{"id":786,"date":"2020-10-01T03:35:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/?p=786"},"modified":"2023-06-14T10:20:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T17:20:52","slug":"lookouts-burned-in-the-historic-2020-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2020\/10\/01\/lookouts-burned-in-the-historic-2020-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Lookouts Burned in the Historic 2020 Wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starting on Monday, September 7, 2020 (Labor Day) Oregon experienced an historic wind event. Several previously-burning wildfires blew up and became enormous. Several new fires started. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2020_Oregon_wildfires\">Millions of acres of forest burned<\/a>, in addition to many homes and businesses. (Mark Nelsen has a good <a href=\"https:\/\/fox12weather.wordpress.com\/2020\/10\/11\/septembers-historic-fires-smoke-and-wind-storm\/\">writeup<\/a> about the weather that caused this event.) Some lookouts were lost as well. Here are the ones I know about. I&#8217;ll update this post if I hear about others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SCOTT MOUNTAIN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The lookout on Scott Mountain was operated by the Douglas FPA (see info <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firelookout.com\/or\/scottmtn.html\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/oregonlookouts.weebly.com\/mount-scott1.html\">here<\/a>). They had stopped staffing it and used remotely-monitored cameras instead. The lookout burned in the <a href=\"https:\/\/inciweb.nwcg.gov\/incident\/7176\/\">Archie Creek Fire<\/a>. (The Facebook post below refers to Mt. Scott, but the official name is Scott Mountain (see <a href=\"https:\/\/geonames.usgs.gov\/apex\/f?p=138:3:::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:1126689,Scott%20Mountain\">U.S. Board of Geographic Names<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDouglasForestProtectiveAssociation%2Fposts%2F1679738752181545&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=830&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"830\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>BOLAN MOUNTAIN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This lookout has been a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.recreation.gov\/camping\/campgrounds\/234154\">rental<\/a> in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest for awhile now. I was fortunate to <a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2020\/07\/10\/bolan-mountain\/\">rent it<\/a> just this year. It burned in the <a href=\"https:\/\/inciweb.nwcg.gov\/incident\/7173\/\">Slater Fire<\/a>. The timing is particularly bitter since the Forest Service had just finished some sprucing up at the lookout (see posts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/R6RRSNF\/posts\/3098834350184884\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/R6RRSNF\/posts\/3098913626843623\">here<\/a>). In October Zach Urness wrote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesmanjournal.com\/story\/travel\/outdoors\/2020\/10\/28\/gold-butte-lookout-oregon-wildfires-bold-mountain-lookout\/6045732002\/\">article<\/a> about the burning of Bolan in the Statesman Journal.<\/p>\n<p>Someone the last renter to stay at the lookout posted this photo to the Wildfire Intel Community Forum on September 8, showing a view of the smoke from the lookout. He later posted on Facebook that he and his daughter evacuated from the lookout that day when the fire got too close for comfort:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forums.wildfireintel.org\/t\/ca-knf-slater\/14378\/12\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forums.wildfireintel.org\/uploads\/default\/optimized\/2X\/5\/5850dca07642b668952534976417cbd30ea5d839_2_1332x1000.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>Nick Tolman<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here is the announcement from the Forest Service:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FR6RRSNF%2Fposts%2F3200140656720919&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=817&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"817\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Close Calls<\/h3>\n<p>Other lookouts were threatened and crews worked to protect them, including <strong>Cinnamon Butte<\/strong> in the Umpqua National Forest:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FThielsenFire%2Fposts%2F113806117140016&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=716&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"716\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FThielsenFire%2Fposts%2F113851960468765&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=716&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"716\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pechuck Lookout<\/strong> in the Table Rock Wilderness also survived. These photos were posted to Inciweb on September 30:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52974888650_58db6f28e8_c.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52974965648_0dafd60e86_c.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Big Rock \/ Green Mountain<\/strong> lookout did not burn in the Holiday Farm Fire. (This one is on private land and inaccessible to the public.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FHolidayFarmFire%2Fphotos%2Fa.118762719958183%2F137777838056671%2F&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=503&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"503\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Volunteers from the Sand Mountain Society spent Labor Day weekend doing restoration work at\u00a0 <strong>Gold Butte<\/strong> in the Willamette National Forest. On Labor Day they could see things were getting bad so they put the shutters on the lookout and got out of there. A crew eventually wrapped the lookout. The Lionshead and Beachie Creek Fires combined and came very close to this spot but never reached it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/50542706977_c71aca5951_c.jpg\" alt=\"Gold_Butte_Wrapped_Sep_2020_USFS\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Also&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bull of the Woods<\/strong> in the Mt. Hood National Forest is one of the few remaining wilderness lookouts left and it was spared from the Lionshead Fire.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sisi Butte<\/strong> in the Mt. Hood National Forest near Olallie Lake survived the Lionshead Fire.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><strong>Morgan Butte<\/strong> in the Fremont-Winema National Forest survived the Brattain Fire.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting on Monday, September 7, 2020 (Labor Day) Oregon experienced an historic wind event. Several previously-burning wildfires blew up and<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/2020\/10\/01\/lookouts-burned-in-the-historic-2020-wildfires\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lookouts Burned in the Historic 2020 Wildfires<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/1319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/firelookouts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}