USFS plans to move historic Tahoe fire lookout
This U.S. Forest Service fire lookout may be moved to Spooner Summit. Photo/USFS
By Kathryn Reed
Technology has almost rendered fire lookouts obsolete. Still, there is one from the 1930s that is going to get a new lease on life in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
The U.S. Forest Service wants to move the Zephyr Point lookout to White Hill, which is above the agency’s firehouse at Spooner Summit. This is where the old White Hill ski lift was located.
The wooden structure was built in 1932. It was staffed through the late 1960s. After that fire crews would go to the lookout when thunderstorms rolled though to see if lightning had ignited a fire.
More recently telecommunication equipment was stored at the lookout, but that use has since ended.
“The current location is a somewhat urban industrial location. At one time it was in a remote spot on a mountain,” John Maher, USFS heritage resources program manager, told Lake Tahoe News. “Now it’s on private property and we don’t have easy access to it.”
In 1997, the fire lookout was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One reason for not just dismantling the lookout is because of the historical significance.
Maher described the lookout as “in better than moderate condition, not excellent condition.”
There are strict guidelines as to improvements that can be made based on its being a historical structure.
“We also want it to be functional,” Maher said. “It would be used probably during thunderstorms to look for lightning-started fires.”
Plus, moving the lookout will allow public access. No new trails are planned. However, the current road would likely need to be improved so Forest Service employees could access it.
Maher said it’s possible the snowmobile tours out of Zephyr Cove could use the lookout as a stop.
The cost to build a foundation, move the lookout and add interpretive signs is estimated to be a little more than $10,000. Not all of the money is in hand. Once the forest supervisor has signed the environmental assessment it is predicted that money could become available.
The Forest Service also plans to work with the National Historic Lookout Register, which enlists volunteers to help with such relocation projects.
The other lookout in the basin, but also is not staffed, is at Angora on the South Shore.
The Forest Service is studying the environment aspects of the project now. Comments will be taken until Dec. 13. More info is available online. Depending on the comments received, a decision by the forest supervisor could be made by mid-February.
It was actually staffed well into the 70s. When I worked for LTBMU we used to swing by there occasionally for various reasons. It was funny because it was in the middle of all these high end houses. There were definitely some interesting views beyond the forest. Since it had a better radio and clear view, they also used it to relay and supplement dispatch.
“it’s now on private property?” Did USFS sell the land, but retain ownership of the fire lookout building?
Actually it was well into the 80s…..likewise it doesn’t make sense that the lookout is actually “on private property.”
Plus moving an historic building is certainly considered an adverse impact to an historic structure (especially a lookout in that where it was located is so linked to it’s significance). Except for the PNW, the FS doesn’t seem to have a very good track record of protecting it’s fire lookouts as historic resources. Could this proposal mainly be because the local home owners (who certainly are some what connected in that neighborhood) don’t like folks walking up there to look around?? As an overnight, short term recreation rental (how obsolete lookouts are used in the PNW) both Zephyr and Angora would be about as desirable as any in the nation.
I have always wondered about the status of the lookout. Many times I thought Hmmmm… wonder if they want to sell it, probably one of the best lake view lots anywhere. Now I know. Somehow it sounds like $10,000 is a gross underestimate of the cost to move it. Seems to me that would just be cost of the new foundation alone. The lead paint removal that would be required for public use would also be somewhere that amount also. To remove it and restore it to its former historical utilitarian grandeur sounds to me closer to $500,000 easy. Sounds more like a “Friends of the Fire Lookout” project to me with an infusion of lots of public cash.
Now if only we knew what was going on with the old Black Bart Post Office. (It would be a killer location for a mini-mart. But please, no garish corporate backlit signs.)