JEFFERSON COUNTY
CLEARWATER
Washington Department of Natural Resources
24N-13W-1
24N-13W-1
Activated: August 29, 1942. Olympia Filter Center
Air Warning Service Station "Baker 4-4" was located on private land and used existing facilities owned by the State of Washington. There were no new improvements by the AWS. At the end of service the State retained the site. (from: Report of AWS Stations, May 1, 1944)
1958-60: "The lookout construction work is performed by the Department's own carpentry crew. In the past two years, the crew completed nine lookouts at a cost averaging $8,000 apiece, one of which is located at Clearwater, Jefferson County." (3rd Biennial Report Washington Department of Natural Resources)
July 15, 1961: "The new 40-foot Clearwater Lookout on a high ridge between the lower Clearwater River and Kalaloch, will be manned Monday, Gordon Grayam, Forks district administrator for the State Department of Natural Resources, said Thursday.
The 'manning' will be by a woman, Janice McDowell, according to Grayam. She will be shifted from a lookout on the Quinault Indian Reservation to the east. A man is being hired to take over her present post." (The Daily Chronicle)
April 7, 1964: "In June seven look-outs will be manned: one is Clearwater." (Port Angeles Evening News)
July 19, 1967: "About 4 p.m. Last Thursday a cable whipped through a pile of cedar slash at a logging camp on the North Fork of the Raft River on the Olympic Peninsula.
Friction from the cable – known to loggers as a 'strawline' and used to haul heavier rigging about – ignited the tinder dry wood.
Ten miles to the north, at the Clearwater Lookout Station of the State Department of Natural Resources, a lookout spotted smoke.
He notified E.C. Gockerell, the departments field supervisor, who reached the scene in about a half an hour. At that time, Gockerell reported, the fire had covered about 20 acres, and wind-borne embers were spreading it.
By Tuesday morning, the Raft River fire had spread to approximately 6,000 acres, making it the worst in state protected timber since a 14,000 acre blaze in Clark and Skamania counties in 1952." (The Oregonian)
Removed