A TALE OF TWO PEAKS

In this tale of two lookouts becoming one, here is the other side of the story.

Driveway Peak has been lonely on top for quite a while, without any historic buildings of its own for nearly 30 years; but that could soon be changing with the addition of the Priscilla Peak lookout structure.

The future home of Priscilla and its history, which will be carried along to its new location, should only add substance to the long, colorful history that Driveway also has enjoyed from its scenic mountain perch between Prospect Creek and Clear Creek for almost a century now.

Driveway Peak and Priscilla Peak lookouts both had interesting, active roles in local fire history that started and ended at roughly the same time.

Driveway was first utilized as a lookout station with the lookout person climbing a tall, well-placed tree near the summit for observations beginning in 1929. A cabin was built just down the ridge for the lookout to stay in.

After several years of using the tree to locate fires, a platform was built and the lookout of the day was able to use an Osborne Firefinder with the more stable location. Replete with its spikes up each side for easy climbing, the original lookout tree reportedly remained standing for many years after, before finally falling of natural causes.

Still used in lookouts today, the firefinder, a sighting device called an alidade, overlayed on a map aligned correctly allows for making accurate estimates of fire locations and provided a directional bearing, called an azimuth for firefighters to reference once on the ground.

As modernized in the fire-finding world as Driveway Peak had become though, it still required a healthy four-mile walk from the trailhead for the lookout person or visitors to reach it at the time.

Finally, in 1957 those last four miles of road to the lookout were built, making Driveway Peak one of only three in the immediate Thompson Falls area – Eddy Mountain and Clark Peak were the other two – to have roads to the top.

Eventually, the Forest Service put a 50-foot pole structure with an L-4 design lookout building atop that in place on Driveway. The building and the pole structure were brought down by the Forest Service after the lookout station was retired in 1969, its last season officially in service.

The historic cabin at the base of the pole structure remained in place on Driveway Peak for many years and was often used as a warming hut by cross country skiers until it burned down in an unfortunate accident in 1991.

Answering fears that such a fate could await the Priscilla structure, Lolo National Forest archaeologist Erika Karuzas, who formulated the plan, is hopeful for a better ending.

"It (the cabin burning) was an accident from what I understand, and accidents do happen," she said. "We can take steps to prevent most accidents with well thought out plans. The Forest Service has other rentals and have not had these kinds of problems as a result."

Being optimistic seems to be a part of Karuzas's working job description.

"Both places, Priscilla and Driveway, seem underutilized and underappreciated right now and this project is a chance to change that for the better," she said. "Over the years we have seen that the facilities that you can drive to are the ones that get the most use.

"We can revive and restore a historical lookout building and provide a great experience for the public with the Priscilla Lookout at Driveway Peak."

The Priscilla lookout building's history would then also be safe on Driveway Peak; and Driveway Peak will be lonely on top no more.