Pinnacle Peak Park - Mt. Peak

The most popular hike up a mountain in South King County is Pinnacle Peak. Often called Mount Peak or Mount Pete by locals. It used to be called Mt. Pete as Pete Blascheck lived on the south side of the mountain and people thought he owned it. Pete died January 24, 1947 and lived there over 50 years. King County Parks has made it a park and slowly acquired more property to protect this little knob that sticks out of the Enumclaw flatlands. Plans are in the works to place a viewing lookout at the summit that was similar to the original fire lookout.

In May 1929 a 30 foot pole platform tower was built by the Washington Forest Fire Association. In 1934 the WFFA constructed a higher 60 foot tower. In 1942, during WWII, the Army had an aircraft observation point located on Grass Mountain east of Enumclaw. But the location was too high for observers to live in the winter months. Pinnacle Peak was planned to be the winter low elevation observation point. At the beginning of the AWS program, in January of 1942, the peak was used occasionally as an emergency in place of Grass Mountain. So officials ordered and constructed a 12 x 20 foot garage and also constructed a road nearly to the top of the peak. It was then found that Pinnacle Peak was too close to a civilian observation post in Enumclaw. They were instructed to find a new location up Highway 410 toward Greenwater. So, thanks to the Army, Pinnacle Peak got a garage. In 1948 the road was completed to the summit. In 1950, a new 20 foot high wooden DNR 14x14 foot live-in tower was constructed. The lookout was last manned fulltime in 1964, abandoned October 16th that year. But, the tower was again manned 4 days in 1965 on March 13, 14, 20 and 21. It was torn down May 13, 1966 with a D-4 caterpiller tractor at 11:00 A.M. This ended 37 years of lookout service on the mountain. The DNR had hoped to preserve the tower in reserve for a few years but the tower suffered so much vandalism and break-ins that it was necessary to remove it to prevent a serious accident to children playing on the tower. Children from time to time climbed the mountain and played on and around the abandoned tower. The observation work previously assigned to Pinnacle Peak was transferred to Carbon Ridge lookout, 25 miles south of Enumclaw and McDonald Point tower northeast of Enumclaw.

A 1951 Enumclaw newspaper article said water was hauled in and supplies are hoisted to the tower via a block and tackle. Myron & Ethel Schram were the lookouts. On clear evenings the Schrams looking through binoculars can look toward Seattle and pick out and identify most of the principal buildings and see the ships coming and going on Elliott Bay. On special atmospheric occasions the glass will pick up the waves on the Sound waters. Ethel told visitors of the first "fire" her husband located. It was early in the morning and great clouds of smoke were billowing up in the green forests to the East. Bringing his finder quickly to bear on the smoke he had the location in no time at all. Subsequent and speedy checking indicated that the "fire" had suddenly moved. It was then that Ethel still snug under the covers, took pity on her spouse who had his trousers in one hand and was manipulating the fire finder with the other, and meekly informed him that the "fire" was the locomotive of a White River logging train on a routine run. In their glass house atop the mountain the Schrams sorely miss their bacon for breakfast. Myron has just put his foot down firmly and decreed that there shall be no bacon. You see frying beacon gives off a smoke. And smoke dirties up windows. And the windows are washed by Myron daily.

In the September 12, 1957 Walla Walla Union Bulletin, it reported that Bernadine (Bunny) Shantz, a Walla Walla College student from San Bernardino, CA, was subject of a feature article in a Seattle newspaper, dealing with her summertime occupation as a forest fire lookout. Miss Shantz is on Pinnacle Peak, in the Cascades near Enumclaw. It is her second season as a lookout, one of her WWC teachers said. She keeps a pistol for protection in her tower, and soda pop bottles line the tower stairs at night to give her a warning of trouble. Miss Shantz is only five feet tall her teacher added, a 26 year old senior majoring in English.

1930: Norman Webb 6/5/30 to 8/29/30
1931: Rodney Boothroyd 7/31/31 to 9/5/31
1933: Rodney Boothroyd 7/7/33 to 8/31/33
1934: Rodney Boothroyd 6/15/34 to 9/11/34
1935: Rodney Boothroyd 6/3/35 to 9/16/35
1936: Rodney Boothroyd 6/12/36 to 9/14/36
1937: Rodney Boothroyd 6/16/37 to 9/20/37
1939: Leo McCloskey 7/27/39 to 9/6/39
1941: Leo McCloskey 6/16-18/41
1942: Jim Thompson 7/1/42 to 10/14/42 (on Fairfax Lookout)
1942: Mabel Morgan 6/28/42 to 7/31/42
1942: Nellie Rollins 8/4/42 to 9/11/42
1943: Hazel Barker 12/9/42 to 2/28/43
1943: Helen L. Wills 5/12/43 to 5/16/43
1943: L. E. Simpson 5/17/43 to 6/30/43
1943: Sadie L. Greenhagen 6/1/43 to 7/31/43
1945: Florence Raberge 6/15/45 to 10/31/45
1946: Florence Raberge 5/4/46 to 10/31/46
1947: Florence Raberge 5/17/47 to 10/31/47
1948: Florence Raberge 5/22/48 to 7/21/48
1948: Marie Luxon 7/28/48 to 9/30/48
1949: Hester Harr 5/15/49 to 10/6/49
1950: C.M. Rinard 5/15/50 to 9/30/50
1951: Myron R. Schram 4/10/51 to 9/30/51
1952: Mildred L. Felsburg 4/21/52 to 5/30/52
1952: Kay R. Love 6/1/52 to 9/11/52
1955: Shirley McGinnis 6/6/55 to 9/7/55
1956: Bunny Shautz 6/12/56 to 9/15/56
1957: Bunny Shautz 5/31/57 to 9/15/57
1958: Don Raven Kortenbach 5/1/58 to 6/12/58
1958: Arlene Ness 6/13/58 to 9/5/58
1959: Helen Jones 5/14/59 to 6/30/59
1959: Bunny Shautz 6/4/59 to 9/30/59
1960: Helen Jones 6/6/60 to 7/1/60
1960: Paul Carr 7/1/60 to 9/15/60
1960: Lee Hemphill 10/1/60 to 10/14/60
1961: Nona Rains (Preston) 5/22/61 to 10/13/61
1962: Faith Henderson 5/24/62 to 10/9/62
1963: Linda Makela 6/1/63 to 10/15/63
1964: Linda Makela 5/19/64 to 10/16/64
1965: Carol Sorensen (March 13-14)
1965: Margaret Gutherie (March 19-20)

Pinnacle Peak Lookout Site

WillhiteWeb.com

Also known as: Mt. Peak and Mt. Pete