It stands there, rusting away from the elements of harsh winters and high winds. It is an icon of the Blue Mountains.
It is the lookout tower at the Clearwater Ranger Station. The station was just about first on the list of the many lookout stations the U.S. Forest Service has abandoned in the past 50 years.
It was a busy place when I first saw it in 1945. There were barracks for the workers to house the equipment that was used in maintaining the Umatilla National Forest's large area, and to handle forest fires and maintain the mountain roads.
These and other campgrounds were first built and maintained by the Civilian Conservation Corps. For all of you boomers and younger people who know nothing of history and could care less, the CCC was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to clean up the forests and roads around the country and give people jobs that were otherwise unavailable in those days. It also helped folks out of the hopelessness and futility of the times, giving back some of the pride to people of the Great Depression.
For you non-history buffs, FDR was the only man to be elected four times as president of the United States. There could not have been a better time for that man to become the president.
There was a big camp of CCCs on the spine of the Blue Mountains. They built campgrounds, cleaned up the forests and gave hope back to the American people. The tower at the Clearwater Ranger Station was about 80 feet high. On a clear day - yes, there were clear days in 1945 - you could see a lot of what is now the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness Area and the 2,500-feet-deep canyon of the Tucannon River to the south. To the north you could see 50 miles away to Steptoe Butte and 125 miles away to Mount Spokane.
But then through the years the Forest Service lost its priority in Congress. Slowly, the beautiful spots, campgrounds and springs began to deteriorate. Places like Wickiup Springs, known far and wide for the coldest and sweetest water in the Blues, are now waterless. The benches and tables those young men made 80 years ago have become firewood, and the Forest Service never replaced them. Sometimes I think the Forest Service is just a middleman for the selling of timber to private corporations.
But I still go to those places just to hear the sounds of the forest. The screech of an eagle flying high above the canyon, the chatter of chipmunks and squirrels, the rusty gates, the caw of crow, red-headed mountain woodpeckers drumming on a dead tree all echo through the woods. It is these places I go to clear my mind and come back to town with a renewed appreciation of nature, and somewhat revitalized old body.
---
Vic Deering is a retired Tribune printer and can be reached at city@lmtribune.com, or at (208) 848-2269.
