Jul, 24. 1952
4—THE MILL CITY ENTERPRISE
SPORTS PAGE
Woman Mans Fire Lookout
In Cascades Above Detroit
By CHARLES IRELAND
Valley Editor, The Statesman
Detroit — Mrs. Clara Young, who rarely sees
fire lookout post high above Detroit, waves
from her station atop Stahlman Point. 2.000
North Santiam highway. Standing between
sible unwelcome guests (lower left photo)
a visitor at her forest
goodbye (top photo)
feet above the nearby
Mrs. >oung and pos­
is her doberman pin-
“It’s a lonely life, but I like it,” says Clara Young,
the only woman in the Detroit area who mans a
forest fire lookout post all alone.
Mrs. Young probably won’t see a newspaper nor
a human being at close range for the rest of July.
And maybe well into August. She’s settled down for
the summer in a little house that's perched high above
the floor of the North Santiam canyon.
Motorists might catch a wee glimpse of her tower
if they look due south as they glide along the highway
past the new Detroit ranger station. With powerful
binoculars, they might even spot Mrs. Young or
Courageous, the doberman pinscher who shares her
lonely watch.
A month ago Mrs. Young climbed a steep, two-mile
trail to the top of Stahlman Point and started her
fifth season as a fire lookout.
“She’s one of our best,” said S. T. (Tennessee)
Moore, chief ranger of the 300,000-acre Detroit dis-
trict of the Willamette National Forest.
How did Mrs. Young get into this unusual avo­
cation? She grew up admiring the forests of her
native Minnesota. And when she married a college
professor, who also liked outdoor life, it seemed a
good way to spend the summers.
For three seasons they staffed larger posts together.
After her husband switched to year-around work.
Mrs. Young decided to keep the family tradition going
alone.
¥ ¥ ¥
Her season starts in June and normally ends in
September. A five-mule train packs in her bedding,
food, cooking utensils and a few personal items. The
forester who leads the mule train aims to make the
rounds of the 16 lookout posts and guard stations
eveiy three weeks.
But if it’s a little longer, Mrs. Young doesn't worry.
She's in contact with the ranger station by both tele­
phone and two-way radio.
¥ ¥ ¥
Her day starts about 5:30 when she wakes up, walks
a half mile to a clear mountain spring and totes
back three gallons of water—a day’s supply.
Then, if fuel for her wood stove is low, she bucks
a fallen tree and chops some kindling. Breakfast
may be cereal (with condensed milk), fruit or pan­
cakes. Her larder is long on fruit, juices, soup and
vegetables. Nearly everything, of course, is canned.
Roll-call, via radio, comes at 7 a.m., and her day
is officially started. Every half hour she picks up
her powerful field glasses for five minutes and meth­
odically scans the approximately 25,000 acres of forest
land within visibility.
¥ ¥ ¥
Adjacent lookouts (the nearest is four miles away)
scan their domains on alternate quarter hours. Since
territories overlap, this means that all of the forest
theoretically gets a once-over every 15 minutes.
Actually, Mrs. Young and Forester Moore agree,
the tall timber is under near-constant daytime sur­
veillance. Especially when humidity drops below the
critical point.
While Mrs. Young and other fire lookouts rarely
leave their posts during a season, they nominally work
an eight-hour day and a 40-hour week. Their duty
hours are geared to periods when fire danger is acute
due to weather or logging operations.
¥ ¥ ¥
If Sunday presents no apparent fire danger, it is
scher. Courageous, who stands In while she seleeW supper items
not a day of duty. Conditions frequently make an­
from her shelf of canned goods. Mrs. Young scans fht forest many
other off day possible during the week. If not, look­
times a day (right) from a rocky ledge outside her lookout tower.
outs are paid overtime above 40 hours.
Mt. Jefferson, 16*2 miles distant, looms in background.
Starting pay, Forester Moore reported, is $51 a
(Statesman photos by Charles Ireland, Valley Editor)
■ week.
A veteran like Mrs. Young
may make up to $300 a month during
FINAL
the peak danger season, overtime in­
LEAGUE STANDINGS cluded.
of the Santiam Softball
Yearly turnover runs high among
w
the lookouts wtih few returning for
10
Kellys
a second season, Husband-and-wife
From now until state tournament CBI INigineers
teams are popular at the Detroit dis-
time the schedule will be slightly ir­ . Firemen
trict's six guard stations, which re­
regular. There will probably be soft- Chuck’s
quire two persons.
ball every night and the first game ! Mehama
¥ ¥ ¥
should get under way by 7 p.m. PST. I Lee Logging
Moore said Mrs. Young is the only
Kelly Boysen Paints will bring in
Kelly will represent the Mill City woman who has manned a lookout
some of the teams who will be on hand Mistrict in the state tournament and
station for an entire season. During
for the state tournament. This will [will ’ be the host team. As someone
World War II, members of the Che-
give those teams a chance to play on
a long time ago, “If you cant’ meketans, Salem outdoor club, handled
our field before the tournament begins beat ’em, join 'em." Let’s all get be-
lookout assignments on a weekly basis.
and it will also give Kelly some com 1 hind the Kelly Green and root them
Some women participated in this pro­
petition to gear them for state play to a state championship.
gram.
offs.
