 North? + +00:01:44:25 - 00:02:11:12 + +[Pam] Yeah. + +[Dispatcher] Six zero. + +[Pam] Yes, sir. + +[Dispatcher] Six zero. North, five West Section 30. + +[Pam] Right. My name is Pam. I'm a Sundance Mountain Lookout. I'm over here in Idaho State Forest. + +So you're in the north Zone dispatcher. You're my dispatcher for the North Zone Dispatch? + +[Dispatcher] Correct. Yes. Are you guys there tonight or. + +[Dispatcher] Yeah, we're staffed until about 20. About zero 200. + +00:02:11:19 - 00:02:33:27 + +[Pam] Okay. Okay. Okay. I've been hearing some air traffic. Is that is there a fire close by? + +[Dispatcher] Well, there's a fire over in Coeur D’Alene. Oh one. + +[Pam] Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you, Kevin. All of you know, it's an up and down. I'm sure it's. I'm pretty sure it's a pile, so I'll just keep watching it and I can call back if anything else happens. + +00:02:34:00 - 00:03:14:27 + +[Pam] Thank you. + +[Dispatcher] Alright you’re welcome. + +[Pam] Yeah, Appreciate it. But, yeah, so, see, that's how it goes. You see the smoke, you do that, you do that, and you write the right number down this good. And then call them on the radio or call them. In the old days, we were on the radio only. And then what would happen is you'd go calling dispatch. And even then we had local dispatch Coeur D’Alene dispatch, this is Sundance Mountain Lookout, we have a smoke report and you can just feel the ears go up and everybody's all excited and they're all waiting, you know, And so especially if there are the lookouts up, you want to go, okay, it's in this area or, you know, give them + +00:03:14:27 - 00:03:25:01 + +[Pam] a shot and then you give them your azimuth. And then they're all looking and they're all doing their azimuth. They'll all chime in. It's pretty cool. I mean, that was pretty cool. Now I'm the only one, so I got nobody. + +" +sundance-mountain002,sundance-mountain,pam_edited_final_2.mp4,The Sundance Mountain Fire and How Landscapes Change Over Time,2021-06-18,Pam Aunan discusses the landscape and history of Sundance Mountain Lookout.,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_edited_final_2.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_edited_final_2_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_edited_final_2_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:04 + +[Chris] Could you just quickly describe the view from this Sundance Lookout? + +[Pam] Well, so what we're looking at are we're in the Selkirk's. This is the Selkirk Crest to my east, and that's the spine of it, the crest. And it goes from south of Schweitzer into the into Canada. So it's not a big range, but it's a little range of Rockies and that's where we are. + +00:00:40:04 - 00:01:15:03 + +[Pam] And this tower is situated on the east side or sorry, on the west side of the west side of the Crest and on the east side of the Priest Lake Basin, which is situated between the Selkirk's and the range over there, which goes down from it's kind of similar. And why can't I think of the name of it now? And so what we do is as lookouts, we are up here during fire season and calling, detecting and reporting smokes, and that's what we do. + +00:01:15:05 - 00:01:42:09 + +[Pam] So we call whatever we see. I'll call Forest Service ground, and they’ll call state ground or private ground or where ever we see the smoke, because there's a lot of fuel here. It's a state forest here and there's a national forest over there and it can go. This Sundance site is the scene of a very I guess it would be famous, notorious, probably fire that happened in 1967. + +00:01:42:11 - 00:02:16:15 + +[Pam] And it actually it's I think they still study it in fire behavior today because it had like the most consumption and the shortest amount of time. It was really a violent burn over. It went from right here over The Crest into the Pack River Drainage on the East side of the Selkirks. So that that was just a huge effort, that fire. And I'm sure or maybe you haven't or you will check on the Sundance Fire history. + +00:02:16:15 - 00:02:44:22 + +[Pam] It's really pretty impressive. So this is Sundance Mountain fires are supposed to be named for their geographic location. So the Sundance Fire was this particular Sundance