Forest Fire Lookout Assoc.
Hey, any of you guys or gals members of the FFLA? I just re-upped for 3 more years of quarterlies and a chance to maybe get involved in a restoration or a get-together. My bride and I rode herd on one back in '67, for our honeymoon; we didn't quite let all of Idaho burn down while we were up there!
Dutchwind
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Most of the lookouts are closed down, some of the Idaho lookouts stations taken down. A few are rented out to vacationers. Every manned lookout station has had a friendly and knowledgeable person stationed there. A couple of female personal did not want our group to go up into the lookout station. But that's OK. At each manned lookout there was great wifi or cell service.
We have one guy in our club that has a log book of each lookout in Idaho, and has visited most of them still standing or not (location monument found).
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maybe close to the topic but not sure . just a old memory of my dad
before I came into the world My dad told me he was a fire watch / fighter ( as in shovel, pick ,and ax style ) in Tennessee .
he said 1st time he climbed the tower it was a bit scary but only the 1st time after than no problems with heights .
I know little about his experiences only he did have to help make fire breaks if needed of course and watch for fires . he only ever talked about it a couple times when I was very young , and I never got around to asking after I got older my loss
I can not be 100% sure but I think mom said he was paid 18 dollars or some such token pay a month to be part of the group
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I was a Volunteer DEC Ranger in NY State, at the Balsam Lake Mtn Firetower and Cabin. Over the course of several years, my group of Military Veterans pretty much rebuilt/refurbished both of the above.
We were granted access/keys to the Cabin and Firetower. We spent many, many enjoyable weekends up there. Long arduous very much uphill hike. We did it many, many times in the dark, by headlamp (many times on snowshoes.) Hiking gear and construction equipment up there, including (but not limited to) Window and window frames, a small woodstove, battery power tools with solar rechargers, cases of nails and screws, etc.
Had steel for the new cabin roof and the new metal cap to the tower airlifted up there, with our receiving it on the ground. Still have my NY State (Volunteer) Balsam Lake Mtn Firetower, DEC Ranger uniform hanging in the closet.
Good times, with very close Military Friends/Buds. Miss it.
My Best Friend and 2nd Bat. 75th Ranger Regiment Bud and I, were talking about it on Veterans day, when he called me. Reminiscing.
A couple of our crew have since passed. RIP Brothers.
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I guess you thought that was important posting it twice Ken... just kidding I'll delete one of em.
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Sorry Brother, my Tablet often has ideas of it's own.
When posting, it acts like it's not doing anything for 5-10 minutes, when I hit "post" again it does it twice.
Sorry.
*Like I tried to send this last night before going to bed.
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If you get up to the one on Mallard Peak, it could use some work.
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I could be wrong, but I believe the Balsam Lake Mtn Firetower, has the distinction of being the oldest Firetower in NY State. (Was originally a 40' wood tower.) Wood tower replaced twice, (lightning strikes) and is now a 60' steel tower.
Unbelievable 360° view from the tower. Have a ton of photo's, but on an old deactivated phone. Would love to post some.
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Don't know where Mallard Peak is. They heli-coptered the one on High Rock, I'm told, to someplace where they can rebuild it. Our honeymoon tower was a drive-to; had a bunch of USFS and Potlatch Forest repeaters, so we had power, too--thar was a buried cable up to Baldy. Didn't work so good, though, when them ground sqirrels tied chewin' the cable insulation fer nesting materials. Guess they only made that mistake once, per squirrel! We had a fair few visitors, including an anthropologist from the university. He popped up with "bet you don't know who made those rockpiles around the rim, here." I told him I thought it was a lookout that got bored and did it to keep in shape, but he said "the Cour d' Alene tribe held this mountain to be sacred, and sent their adolescent boys up here, nekked and foodless, to pray and starve until they had a "name dream". When they got their name, they built a pile of stones, that became the boy who had come up there--he stayed, and a man, with a new name, went back down the mountain. Those piles of stone are hundreds, or thousands, of scared Cour d' Alene Indian kids. Boy, did that make the place seem spooky. I left the tower one night, stripped, and sat down to communicate with 'em, sorta. Didn't last long!
Dutchwind
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tried
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