Most of the current lookouts in the
Some of the teams tentatively
Detroit
district are college students.
scheduled to appear here next week
Two are from Princeton university.
are: Salem Merchants, Lebanon West­
Others are forestry majors from col­
ern Veneer, Springfield Clear Fir
leges in Oregon, Pennsylvania and
Lumber. Eugene Copping’s Big Bucks,
Oswego, and Junction City.
All of | Fishing proved to be very good in Ohio.
Last season Mrs. Young spotted 10
these teams are contenders for the1 the Clear lake country Wednesday
when local fishermen returned home fires. She has a list of slash burn­
state tournament.
with their limit of 30 beautiful trout ings and other controlled fires. When
specimens.
she sights a stray curl of smoke she
A. V. Herron. John Jackson, and contacts headquarters and the race
Don Jenkins snent the day at Clear against time is on.
Sometimes it’s
lake and were the lucky devotees of just a trash burner at a dwelling.
Isaac Walton. This reporter caught Often, it’s serious.
them in the act of having photographs
¥ ¥ ¥
being taken on the lawn of Photog­
By means of an intricate “fire
rapher Bob Veness Wednesday eve­ finder" Mrs. Young < an pin-point the
ning.
smoke locations.
But she and the
MILL CITY MEAT MARKET
Quality Meats and Groceries
FOOD LOCKERS
FROZEN FOODS
Softball Schedule
For Next Week
Lost Round Santiam
League Completed
Friday night Chuck’s defeated Me­
hama 17 to 7 in a wild contest.
Duane Downing was the big gun for
the winners as he collected two home-
runs a single and two walks in six
trips.
R H E
The score:
040 605 2— 7 5 3
Chuck’s
112 003 0—17 13 3
Mehama
In the second game Friday night the
Engineers defeated the Firemen 15 to
3. The Firemen jumped off to an
early lead but were unable to hold
off the Engineers attack.
R H E
The score:
003 143 4—15 5 4
CBI
100 020 0— 3 5 5
Firemen
Tuesday night Mehama defeated
Lee Logging 15 to 13. Mehama had
a ruff time overhauling the Loggers
but finally won out in the battle of
the celler dwellers.
R H E
The score:
380 010 1—13 11 3
Lee Logging
340 107 X—15 1 1 0
Mehama
In the second game Tuesday night
Kellys swamped CBI 14 to 0. Ron
Davidson pitched a no-hit no-run game
in one of the finest performances seen
on this field.
Ron gave up three
walks and one batter got on by an
error, all base runners except one
were erased and Ron faced only 22
batters. Thirteen batters went down
via the strikeout route as they were
unable to solve Ron’s assortment of
curves, drops and rise balls.
In the offensive department the
Kelly batters were well stocked with
an assortment of 2xl2’s which they
used effectively at the plate.
Don
Carey collected two for three, Bob
Dombrowsky collected three for four,
and John Jubb and Pete Valdez added
home runs to the cause. Ron David­
son managed a home run and two
doubles in four trips.
R H E
The score:
000 000 0— 0 0 4
CBI
034 106 X—14 13 1
Kellys
In the final league game Wednes­
day night, the Firemen defeated
Chuck’s 8 to 7. This was a close one
all the way as the teams matched
each other run for run all through
the contest.
The game went into
extra innings after being all tied up
two and two at the end of the seventh.
Chuck’s pushed across a run in the
top of the ninth and the Firemen
matched it in their half of the inning.
In the top of the seventh Chuck’s
blasted out four runs and appeared
to have the contest on ice, but the
Firemen came back wits some tricky
stick work to squeeze in five runs
in the eleventh inning and win the
game.
RHE
The score:
Chuck’s
101 000 001 04—7 8 5
Firemen
100 100 001 05—8 9 7
rangers know their territory well,
often go by landmarks to save time.
She can communicate with trucks en
route to the scene.
If you like sweeping vistas of snow­
capped mountains, if you like to go
to bed with the sun, if you really think
you could live alone and like it—then
maybe a fire lookout’s life is for you,
You'd be sure after a season at
Stahlman Point.
Ideal for ycur
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