Mountain, that's what we're looking at. All those dead trees out there standing dead have been there for the last 50 some years. Sundance Fire. Did I answer your question. + +[Chris] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. + +00:02:44:24 - 00:03:15:20 + +[Chris] They have so considering the relatively recent fire in this area, have you seen the landscape change over the course of your time here as a lookout? +[Pam] Well, the state of Idaho is mandated to suppress everything. So our fire involvement is we see them, we go we suppress them. We’re done. Yeah, there's been a lot of change in the environment. + +00:03:15:20 - 00:03:38:06 + +[Pam] You can look up there and see some clear cuts. This forest is managed for timber harvest. So that's been the most change that I’ve seen. And we have some fire, we have some fire scars and some places where that's been the change, but mostly on this forest has been from timber service and managing the forest. But yeah, we have a few fires. + +00:03:38:09 - 00:03:42:29 + +[Pam] Nothing really big since Sundance. Sundance was the big granddaddy. + +" +sundance-mountain003,sundance-mountain,pam_edited_final_3.mp4,Pam Aunan Discusses Her First Lookout Experience,2021-06-19,Pam Aunan discusses her first experience on a lookout. ,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_edited_final_3.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_edited_final_3_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_edited_final_3_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:27:06 + +[Pam] I always thought it would be fun to be a fire tower lookout. She said so why don't you do that? I said they don't have those anymore. She says, oh, yeah, they do call Buzz, which is somebody she knew. So I called Buzz and he said, I said, Buzz. Lauralee told me to call you because I told her I wanted to be a fire lookout. + +00:00:27:06 - 00:00:47:17 + +[Pam] And she said you would know about that. Well, he was a fire manager over here on the Priest Lake Ranger District on the Forest Service side. And he said, Yeah, we do, but we're full for the year. I really hope you do. Well, maybe I could come next year. I don't know. You know, I was just so intrigued by the whole idea. + +00:00:47:22 - 00:01:06:07 + +[Pam] I mean, I grew up in the Midwest. It's pretty flat there, you know? But I like the mountains for a long time and have been out here for quite a while. And so he goes, but, you know, the state might need somebody. So he gave me the number and I called the state and I said, So Buzz told me to call you that you might have a lookout. + +00:01:06:09 - 00:01:28:10 + +[Pam] And they said, Yeah, but we have to have an application in here by noon though. So I did my little application. I think it was a faxing then. I don't remember. Yeah, that's how we did it. I mean, I think we had the email, so I got it and I got an interview and I, and I came up here and was really, it was really kind of funny. + +00:01:28:13 - 00:01:52:08 + +[Pam] And I got the job. I mean, there was more to that tale. That was pretty hilarious. And then I got the job, and I've been doing it ever since. Pretty much, pretty much took a few years off. And then I came back and went back to my spot, I guess you hike up there, it's really lovely. It's the best place on the whole basin. Really they can, you know, I don't care what they say about that. + +00:01:52:08 - 00:02:21:15 + +[Pam] People, a lot of people would agree up on Lookout Mountain. It's north of here, about 15 miles air miles. + +[Chris] What was it like your first summer up there? + +[Pam] Well, I was pretty excited. I remember I was driving a this little red jeep. I don’t know what year was it? You know, the lookouts. We didn't like that car down there. We get kind of they bump them down. + +00:02:21:18 - 00:02:43:12 + +[Pam] So, you know, it was older. So this was probably in the seventies Jeep, somewhere in there. So I had a full Jeep. I would drive it up. Then we had a road all the way to the top to Lookout Mountain then. And then I remember my first I mean, I'd been up there for the interview and my friend Kathy, well, she became my friend because she worked here. + +00:02:43:15 - 00:03:07:04 + +[Pam] She lined me out on how to do the job, right? So