Mountainswest Publishing

The "Necessary House," otherwise known as an outhouse or toilet, is an essential part of the accommodations needed to set up a safe and efficient environment for the people who staff fire lookouts...

The Civilian Conservation Corps was activated in the early 1930s to provide jobs for unemployed young men. Their accomplishments included the construction of many lookouts, roads, trails and...

Some lookouts were able to be constructed because of fundraising efforts or by private donation. Some were placed on existing structures: Hotels, banks, barns, water towers, etc. Some were of very...

Fire lookouts experience extremes in weather: Heat and cold, gale-force winds, rain and snow, electric storms. They are alone on high mountaintops in cabins or high towers to deal with whatever comes...

When alone on a mountain top and the unexpected happens--a sudden illness or accident--the afflicted person must deal with the situation the best he can, and sometimes wait hours for help to arrive...

Many skills were needed to transport building materials to the lookout sites and to construct the lookouts and to install the many miles of telephone line (and sometimes re-install them after the...

The life of a lookout on a lonely peak often includes encounters with wildlife, large and small. Usually these encounters are of the friendly kind, and add measurably to the enjoyment of spending...

When a smoke was detected by the lookout, it was not enough for that person to know; the information had to be conveyed to the person in charge of the fire fighters. Over the years, and in different...

The early years in the development of the fire lookout system were fraught with difficult decisions, hard work, and danger. Roads and trails had to be built, materials had to be transported. Building...

This series is not intended to be a complete history of fire lookouts, but rather to provide a glimpse, or overview, of what it was like to build, staff, and maintain the lookout system--Author...