Table of Contents
The authorshave done a thorough job of describing each cabin, how to get there, its facilities, and what to expect.
Pack & Paddle
exciting and altogether fascinating.
Statesman Journal
could be the tip-off you need for your vacation-of-the-decade.
San Francisco Chronicle
This book contains all the information you need to find and reserve one of these National Forest Service facilities.
About.com
to those who feel that shopping for solitude is an elusive dream, we recommend a guideby Tom Foley and Tish [McFadden]
Main Line Times
If you have been searching for a quiet, peaceful, and secluded mountain-top retreatthen you will appreciate How to Rent a Fire Lookout in the Pacific Northwest.
The Thrifty Traveler
Dedication
Lovingly dedicated to my sons, Joel and Logan Steinfeld, whose own life journey now beckons; to my sister Laurie McFadden, with whom Ive shared the journey since childhood; and to my mother, Patricia McFadden, who tenderly started me on the journey nearly fifty years ago.
Tish McFadden
Acknowledgments
A project such as this could not be completed without the help of a great many peopleso many that to make a list of their names would take several pages. But we must thank Bruce Nichols of Bly Ranger Districtwithout his help this book might not exist; Cherie Leonardo, also of Bly Ranger District; Catherine Callaghan of Lakeview Ranger District; Jackie McConnell of Bear Valley Ranger District; Brenda Taylor and Mel Ford of Barlow Ranger District; Susan Graham of Hood Canal Ranger District; Janel Lacy of Heppner Ranger District; Mike Keown of Illinois Valley Ranger District; and Harvey Timeus and Angie Dillingham of Chetco Ranger District.
Also, our heartfelt thanks to David Steinfeld, Veronica and Nino Foley, Don Harriss, Charlotte Hadella, Ralph Hartman, Pat McFadden, Gail Throop, Kevin Peer, and Thomas Doty, who assisted in a multitude of waysfrom the practical to the philosophical. Our special thanks to poet Gary Snyder, a former fire-lookout guard, who graciously allowed us to include his poems, as well as to Angelika Thusius and Yvonne Rose-Merkle. Thanks also to Brian and Cathy Freeman, of Crystal Castle Graphics, for their generosity in sharing their expertise.
Our thanks to the US Forest Service personnel who renovate and preserve these rustic structures and make them available for public use. And our thanks too, to the many community volunteers who donate time, materials, and support to this rare cause.
Tish McFadden
Tom Foley
January, 2005
Overview Oregon and Washington Rental CabinsPreface
It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
One clear night, I gazed down upon twinkling stars from the catwalk of a lookout tower. With the horizon curving under my watch, the night canopy appeared bright, intimate, and comforting. Mystified, I felt very small here, yet boundlessheld for a brief, solitary moment by the greatness of our universe.
As I ascended the final rise to find a glass house and flagpole on a sagebrush summit, I felt only a portion of the delight which was yet to come. Later that night a thick snowfall danced in a cold September wind and thunder rocked mountains to the west. Lithe snows, lit by a heavenly light. Fog followed. I slept in comfort in the clouds in a little house on a rounded mountaintop breathing the sage and pine-scented air at 7500 feet.
At midnight, I was up to drink water and wander outside. A staggering sight took my breath and made me dizzya clear sky and a cosmos so rich and deep, dark and nearI swayed at the sight. Familiar constellations magnified by altitude and brightened by these wilderness surroundings loomed overhead like a celestial Sistine Chapel. Oh wholly night.
Bound pages of weather worn journals are often found in a drawer or on a tabletop in the fire lookouts and cabins described in this book. Sometime during your stay, crack one open and be prepared to meet some of the most delicious characters you will ever encounter. Words pour to the pages from hearts and souls of real people who have slept here before you; discover their sketches, poetry, observations, yearnings, and dreams. From these cabin renters logs glow vivid impressions, experiences, and insights of past travelersartists, scientists, writers, hikers, and backcountry wanderers of all ages who now have something in common with you: the choice made for a conscious pause on this mountaintop, removed from the hurried pace of every-day living. As a guest, you are becoming part of the continuing story of this remote and wild place you are privileged, at least for this night, to call home.
My own affection for these historic structures peppered throughout the National Forests of the Pacific Northwest began before 1980, the year I moved to Oregon as a cultural anthropologist and historian for the US Forest Service. Prior to my arrival, I worked in the Intermountain Region where I first encountered fire lookout towers. I listed the Ute Mountain Fire Lookout on the National Register of Historic Places as my last official act in Utah and I was eager to continue this work in Southern Oregon. It was, however, not in my official capacity as a federal employee that this book was launched or conceived. For this I wish to thank Tom Foley, the United States Forest Service, and the editors at Wilderness Press.
Tish McFadden,
January, 2005
Quick Reference Chart
Walking
It is true, we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises. Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearthside from which we set out. Half the walk is but retracing our steps. We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return, prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them againif you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free manthen you are ready for a walk.
