by Ira Spring (Author), Byron Fish (Author)

* 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 conditionsñfrom loneliness to forbidding weatherñwhile 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.

by Richard H. Holm Jr. (Author)

Over one hundred years ago with the formation of the United States Forest Service in 1905 the idea of the fire lookout network was born. In the 2.3 million acres of land comprised in today's Payette National Forest over one hundred fire lookout locations were used to protect the forest from fires. Recently only thirteen of those lookouts are in use. After many years of research the history of each fire lookout site is reveled through the stories of people who staffed, stocked, and built them. Also included is a general history of the fire lookout network on the Payette as related to Forest Service fire policy in the four northwestern states. Bringing the text to life is an amazing collection of over 270 black and white photographs of this spectacular region, which extends from the depths of Hells Canyon to the remote Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.