Remember When?

40 YEARS AGO • July 16, 1981

EDDY PEAK GETTING NEW LOOKOUT TOWER

by Pat Sullivan

Crews from the Lolo National Forest at Thompson Falls and Plains began construction Monday on a combination lookout tower and electronic site on Eddy Peak, with two helicopters carrying over 20,000 pounds of concrete up the 6,957-foot mountain.

The idea to build a fire lookout station atop a concrete basement on Eddy Peak, 20 miles southeast of Thompson Falls, has existed for almost 10 years. But it wasn't until 1979, when the dilapidated 47-year-old original lookout was demolished, that a new building could actually be planned.

Located on the same site as the old lookout, the new structure will have a concrete floor with eight-foot-high cinder block walls. A lookout cabin transplanted from a peak in Idaho will be installed atop the 14-by-14-foot cinder block and concrete base.

According to Fred Cavill, fire manager for the two districts and supervisor atop the mountain, 6.5 yards of concrete, weighing 3,900 pounds per yard, are being flown up by helicopter to the wood and steel footings.

The copters, one borrowed from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Ronan and the other a Forest Service ship from Missoula, are sling-loaded with a barrel containing between 700 and 900 pounds of pre-mixed concrete. The copters are loaded by Thompson River Ready Mix and Forest Service workers at the Thompson Falls airport.

The choppers can carry five loads from the landing strip to the peak in about 30 minutes, taking 10 minutes to climb the distance. The air ships circle in from the north and hover over the footings at the site while a worker unsnaps the full concrete barrel and attaches an empty container for the return flight.

Although it costs $400 an hour for the choppers to carry the cement, Cavill said it was the best method under the Eddy Peak conditions.

"We've never attempted to sling this much this high," Cavill said. "But it's cheaper over the long haul than to have mules bring it up."

The Forest Service has used mule pack trains for over 60 years, but carrying unmixed gravel, sand and lime up the rocky peak was not practical. The mules are not to be totally phased out of the Eddy Peak construction. Cavill said they will be used to carry the cinder blocks part way up the 12-mile stretch from Cherry Creek Road to the lookout site.

The mules should be packing the blocks by the first week of August, but the cabin itself will probably not be installed atop the basement before the 1982 fire season. Currently there is a mobile trailer house lookout station parked on a switchback on the west side of the mountain about 75 yards from the lookout site.

There are 12 people working the construction site with six more on the landing strip. The work detail consists of the firefighting crews from the Plains and Thompson Falls Ranger Districts, and are subject to emergency calls.

The Forest Service intends to install their own electronic equipment in the basement of the structure.

Maynard Hoff, co-chairman of the Thompson Falls TV District. said that there are no definite plans to use Eddy Peak as a possible site for a television station transmitter. Hoff said it is entirely up to the broadcasting company to initiate a new transmitter station into the Thompson Falls area.

Since there is no type of power line on Eddy Peak, any electronic equipment will probably be powered by solar energy cells.

When the lookout tower and concrete basement are both put in operation next summer, it will be one of the most luxurious stations in the two ranger districts. But the future of the mountain as a site for a television transmitting station is still extremely fuzzy.

John Hamilton was the last to man the old lookout on Eddy Peak in 1979. He was up there in 1980 in a temporary mobile trailer lookout station while the new one was being built. Craig Phillips, who has manned Eddy Peak lookout for 15 years, said there is no television transmitting station up there. He said there was one on Pat's Knob out of Plains, Clark Peak south of Thompson Falls and Green Mountain at the west end of the county

Thanks to John Hamilton and Craig Phillips for pictures and information!