Fire Lookouts
Following the devastating fires of 1910, early fire detection became a priority within the Forest Service. To help aid detection, lookout towers began to be built on national forests throughout the country. These building efforts were further aided during the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, who worked on numerous lookout building projects across the nation.
Raymond Thompson, Fire Guard at Brule Tower, sighting fire with firefinder, Wisconsin, 1950.
The fire detection process was also aided over the years by an invention developed by USFS forester William Bushnell Osborne, Jr. Osborne first invented a "firefinder" in Oregon in 1911 using a rotating steel disc with attached sighting mechanisms. This instrument allowed lookouts to accurately pinpoint the geographic location of forest fires by sighting distant smoke through the device. Further modifications and technological developments were made by Osborne to the firefinder over the next 30 years. The Osborne Firefinder was widely used by Forest Service lookouts throughout the 20th century, and production of the devices by various companies continues even today.
Additional Resources
- Hallie M. Daggett (In 1913, Hallie Daggett became the first female fire lookout in the Forest Service. She spent 15 years on the job, working at the Eddy Gulch fire tower on the Klamath National Forest.)
"Hallie M. Daggett: Early Woman Lookout," USFS History Line, Fall 1999.
"A Novel Experiment: Hallie Comes to Eddy's Gulch" by Rosemary Holsinger.
Hallie M. Daggett, USFS History Collection Biographical File. - Helen Dowe (Beginning in 1919, Dowe worked at the Devil's Head Fire Lookout on the Pike National Forest in Colorado.)
Helen Dowe, USFS History Collection Biographical File. - "Fire-Lookout Is Her Job," Everybody's Magazine, May 1926, on Shasta Leila Hoover, woman lookout on Mt. Bachelor in the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon.
- "A Lookout Looks Back" by Victor R. Hake, American Forests, May 1978.
- "The Lookout Cookbook," issued June 1, 1938.
- "Lookouts," a selection from A History of the Architecture of the USDA Forest Service.
Browse historic photos of fire lookouts and fire lookout towers via the FHS Image Database.