I had the big half an hour instruction. So I'm going up there and my first time when I get up there, it's pretty exciting. And I guess the story is, you know, it's really not pertinent, except it was my very first time and that night it rained, end of June. + +00:03:07:04 - 00:03:40:15 + +[Pam] Kind of like right now. Rained. I was socked in for two days, couldn't see anything. I mean it was just like being in soup. Well, that's an easy job. And I'm a reader, so I'm like tearing through my books and just thinking, Wow, this is a really good job for me, you know? So the third night I was sleeping and I woke up in the middle of the night and it had cleared and I looked out and the stars, it was so awesome. + +00:03:40:17 - 00:04:03:22 + +[Pam] I mean, I was in the stars. It was just, you know, there's no light. There's no ambient light. You know, they’re not lighting up the night up there on the mountain top, and that what it was I'll just never forget that moment of just waking up in my little cot and seeing the stars and thinking, Oh, wow, this is really cool. So that, you know, that was a really kind of interesting introduction because I didn't see anything for like two days. + +00:04:03:25 - 00:04:26:18 + +[Pam] But then it was gangbusters. Really nice. Yeah. And then, you know, you just I had a few smokes that year and I had my goats and I had, you know, I could I hiked all over the mountain pretty much. It's pretty nice. Nice terrain up there. To me. It's good. + +" sundance-mountain004,sundance-mountain,pam_lost.mp4,What is Lost in the Transition Away from Human Staffed Lookouts?,2021-06-18,Pam Aunan discusses what is lost as the Forest Service and other agencies move away from lookout use.,,L-4; Priest Lake; Selkirk Mountains; Volunteer lookouts; Idaho Department of Lands; Sundance Fire,Priest Lake,48.49076,-116.75149,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/pam_lost.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/pam_lost_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/pam_lost_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:34:20 [Jack] I have a quick one. @@ -587,7 +1324,43 @@ thorn-creek-butte,,,Thorn Creek Butte,,,,,,43.74476,-115.75164,,,record,compound three-tree-butte,,,Three Tree Butte,,,,,,47.02958,-116.668,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, thunderbolt-mountain,,,Thunderbolt Mountain,,,,,,44.73254,-115.63986,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,, trinity-peak,,,Trinity Peak,,"Built: 1922
Status: Staffed
Cabin: L-4
Other Resources:
National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page
Photo Credit:
United States Forest Service","Trinity Peak Lookout is located in the Boise Mountains and is staffed seasonally. This lookout is populated by a panoramic photograph used with the permission of the United States Forest Service, and an interview with Daryl Jones who is the former Idaho Writer in Residence. For more information on this panoramic photograph, you can read the National Park Service's ""History of the Panoramic Lookout Project."" Watch a clip and Daryl's full interview for descriptions of lookout recreation in Idaho, drawing artistic inspiration from lookouts, and finding meaning and order in the world. ",Boise Mountains; Trinity Mountains; staffed lookouts; R-6; panoramic lookout project,Boise Mountains,43.59899,-115.42888,,,record,firetower,eng,,,firetower,/objects/trinity_peak_keeping_watch.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/trinity_peak_keeping_watch_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/trinity_peak_keeping_watch_th.jpg,1922,Staffed,L-4,"National Lookout Historic Register
