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Bulletin, Progressive, Record, Reporter Wednesday, June 15, 2011 13B
BLACK, from page 1B
keep 95 percent of the income
generated by the rentals, they
become self-sustaining. Any
repairs or additional renova-
tions can be paid for with
rental money. The funds can
also be rolled over into new
projects, so income from
one lookout can pay for
restoration of another.
Black Mountain
The Plumas National
Forest has trailed a bit in
catching the trend.
In 2006, fire manager
Don Bliss had the idea to re-
purpose Black Mountain
Lookout. Although many
such unused structures,
like the one on Argentine
Rock outside of Quincy, have
been heavily vandalized, "We
were pleasantly surprised
when we examined Black
Mountain," said Kliejunas.
"It had stairs, a roof,
windows."
In a testament to the appeal
of lookouts, she easily found
dedicated volunteers to help
with the project. Retired
Forest Service employees
Pete Meyer, Mike Martini
' and Curtis Marshall volun-
teered literally hundreds of
hours to carry out tasks such
Other nearby lookouts you can rent, continued will bring a whole new set of
people onto the forest," said
MCCARTHY POINT LOOKOUT Beckwourth District Ranger
Almanor Ranger District Deb Bumpus. "From an
Lassen National Forest economic standpoint it will
Access: From Highway 32 via Forest Service roads 27N08 and expand the use of the forest."
27N21 She noted the lookout was
Availability: April - November already more than 60 percent
Price: $75/night plus security deposit, two-night minimum booked for the summer.
Facilities: Two single beds, propane lights, trash burner for heat, But Kliejunas isn't finished
four-burner stove with oven, non-potable water and sink, some just yet. She would like to
kitchenware, indoor picnic table, outside barbecue and pit toilet, add interpretive materials to
Reserve: recreation.gov, (877) 444-6777 the site. Indeed, lookouts
More in f o: 258-2141 make great places to educate
Notes: Remote location guarantees solitude but requires long the public about fire ecology,
drive on dirt roads. Overlooks Mill Creek, including Black Rock, prevention and recovery. At
and the Ishi Wilderness. Built by the CCC in 1936 for fire obser- Black Mountain, the hillside
vation, it doubled as a military lookout during World War II. is dotted with "skeleton
Continued in use until the mid-1960s. Unusual in that it sits on a brush," the white bones of
canyon rim and has a 270-degree view. shrubs incinerated by the
Clark Fire, which burned
41,000 acres in 1987.
as painting, replacing the Trucking the precast toilet
door, demolishing the old building to the site via
outhouse and restoring the flatbed truck also proved a
wooden floor, which had challenge. The final switch-
been covered with linoleum, back on the dirt access road
Larry Douglas, of Portola, proved the crux. But a
re-roofed the structure. The talented driver out of Reno
Plumas County Resource successful navigated the
Advisory Committee kicked corner and delivered the
in $26,000 for a new toilet building. Kliejunas said that
building, was probably the most stress-
Due to open last summer, ful part of the project for her.
the project hit a snag when With those issues taken
officials discovered the look- care of, the Forest Service
our's grounding system, for hosted a ribbon-cutting
protection during lightning ceremony last month at the
storms, was not up to snuff, site. "I think this (lookout)
Writers on local lookouts
"THE LOOKOUT MAN" by B.M. Bower, descrip-
tion of Osborne Firefinder at Mount Hough
Lookout, Plumas National Forest
In the center of the little square room,
mounted on a high table, was a detail map of
all the country within sight of the station --
and that meant a good many miles of up and
down scenery. Over it a slender pointer was fit-
ted to a pin, in the center of the map, that let
it move like a compass. And so cunningly was
the chart drawn and placed upon the table
that wherever one sighted along the pointer --
as when pointing at a distant smudge of smoke
in the valley or on the mountainside -- there
on the chart was the number by which that
particular spot was designated.
