Texas Pond Lookout Site
The Kresek Lookout Inventory describes Texas Pond as a patrol point with platform tower 1.5 miles SE of Rinker Point Lookout, also saying abandoned and no location was given. I have not identified the exact location of the platform tower. Texas Pond was once the site of a Ranger Station and the east side of the pond would have views if there were no trees. Based on the cabin image, it seems there were views in the early 1900s due to a fire. The knobs surrounding the pond would make for a good low-elevation observation point into the Sauk River Valley. Rinker Point Lookout further up the ridge wasn’t built until 1935 so its possible this was not a patrol point but a prior point before Rinker Point.
Tommy Thompson was the first ranger at Texas Pond. He built most of the ranger station that was completed in 1908. That year he married Ella and they spent their honeymoon at the new ranger station and called it home until 1914. There was also a Cedar Bolt Camp at Texas Pond for many years. You can still see the shoot which was used to send the bolts down to the Sauk River, the wheel that was used to control water level, and also the large cedar stumps throughout the pond. In 1913 Tommy built a Guard House near the Suiattle River known as the Suiattle Guard House and it still stands today. Texas Pond is adopted by volunteers of Friends For Public Use and they have worked hard keeping it clean.
WillhiteWeb.com: Washington Fire Lookouts
Lookout Location: TBD
Lookout Elevation: Unknown
To get to Texas Pond drive 5.6 miles north from the Darrington Ranger Station, turn left at the Christian Camp sign on Forest Service Road #28, drive 1 mile and make a left just past the "Christian Camp, drive 3.6 miles. When you come to a Y in the road, keep to your right. It is about 1/2 mile to the camp sites. There is also a road from North Mountain.
Access
Ella and Tommy Thompson on the porch of the Texas Pond Ranger substation that Tommy built. Photo was taken about 1907 or 1908 and is courtesy of the Thompson collection and Will Jenkins.
Found this in a Mountaineers Annual
Texas Pond Guard Station on an old Metsker Map
The old cedar bolt flume
Ranger Tom Thompson
Texas Pond
Texas Pond
Flat area east of the pond
Flat area east of the pond with view through trees
Flat area east of the pond
Texas Pond Map
Vera (his daughter) donated Tommy's extensive journals and diaries, covering the period from 1907 to 1943, to the Washington State University archives after Ella's (his wife’s) death in an unknown year. I contacted the Washington State University archives and they said they tossed them out since their condition was so poor!