Mount Octopus Lookout Site

In 1954, the Biennial Report of the Forestry Division reported that a a location three and one-half miles long had been made for the road to the site of Mt. Octopus where construction now awaits timber removal.

Around 1957, a lookout was completed on the summit of Mt. Octopus (1st Biennial Report of the WDNR). It was a 40-foot wooden DNR live-in tower.

In 1961, the lookout on Octopus became ill and quit. Beth Barlow Velie was brought to the lookout after staffing 6 weeks over at Gunderson Lookout. She attended the UW off-season. She described the lookout. Octopus L.O. was spacious, there was a small propane stove with an oven. There was room for my grandmothers old treadle sewing machine. I was able to do some sewing for college on foggy and rainy days. My main job was radio communication between Forks DNR and Olympia DNR. My first summer was unusually wet and the only fire I spotted was set by a DNR crew to check if I was watching and if my fire finder skills were up to par! My first summer I took care of a small black and white dog that belonged to a high school teacher and his wife. They were in Alaska and Shorty Vincent was my companion for the summer. Mt. Octopus had a sizable herd of elk at the time. There was a particularly large bull that took exception to the anemometer. He would stand below the pole and whistle and carry on. (It did squeak). Shorty and I didn’t go out when he was around but we did go out on a walk most evenings after sign off. The only other game I saw on Octopus was an occasional chipmunk and a few bears in the distance, over the hill. I could also hear coyotes in the distance, at night.

There was a large windstorm after I settled into life on Octopus. I do not remember the exact time but as I recall it came up quite suddenly. The wind caught the door after it popped open. The next thing I knew it was hanging by the safety chain, which held for a few minutes and then it tore loose and sailed over the hill. After locating a hammer and nails, taking the bedspread off the bed, emergency repairs were made, headquarters were called and I was taken off the lookout overnight until a crew could make repairs and replace the door. As I recall I was only off over night. Octopus had a locked gate 3 miles down the road from the lookout. Most of my visitors had access to a key. A few hardy souls did make the hike, but most visitors were either DNR employees, other state employees or Game Warden who had a key to the gate.

Another experience my first summer on Mt. Octopus was when a mouse drowned in the last half of my remaining water for that particular week and I needed to call for a fresh supply. My immediate boss was Jim Pratt and the fire activity boss was Frank Dugas, both of DNR in Forks. (Beth Barlow Velie)

In 1962, the lookout was 18 year old Lynn Hanchett, who started at Gunderson Lookout but had to come to Octopus and replace Beth Barlow. See below for her experiences.

From 1963 to 1965 the lookout was Barbara Barlow Belton. She shared some of her experiences as a lookout on Mt. Octopus. She was earning money for college but admitted it was a very lonely time when you are 18, 19, and 20. She said it would be much easier now that she is older to fill the time. She shared that one summer, Mt. Octopus was fogged in for the whole month of June. A pair of swallows had built a nest below the vent in the floor of the tower and because they had nothing to eat, the babies died. It was quite smelly until she was able to remove the vent and use a coat hanger to scrape out the nest. There were also some Elk that liked the log landing below the lookout. During her time, there were only a couple of lightning storms but nothing serious. Since the mountain was behind a locked gate on a logging road, few hikers showed up. She did have a couple of guys arrive on dirt bikes with a baby bear they had killed strapped to the bike. She talked to them from the tower with the trapdoor down and didn’t invite them up. She said in the early 1960s, Mt. Octopus was used mainly used for DNR radio communications between Forks and Olympia, and for weather observations. In 3 years, she only spotted one fire that was not already known by the DNR. It was in a shingle mill sawdust pile. Occasionally slash burns or small fires were set off without our knowledge and we were expected to report them, thereby testing our accuracy and promptness in reporting them. She shared that a gathering of lookout personnel in Olympia one fall, (probably 1964). It was held in a nudist camp, although it was not being used as such that weekend, it did make for interesting conversation. Her boss was Frank Dugas. Her younger sister had been a lookout also on Mt. Octopus and her older sister Beth started out on Mt. Gunderson, then Mt. Octopus, and finally Clearwater Lookout.

From 1966-1969, Kathy Barlow Dickson recalls as full time at Mt Octopus. Besides the lookout duty of scanning for fires, responsibilities were regular weather observations, and relaying messages from Forks to Olympia, while the AM radio was in use. FM radio did not require the relay. Of course a log book was kept of all messages. Thunderstorms required standing on a small stool which had an insulator on all four legs, while using the radio. This of course happened during the dry part of summer, if thunder and lightening were in the area. It was indeed a memorable sight to view the Aurora Borealis. It was quite colorful, with no other lights in the sky. The animals I recall seeing were elk and coyotes. August brought whistling bull elk. Octopus was very quiet at night, mainly heard the wind. Storms on Octopus Mt lookout were an experience. Wind and rain would hit usually the southeast corner of the tower. A big gust would hit , and cause the tower to sway, and shake a bit. I do not recall it bothering me because the guy wires were definitely holding as far as I knew. If the wet weather was to last for several days, I worked a bit in the main office in Forks. My absolute worst memory all the years I spent on Octopus was somehow breaking an ankle halfway through the summer of 1969. Ultimately, I was able to go back to work up there. Likely I was not able to do the weather observations which of course involved going down to the ground. No hikers at Octopus. Several miles of up to get there. Occasionally tourists would drive there. I always checked them out before opening the trapdoor. I turned in a fire starting on the Quinault Reservation, off my map, but got a reading on it. Unusual radio traffic would be radio skips from other parts of the country. One day it was very foggy outside, very quiet with not much radio traffic and I distinctly heard a faint (Help). Was not my imagination since the operator in Olympia heard it also. Never heard officially, but probably was a hoax.

In 1974 was the final year, then abandoned. It stood vacant into the 1980s. Urban legend says the intended tower for the Forks Timber Museum was Mt. Octopus. In the 1980s, the tower was carefully dropped to the ground by the convicts from the nearby Olympic Corrections Center. After they left for the day, smoke was seen on the mountain. By the time anyone got back to the top, the lookout had been destroyed. What is odd about this tale is that a similar story is told about the Sekiu Mountain Lookout being intended for the museum but it was accidently burned after being brought to the ground. I guess both could be correct. It was the Deming Lookout that finally made it to the museum in Forks.

Another mystery surrounding the Mt. Octopus lookout is a September 23, 1923 blurb found in a Utah newspaper (shown on Ron Kemnow website). It said, "Another lookout station has been set up on the summit of Mount Octopus." (The Ogden Standard Examiner - Ogden, Utah)