Forest Service towers offer chance to rough it

By Steve Woodward
Newhouse News Service

	TIMOTHY BULLARD / THE DAILY COURIER, 2000 A visitor in the Onion Mountain fire lookout surveys surrounding mountains in the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon. It's doubtful one could find a better getaway than a fire lookout cabin on top of a remote mountain. The U.S. Forest Service now rents nearly 75 fire lookouts and cabins in the Pacific Northwest.
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You can do it by renting a fire lookout tower for a little getaway. (Note: Those afraid of heights need not apply.)

"The only ones who don't love it need hot and cold running everything," says Dave Bula, western chairman of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, a national organization of enthusiasts. "Just bring everything you need except the tent."

The rental program is run by the U.S. Forest Service, which maintains 54 rental towers and cabins in Oregon, 21 in Washington and numerous others elsewhere across the country. Units are usually available during the winter and spring, when fire danger is low. Many are staffed by lookouts during the rest of the year.

If you're interested in renting a lookout, be forewarned. Most towers and cabins are in remote areas. Don't expect plumbing or heat. Be prepared to bring all your own cooking utensils, drinking water, sleeping bag and food.

Flush toilets? Forget it.

(Well, OK, a few do have flush toilets.)

	Most of the towers and cabins the Forest Service rents out are in remote areas and don't have plumbing or heat.

And bear in mind that the tall towers are not child-proofed.

For actual lookout towers, Oregon is the better bet. Many of the Forest Service's offerings in Washington are mere cabins, not actual lookouts.

The good news is that prices are inexpensive. For example, the three lookouts in Mount Hood National Forest rent for $30 a night. Onion Mountain Lookout in Siskiyou National Forest rents for $40 a night, April through September, the same price asked for most of the seven rental lookouts in the Willamette National Forest

Rental units close to major urban areas are reserved quickly, says Jeree Mills, a Forest Service spokeswoman.

Each ranger district handles its own rentals. Detailed information can be found on the Web at Nature of the Northwest (www.naturenw.org/cabin-rentals.htm).

Availability varies. Two of Mount Hood's lookouts — Clear Lake Lookout and Flag Point Fire Lookout — are available from Nov. 1 to May 31. The third, Five Mile Butte, is available all year.

A glance through Nature of the Northwest shows that a few lookouts are downright luxurious. The Imnaha Guard Station in the Rogue River National Forest, for example, is a cabin that boasts three rooms, bathroom, shower, toilet, propane stove, lantern, refrigerator, heater, fireplace, firewood, bed, table, chairs and kitchen utensils.

Rob Hoeye, the fire lookout association's historian, says the rental system is a double-edged sword. Some think the lookouts ought to be put to their original use, not rented. Others think the rental system produces money for maintenance and reduces vandalism.

Sometimes people are surprised to hear that fire lookout towers still are used by the Forest Service.

"Everyone thinks lookouts went away," Hoeye says.

At their peak, as many as 8,000 towers are thought to have been in use nationwide.

In the 1930s, many towers were built in a network 10 miles apart from one another, Hoeye says. When a lookout spotted a fire, he or she was the first to go fight the fire while neighboring lookouts kept watch. Often, it took a day or several days for crews, who were alerted by telephone, to arrive at a fire.

By the 1960s and '70s, towers began to decline in use, as the Forest Service and state forestry departments came to rely on satellites and airplane flyovers to detect fires.

Today, only one of every 10 lookouts has survived, Hoeye says. In addition to deliberate closures, many burned and others were padlocked temporarily because of shrinking budgets.

Altogether, Oregon still has about 200 lookouts, Hoeye says.

Bula says 98 of those are still active, among the highest numbers in the country, he adds, noting that the Forest Service in Oregon has refurbished some lookouts.

For more information: visit the National Historic Lookout Register (www.firetower.org), Forest Fire Lookout Association (www.firelookout.org) or Rex's Forest Fire Lookout page (www.firelookout.com).

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