"CONFESSIONS OF A BARBARIAN" by Edward
Abbey, view from Mount Harkness Lookout,-
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Home in a stone tower: fire lookout. All
around me spread the drab-green coniferous
forest of Northern California. West stands the
plug-dome volcano of Lassen Peak, northwest
the shining Fuji-like form of Shasta, fourteen-
thousand feet high and eighty miles away....
The deer (blacktails) -- bony scrawny
starving things, like giant mice, stare at me in
motionless fascination when I play my flute for
them -- not amused or amazed, or puzzled or
frightened or pleased, but simply.., fascinated:
silent wonder.
"MOUNT INGALLS" by Dorothy Cardoza, view
from Mount Ingatls Lookout, Plumas National
Forest
O00h! What a wonderful view.., what a
view! We had no idea then how far we could
see.., but this first look was something ... really
something/
We surely were going to have a lot of
country to look over.., and we weren't going
to learn it all in any one day or season either.
That I knew from this first look oh ... what a
grand country/
We sure were high ... so high, in fact, that
we looked down on everything else in sight...
and believe you me ... that took in a good
many miles.
Crocker Guard Station
With the work at Black
Mountain nearly complete,
Kliejunas has turned her
attention to the next project: A view of one's own: The intimate inside space and expansive
restoration of the Crocker outside sweep of a lookout is an irresistible draw to writers,
Guard Station. Located off the romantics, photographers, stargazers and solitude seekers.
Beckwourth-Genesee Road The Plumas National Forest's recently opened Black Mountain
not far from Beckwourth, and Lookout fits the bill.
on the way to Black Moun-
tain, the guard station was
built in 1912 and stayed in use permits when appropriate,is it about them that pulls so
into the 1980s. Kliejunas had and kept the station grounds strongly at such a variety of
hoped to have the project and Crocker campground people?
complete in time for a centen- clean." The view, of course. While
nial celebration, but now Another volunteer, it can be beautiful, inspiring,
predicts restoration won't be Susan Purcell, of Reno, told perhaps romantic, I think it's
finished until 2013 or 2014. Kliejunas that she was drawn the perspective that the view
The guard station, unusual to Crocker GS "because, on affords that is the real draw.
in its two-story design, sits at occasion, my father (now You can take in landscape-
the edge of a meadow. Be- deceased) talked of riding scale phenomena like fire
cause it is larger than the through the area on horse- and water, trace their paths
typical lookout and adjacent back with a packhorse on and effects.
to Crocker Campground. it numerous occasions duringSuch a view nudges you
has the potential to house the 1930s. He stopped by once toward the sublime. It's easy
large groups, or twice and was always to feel very small in a tiny,
Although Kliejunas is invited in for coffee andglass-walled room on top of a
using American Recovery sometimes dinner, and he re- tower on top of an exposed
and Reinvestment Act funds membered sleeping in a barn mountaintop. And when the
for the project, she is, once near the house. There was a wind blows, which it will, and
again, banking on popular small spring that supplied the lightning crashes, which
appeal to help the project water for the house, and a it might, you can feel down-
along with volunteer labor, small creek in the meadowright puny and insignificant.
Already, folks are lining up. where his horses were Which leads me to one of
Pete Thill, of Graeagle, has hobbled for the night." the most interesting aspects
volunteered, writing to of lookouts -- the dynamic
Kliejunas, "I spent one of the Solitude and multitude between enclosure and
best summers of my life sta- Although I am attracted to exposure, the way all that
tioned at Crocker GS on the lookouts for the solitude they space outside can turn your
fire crew in 1966 .... Most of promise, that expermnce is the gaze inward.
us lived in the existing result of a multitude of people And that is why, although I
station house, using it as our invested in maintaining these may enjoy visiting lookouts
work center. We worked fire historic structures, in the company of others, I
patrols, fought wild land The appeal of !ookouts iswill continue to visit them
fi es, handedout campfire . undenPabte bu t'wl at exact alone .....,
.(
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mm
ael
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Signed,
the Kids and
Plumas County
Teachers Association