Hail Columbia Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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First used in 1912 with a stone shelter 1/8 mile north of the summit, this cabin, built in 1914 of hand-hewn square logs, originally had a 15' pole platform tower above it. When a 16' pole live-in tower replaced it in the 1930's, the platform was removed, leaving the cabin intact. The building is also on the National Historic Lookout Register, and is a twin of the one on Bonaparte Mountain.
The structure is one of the oldest left in the Colville National Forest. C.C. Reed, an early forest supervisor, designed the fire lookout around 1914. It hasn't been used or maintained since the 1930s.
Working from original pictures and records, in 2009 and 2010 Forest Service employees and volunteers set out to restore the building using traditional techniques.
The restoration is part of a Forest Service program called Passport in Time, which connects volunteers with professionals for archaeological and historical-preservation projects.
Lookouts were part of new policies resulting from a public outcry after the region's devastating 1910 fires. They reached their golden era in the 1930s and '40s. The lookout built by Reed was meant to be temporary.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built another lookout on Columbia Mountain in the 1930s, relegating the original lookout to a storage shed.
In the 1970s, the Forest Service started using planes to detect fires and decommissioned many lookouts, including the one on Columbia Mountain.
The original, restored lookout sits on the ground. It had a platform built above the cabin with another roof.
Once the lookout is finished, it will "stay as a historic landmark" and be open for the enjoyment of skiers, hikers and hunters.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ebpx Jnyy