Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics

By Ira Spring

Book Overview

* History of 75 fire-protection lookouts
* More than 200 photos from archival and personal collections
* Selected access information

Once the most advanced means of fire detection, the fire-protection lookout towers built and manned in the mid- to late-1900s in Washington state are now historic sites and an intrinsic part of the heritage of the Northwest and its people. Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics is a complete history of the lookouts and a tribute to the people who often endured challenging conditions from loneliness to forbidding weather while serving as firewatchers. Authors Ira Spring and Byron Fish paint a vivid picture of each lookout tower in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Mount Rainier National Park, the Olympics, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Wenatchee National Forest, and Okanogan National Forest, and provide inspirational personal anecdotes from the people who manned and worked to preserve these buildings.

This edition includes appendixes that provide driving and hiking directions to selected lookouts, information on volunteer organizations active in preserving lookouts, and a historical registry of western Washington lookouts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898864941
• ISBN13: 9780898864946
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A truly interesting and concise collection of forest fire lookout Americana.

I believe this book is expertly researched and should be part of everyone's collection of outdoor guides. Once the most advanced means of fire detection, the fire-protection lookout towers built and manned in the 1900's in Washington State are now historic sites and an intrinsic part of the heritage of the Northwest and its people.. This book is a complete history of the lookouts and tribute to the people who often endured challenging conditions, from loneliness to forbidding weather, while serving as firewatchers. Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest Mount Rainier National Park Olympic National Park Gifford Pinchot national forest Wenatchee NF Okanogan NF *****My favourite hikes from the book to some cool lookouts-Pete Miller's Treehouse in the Olympics, Burley Mountain and Lost Lake in the Gifford Pinchot, Sugarlaof Peak, Red Mountain and Thorp Mountain (saw a cougar-WAS BIG!!!!) in the Wenatchee NF, Slate Peak, North twentymile Peak, Lookout Mountain in the Okanogan NF.