Rex's Fire Tower Page:",United States Forest Service, -trinity-peak001,trinity-peak,daryl_jones_trinity_poem.mp4,Why the Fire Lookout Fears and Loves Lightning,2021-09-02,Daryl Jones reads a poem inspired by Trinity Lookout,,Boise Mountains; Trinity Mountains; staffed lookouts; R-6; Idaho Writer in Residence; John Thorton; ,Boise Mountains,43.59899,-115.42888,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/daryl_jones_trinity_poem.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/daryl_jones_trinity_poem_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/daryl_jones_trinity_poem_th.jpg,,,,,, +trinity-peak001,trinity-peak,daryl_jones_trinity_poem.mp4,Why the Fire Lookout Fears and Loves Lightning,2021-09-02,Daryl Jones reads a poem inspired by Trinity Lookout,,Boise Mountains; Trinity Mountains; staffed lookouts; R-6; Idaho Writer in Residence; John Thorton; ,Boise Mountains,43.59899,-115.42888,,,image;MovingImage,video/mp4,eng,,,video,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/videos/daryl_jones_trinity_poem.mp4,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/daryl_jones_trinity_poem_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/daryl_jones_trinity_poem_th.jpg,,,,,,"00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:25 + +[Daryl] In 1991, I believe it was at the time I was Idaho writer in residence and I happened to run across an article in The Idaho Statesman describing the Trinity Mountain Lookout, which I guess is around Trinity Lakes between Ketchum and Mountain Home up in that area. + +00:00:23:28 - 00:00:56:09 + +[Daryl] And it was a very vivid article. It described the lookout itself, and it described the experiences of John Thorton, who was the lookout there at the time. And it was really a spectacular description of what was going on. And it just inspired me to write a poem about it at the time, I was interested in writing a lot of poems about really trying to find order and meaning in the world. + +00:00:56:11 - 00:01:29:15 + +[Daryl] And it seemed to me that what John Thornton was describing was an effort to do that or to find discover some kind of order, larger order. And so I ended up extracting actual quotations from the article of his descriptions and some of the images to illustrate what's going on in the poem. It's called Why the Fire Lookout Fears and Loves Lightning. + +00:01:29:18 - 00:02:11:17 + +[Daryl] Everything stays put. Everything's grounded with rods going down. But I've seen it circle the catwalk thin as dental floss arching for rail to rail. The tower hums and the windows turn into negatives. I've seen my reflection outlined in pink, my hair standing on end. All winter in the valley, I sort mail whatever slips between zip codes. The misaddressed, the rain smeared the sacks of illegible scrawl. + +00:02:11:19 - 00:02:48:17 + +[Daryl] So many puzzles, so many missed connections. It's enough to make you wonder. So each summer, like Moses, I come to the mountaintop. All day, every day I scan the peaks and ridgelines for the telltale blue white wisp of distant fire. When I spot one, I shoot an azimuth on the Osborn, then Radio Fire Dispatch. I've seen 15, 16 after a single storm. + +00:02:48:20 - 00:03:20:04 + +[Daryl] But summer after summer, it's lightning brings me back. You can see it coming. Follow its path from five miles away. When storm clouds roll in from the west: I take off my ring, watch glasses, anything metal. I sit on the edge of the bed, put my feet up on the lightning stool and wait. The sky jigsaws. My scalp tingles. + +00:03:20:06 - 00:03:28:22 + +[Daryl] Suddenly, for an instant, everything's clear. + +00:03:28:24 - 00:03:33:05 + +[Chris] Beautiful. Okay. + +[Daryl] Thank you. + +[Chris] Thank you so much for sharing that. + +" trinity-peak002,trinity-peak,2OzJY9Jw5iw,Daryl Jones - Full Interview,2021-09-02,Full interview of Daryl Jones,,Boise Mountains; Trinity Mountains; staffed lookouts; Southern Idaho; R-6; Idaho Writer in Residence; John Thorton,Boise Mountains,43.59899,-115.42888,,,image;MovingImage,video/youtube,eng,,,video,https://youtu.be/2OzJY9Jw5iw,https://img.youtube.com/vi/2OzJY9Jw5iw/hqdefault.jpg,https://img.youtube.com/vi/2OzJY9Jw5iw/mqdefault.jpg,,,,,, trinity-peak003,trinity-peak,trinity_peak_keeping_watch.JPG,Trinity Peak Panoramic Photograph,2021-09-01,Panorama of view from Trinity Peak Lookout,,Boise Mountains; Trinity Mountains; staffed lookouts; Southern Idaho; R-6; panoramic lookout project,Boise Mountains,43.59899,-115.42888,,,record,image/jpeg,eng,,,image,/objects/trinity_peak_keeping_watch.JPG,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/small/trinity_peak_keeping_watch_sm.jpg,https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/keeping-watch/objects/thumbs/trinity_peak_keeping_watch_th.jpg,,,,,, tripod-peak,,,Tripod Peak,,,,,,44.38412,-116.12831,,,record,compound_object,eng,,,tower,,,,,,,,,