Fire lookout towers have stood atop the Selkirk Mountains in Pend Oreille County for nearly a century. In the aftermath of the 1910 fires, which burned over three million acres of forest in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Washington State Forestry Division began an ambitious fire defense program that placed fire lookouts as the front line of defense against wildfire. During the 1930s, lookout construction increased with the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The New Deal relief program provided the USFS with a ready supply of labor and, before long, 62 lookouts existed in Pend Oreille County.

Generally speaking, lookout personnel staffed their posts during fire season. It was a lonely job. Most of the sites were accessible only by foot or pack animal. Those with roads required long mountain drives. Early-day lookout personnel were equipped to fight fires they spotted themselves. The introduction of phone lines, and then radios, made reporting fires possible.

Men staffed most lookout towers. But a notable demographic shift occurred during World War II when the USFS established the “Forest Service Auxiliary Corps,” which was the unofficial name for the cadre of women who staffed the lookouts. Gladys Menear Hupp and her daughter Mollianne staffed the King’s Mountain lookout tower six miles northeast of Usk for two summers during the 1940s. The Aladdin L-4 series tower—the same design used to construct the replica tower at the Pend Oreille County Historical Society Museum—consisted of a 14-foot by 14-foot room built on a 50-foot tower. It remained in service until the 1960s when it was destroyed by fire. It was never rebuilt. By that time, aircraft surveillance rendered most fire lookouts obsolete. Similarly, most other lookouts in the county have since been abandoned or destroyed. Only one in the Newport District, the South Baldy Lookout, is still staffed.

Credits and Sources:

Bamonte, Tony, and Susan Schaeffer Bamonte. History of Pend Oreille County. Spokane: Tornado Creek Publications, 1996.

Kresek, Ray. Fire Lookouts of the Northwest. 3rd ed. Spokane: Fire Lookout Museum, 1998.

Pend Oreille County Historical Society. “Petticoat Sentries.” 2002.

Pend Oreille County Historical Society. “Fire Lookout History.”

Washington State Division of Forestry, 1928, 1929, 1937, and 1960 Annual Reports.

Photographs courtesy of the Pend Oreille County Historical Society, Pend Oreille County Library District, and U.S. Forest Service.