SKAMANIA COUNTY
GRASSY KNOLL
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
4N-8E-23
4N-8E-23
June 13, 1953: "Watch the skies over the Gifford Pinchot national forest Sunday. A lookout house will be flying in to Grassy Knoll, a 4500-foot peak 36 airline miles from Portland about 5 miles north of Dog mountain on the crest of the Cascades.
The Grassy Knoll lookout station was blown down and demolished by high winds last year. The station is vitally needed to spot fires in logged-over land extending from the banks of the Columbia for 30 miles to the north. The only was to rebuild the station in time for the fire season, which is already at hand, is to fly it in, Frank Ritter, fire control supervisor for the Gifford Pinchot forest, explained.
Some 15,000 pounds of prefabricated building materials are being assembled in 125-pound bundles. With parachutes attached they will be loaded into Mont Price's forest service plane, a Noorduyn Norseman, and dropped by James C. Allen, a smoke jumper from the Chelan forest, who will spot the bundles in a large grassy plain atop the knoll.
Only the heaviest timbers, 20 feet in length, will be toted up the trail by pack mules. The pack train will also bring back the parachutes for repacking. Even sand, gravel and cement will be dropped.
The flights will start early Saturday morning from Troutdale airport and continue until late Sunday. The airborne delivery job is to be completed by that time, weather permitting." (The Oregonian)
The Grassy Knoll lookout station was blown down and demolished by high winds last year. The station is vitally needed to spot fires in logged-over land extending from the banks of the Columbia for 30 miles to the north. The only was to rebuild the station in time for the fire season, which is already at hand, is to fly it in, Frank Ritter, fire control supervisor for the Gifford Pinchot forest, explained.
Some 15,000 pounds of prefabricated building materials are being assembled in 125-pound bundles. With parachutes attached they will be loaded into Mont Price's forest service plane, a Noorduyn Norseman, and dropped by James C. Allen, a smoke jumper from the Chelan forest, who will spot the bundles in a large grassy plain atop the knoll.
Only the heaviest timbers, 20 feet in length, will be toted up the trail by pack mules. The pack train will also bring back the parachutes for repacking. Even sand, gravel and cement will be dropped.
The flights will start early Saturday morning from Troutdale airport and continue until late Sunday. The airborne delivery job is to be completed by that time, weather permitting." (The Oregonian)
June 28, 1953: "There are only two ways to reach the top of Grassy Knoll, U.S. Forest Service lookout station that towers 3000 feet above the 25,000 acres of fine fir and cut over land that lies under its protection in Gifford Pinchot national forest, Washington.
When gusts estimated at 90 to 100 miles an hour smashed the lookout house and tower in January, 1953, the forest service used both methods-land and air- to reach Grassy Knoll and rebuild the lookout house in time to protect its domain from forest fires which are imminent any day now--it says in the old almanac.
About half the 20 tons of building materials for the 14-foot-square building were dripped in 2 1/2 days. It will take a month to pack in the rest--16 to 20-foot planks and boards that couldn't be dropped by plane. It also takes a lot of sweat and ingenuity and mulepower." (The Sunday Oregonian)
