I was just reading Hiking Oregon's History, by William Sullivan.  He writes about a Fire Lookout located on the summit of Mt. Hood (!), and it sounds amazing.  It was built in 1915, and blew down in a storm in 1941.  It was built and staffed during the summer by men who apparently thought little of climbing up the mountain on a regular basis.

Sometimes I think that the people who first moved out here must have been made of muscle and audacity.  Impressive and inspiring.  They make Bear Grylls look like a tenderfoot.

Does anyone have any historical photos of this tower?  Are there any good books on Mt. Hood history that might have a few photos?  I'd love to see what it looked like.  I've done some googling for "mt. hood summit tower" and such, but I get too many false leads. 

Thanks,
Charley

I have a neat old book (I think Splintercat does too?) called "Mount Hood -A Complete History" by Jack Grauer. I thumbed through it but didn't see specifically that tower. The book is awesome though, tons of photos from early 1900's of Mt. Hood's pioneers and buildings, as well as stories and stats. I bought it at a Mazama sale, maybe their library has more copies, or other libraries?

 

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Jane Garbisch - Site Sherpa

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"We are here on the planet only once.... might as well get a feel for the place."
- Annie Dillard

http://www.firelookout.com/or/mthood.html

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“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.”
~John Hope Franklin

Great link!  Those pictures are incredible...  I love the mountaintop apparel!

-aaron

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"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." -Lao Tzu

Zombie, I liked that link too. It inspired me to cruise the 'net and look what else I found.

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/loc/mt+hood.html

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“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.”
~John Hope Franklin

Uhhh...now THIS is awesome!

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/caps4/00373.html

And this is crazy!

http://www.historicphotoarchive.com/capsmonner/monner2673.html

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"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." -Lao Tzu

I'm glad you brought that up, Jane - Jack Grauer has published some updates that I hadn't seen before (they are self-published, and hard to find). I found one at the Mountain Shop a few weeks ago, and it carries forward to the present in terms of mountain history. The original is still the classic, though!

Tom

Thanks for the links!  I wonder what kind of temperatures they had overnight on the summit.  And I wonder why that rime on the side of the structure didn't just drag it over the side.  I guess, in the long run, the structure did fall over, but it survived so long.
Awesome. . .
Charley

Splintercat:

I'm glad you brought that up, Jane - Jack Grauer has published some updates that I hadn't seen before (they are self-published, and hard to find). I found one at the Mountain Shop a few weeks ago, and it carries forward to the present in terms of mountain history. The original is still the classic, though! Tom

I have consistently seen Jack Grauers book at Powell's. That's where I got mine.