North Point Lookout - Olympic National Forest

Once just a patrol point for Kloshe Nanich, North Point eventually replaced it being a few hundred feet higher and having views to the north. The lookout L-4 cab was built in 1939. It was used for some time but somewhat left unused in the 1950's. A Port Angeles Evening News article said on May 18, 1956 "The North Point Lookout on the ridge north of the Snider Ranger Station is being manned on an emergency basis." The article also said "opening this road will enable the lookout to get to the station and will also permit the installation of the necessary radio sets and relays at this point." So maybe North Point was preferred to Kloshe Nanch because the radio or other signals could reach further. The Forest Service said in 1959 they had plans on developing North Point to provide great views of mountains and water. In 1965 Bryon Loucks was the observer reporting fires, he lived in Port Angeles and was majoring in forestry at Peninsula College. The building is said to be officially abandoned in 1969. The building has since been converted into a communications station. But with the same original frame it is still considered a standing lookout building. Rumor is that the building still has the center table that holds the Osborne Firefinder.

From Forks, take Highway 101 for 20 miles or around 10 miles west from Lake Crescent. Turn north onto West Snider Road and follow for about 0.5 paved miles to the Snider Work Center. Drive behind the work center to find Forest Service Road 3041. Follow this road to the Kloshe Nanch Lookout site avoiding just a few spur roads. This road is a one-lane fairly maintained gravel and dirt road that the average car could drive but it is not advised by the local forest service. A short distance past the lookout site is a gate and parking for a few cars. The hike is an easy half mile on the road to the communication towers and old fire building.

The North Point lookout was always a favorite place to go when I was young. The lookouts always were glad to see someone and the chance to visit with the company. Water was taken up to the lookout from Snider every so often in Milk cans. Usually they were filled at Mile 5 of the Lookout Road as it was a very good source of cold water. One summer (1954 or 55), there was a college student from Massachusetts who was a sort of a klutz. The crew foreman wanted to fire him before he killed himself of hurt a fellow worker. Dad said that he didn't want to send him all the way back to Massachusetts so he decided to put him up on North point L.O. "He won't be able to hurt anything there....right.?" Well, a few days later the lookout called down and said he had put out a fire in the lookout but it needed fixing. I got to go up with everyone to see what the problem was. The lookout smelled terrible and was black all over inside including the windows. The northeast side and ceiling above the stove was charred deeply. (Propane stove) "What happened?" Well, the lookout decided to boil some potatoes. He went out and got his water from a 5-gallon tin and filled his pot. He added the potatoes and lit the fire. It blew up! He managed to put the fire out (that took some doing as the evidence showed it burned for a while.) And then had to call the Station. "What happened?" Well the 5-gallon tin he got the "water" from was plainly marked "BLAZO." (white gas) Dad said he did a good job of putting out the fire and he wouldn't (again) send him home. He spent the rest of the summer as the cook's helper.

Dad tells the story of, during WW2, receiving several frantic phone calls one night that there were bright lights coming from the mountain behind Snider. There was a "blackout condition" at the time right after Pearl Harbor as everyone expected an invasion by Japan. Dad went out where he could see up on the ridge. Sure enough, there was a bright light coming from lookout. (My memory fails me here as it was either Kloshe Nanich or North Point.) He went back in our house and called the lookout on the telephone. Sure enough, the lookout "forgot" and set his Coleman Lantern on the top of the firefinder for some reason, completely forgetting the blackout conditions. It lit up the whole area and was enough to cause panic throughout the peninsula.

The lookout had a building just west of the site which was essentially a large (relatively) storage shed. I seem to remember that there was a place on the south side to pull a vehicle into it for cover and a table and chairs on the north side. (Probably only a Model A size rig.) Anyhow each spring around the middle of May both buildings were opened
for the season. I was charged with shooting the stinking Pack Rats which had wintered there in the storage building. My dad made me use 22 shorts so as not to blow holes in everything.

One lookout I remember well was a guy named Ernie Strom. Ernie was from Seattle and had a black and white Border Collie named, "Duz." Why did Ernie call him that? Ernie said, "Duz, duz everything." For a popular soap commercial of that day. I would guess around maybe 1950 or so. Well, Ernie was a good shot with his .22 so the Forest Service bought several bricks (500 rounds) of .22 shells so Ernie could shoot the tops
of the trees out all around the lookout. That way they would not grow up so fast and obscure the view. He did a good job of that. I would guess that evidence of his efforts still exist in the trees around the lookout.

Later in September 1951 when the "Forks Fire" (AKA "P.A.W. Fire" ) blew up, Ernie (by then a Fire Guard) saved the USFS guard Station trailer on the S. Fk.of the Calawah by desperately bringing the trailer out the "A" Road with his tiny war surplus Jeep. This just barely ahead of the fire. He said, "When I would hit a large bump in the road the front wheels would raise up off the ground from time to time. That was fun."

During the 60's, due to my lookout experience, I was sent up on North Point and Hyas LO's to supplement the aircraft fire spotting program when the fire danger got too high. That duty was only for a few days at a time. I don't recall reporting any significant fires or encountered any big lightening storms like I did on Humptulips Ridge.

In the late 60's or early 70's the F.S. had a new communications relay radio tower erected on North Point. I remember asking the contractor why it wasn't guy wired for stability. He said it doesn't need any. Well, that winter the radio communications went out. Frank Lagambina and I snow-shoed up to the lookout to see if we could repair the radio.
(An all day trip!) We found the tower smashed on the ground with solid ice about 3 feet thick the full length of the tower.

Dale graduated from South Kitsap HS, class of 60 and this was one of his first of many jobs he experienced. Most of the photos below this image were taken in August 1961. He was offered the job there as a fire lookout at Snider Ranger Station or to stay working as a surveying aid out of Quilcene, WA. He preferred the view there than the surveyor work in the National Forest for park access roads. The radio call sign was KOE614. He said the structure may have been rebuilt as beneath all the painted walls within, there is about 1/4 inch depth of carbon from the fire that took place there in the past.