SKAMANIA COUNTY
RED MOUNTAIN
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
5N-8E-8
5N-8E-8
July 10, 1916: "According to Harvey Lickel, district ranger, who is stationed at Guler, near this place, Red Mountain Lookout station in Columbia forest will be occupied by two men this season who are to be on a constant lookout for forest fires day and night. These will be connected with the forest by telephone and can organize a fire patrol at a moment's notice. Packers and pack mules will be stationed at Peterson Prairie Ranger station, eight miles from Guler, and will be able to start out for the scene of a fire at a moment's notice." (La Grande Observer)
1919: A lookout structure was erected.
July 13, 1923: "Lightning striking a telephone pole on Red mountain, in the Columbia forest, during a recent storm melted a quarter of a mile of No. 9 wire, according to a report sent to John D. Gutherie of the Portland office of the forest service.
R.M. Filloon, the forest lookout on this mountain, who reported the incident, said that not a single piece of wire was left intact. The samples he sent showed only a conglomerate mass of metal." (The Morning Oregonian)
R.M. Filloon, the forest lookout on this mountain, who reported the incident, said that not a single piece of wire was left intact. The samples he sent showed only a conglomerate mass of metal." (The Morning Oregonian)
August 1923: "About the middle of June a heavy electrical storm passed northward between the Wind River and White Salmon Valleys directly over Red Mountain. The lookout man had not yet gone on duty and no one was in the vicinity. the telephone line, however, had been repaired.
When the mountain was first visited after the storm, it was found that three-fourth mile of telephone line had been destroyed, as had most of the ground wire. In many places the wire had been broken into small pieces, some of which had melted and fused together. West of the mountain in young timber the trees on a strip about three miles long and one-fourth mile wide had turned brown as though a flame had passed through them and scorched the needles." (Six Twenty-Six)
Activated: September 30, 1942; Deactivated: October 12, 1943. Portland Filter Center.
October 12, 1943: Aircraft Warning Service Station 'Oboe 4-4' was inactivated. The AWS had utilized existing facilities owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Improvements added from AWS funds were converting the garage into sleeping quarters and a woodshed. At the termination of the service the site was retained by the Forest Service for it's original purpose of detection fires. (Report of the Aircraft Warning Service Stations, May 1, 1944)
October 12, 1943: Aircraft Warning Service Station 'Oboe 4-4' was inactivated. The AWS had utilized existing facilities owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Improvements added from AWS funds were converting the garage into sleeping quarters and a woodshed. At the termination of the service the site was retained by the Forest Service for it's original purpose of detection fires. (Report of the Aircraft Warning Service Stations, May 1, 1944)
October 12, 1943: Aircraft Warning Service Station 'Oboe 4-4' was inactivated. The AWS had utilized existing facilities owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Improvements added from AWS funds were converting the garage into sleeping quarters and a woodshed. At the termination of the service the site was retained by the Forest Service for it's original purpose of detection fires. (Report of the Aircraft Warning Service Stations, May 1, 1944)
1959: A new R-6 flat roof lookout house was constructed on a short tower.
May 5, 1964: "A major change in forest fire detection in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest was announced today by Ross W. Williams, forest supervisor, in Vancouver.
Regularly scheduled air patrols by trained observers this summer are expected to replace coverage heretofore provided by an extensive system of lookouts.
The 37 regular and emergency lookout stations manned in previous years will be reduced to just six regularly manned lookouts during the coming fire season.
The six stations retained will help provide communications coverage for the forest -- the primary reason for their retention.
One of the retained stations will be Red Mountain, Wind River District." (Longview Daily News)
August 23, 1983: "Life on top of the world can be scary, but Paula Pinkas loves it.
She is running the Red Mountain lookout, 15 miles north of Carson in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The lookout, which had been abandoned for the past 10 years, is at the 4,968-foot level and is the only lookout in the Gifford Pinchot accessible by car.
The district started restoring the old building last year." (Oregonian)
December 2006: The lookout structure suffered considerable damage in a heavy windstorm. The roof blew off and the walls collapsed.
August 2010: The reconstruction of the lookout building was completed after several years of work by volunteers in a Passport in Time Project.