LEWIS COUNTY
NATIONAL
_State Department of Forestry
14N-6E-5
14N-6E-5
1936: A lookout tower using CCC labor constructed. (Division of Forestry Annual Report)
1965: The old tower replaced with a 40-foot timber tower with an R-6 cab.
August 14, 1965: "One of the first fire lookout towers built for state use, the 60-foot National tower, was placed in retirement last month by the State Department of Natural Resources.
The tower was not placed on the scrap pile, however.
It's cab, the room from which the observer scans the horizon for fires, will be exhibited next week at the Southwest Washington Fair.
The former lookout tower in north central Lewis County will again be erected as a permanent display at 'Camp Six,' an historical logging museum in Tacoma.
Constructed in 1936, the tower was one of the first built for the state by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The lookout has been replaced by a modern structure, 40 feet high. The new tower eliminates the daily climb to scan the horizon. Living facilities are at the top. Living quarters were in a separate building near the base of the old tower.
At the National site, the lookout guards some 100,000 acres of state, federal and private forest lands in sections of Lewis, Pierce and Thurston Counties.
During World War II, the National lookout was manned 24 hours a day as an aircraft warning system observation post. Provisions were carried on foot, through snow, mud and rain, to the observers.
The Natural Resources Department operates 95 lookout towers through the state under the direction of Fire Control Supervisor Loren A. Tucker, a native of Silver Creek." (The Daily Chronicle)
1964-66: A replacement tower was erected. (5th Biennial Report of the Washington Department of Natural Resources)