Forum Index > Pacific NW History > Was there a L.O. above Dorothy?
 Reply to topic
Previous :: Next Topic
Author Message
Kim Brown
Member
Member


Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
Kim Brown
Member
PostSun Jul 26, 2015 8:21 pm 
We noticed an insulator in a tree on the trail to Bear Lake from Dorothy yesterday. Lookout? Patrol cabin somewhere back there?

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Riverside Laker
Member
Member


Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 2818 | TRs | Pics
Riverside Laker
Member
PostSun Jul 26, 2015 8:32 pm 
Closest lookouts I know about are Proffits Point, Sobieski, Cleveland, Bare, Sawyer, Granite. It doesn't make much sense to run telephone lines to any of those via those lakes. But perhaps there was another lookout I've missed.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kim Brown
Member
Member


Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
Kim Brown
Member
PostSun Jul 26, 2015 9:02 pm 
Oh, and it was brown on one side, white on the other. Don't know that I've noticed that in other insulators before.
insulator, bear lake
insulator, bear lake
Jim thinks that someone was just playing around and hauled a ladder up there and installed one just to freak people out. I didn't see any other insulators, but that doesn't mean more aren't there. I only counted 2 on the original Green Mtn LO trail, but the 2nd time I visited I stopped counting at 28 - so either that guy is really doing a lot of freaking people out, or sometimes I see 'em and sometimes I don't. I'll go back this fall to check it out. I was so tired by then yesterday (still sick from 2 wks ago) that I was suffering and wasn't on my game, which isn't that great in the first place. I'd think if it were for a patrol cabin at Snoqualmie Lake, any wire would be from the other side....?

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Snowbrushy
Member
Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2003
Posts: 6670 | TRs | Pics
Location: South Sound
Snowbrushy
Member
PostMon Jul 27, 2015 8:53 am 
Maybe here? http://www.firelookout.com/wa.html

Oh Pilot of the storm who leaves no trace Like thoughts inside a dream Heed the path that led me to that place Yellow desert stream.
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
borank
Lake dork



Joined: 16 Dec 2001
Posts: 640 | TRs | Pics
Location: Evert
borank
Lake dork
PostMon Jul 27, 2015 9:54 pm 
IIRC from a trip to Pugsley Lk last century, there is quite a bit of ancient wire along the west side of Dorothy Lk. Interesting too that Harry Majors in his book Exploring Washington says there was a fish hatchery at Dorothy ca 1915.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kim Brown
Member
Member


Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
Kim Brown
Member
PostTue Jul 28, 2015 10:17 am 
Thanks Lake Dork! This is good information, and the mention of a hatchery gives me even more search options. I envision a trip to WA state archives.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Lookout Billerina
Member
Member


Joined: 30 Sep 2014
Posts: 268 | TRs | Pics
Lookout Billerina
Member
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 9:53 am 
The route up the Taylor and on over past Bear is just so logical. With stations at Skykomish and North Bend, I would be amazed if they didn't have connecting telephone lines. It was not uncommon at all for area lookouts to be inter-connected; i.e., not just 1-way lines from single LO's to the nearest ranger station. What's more, it was also common for lines to function purely as back country phone links to the ranger stations, with periodic telephones mounted in steel boxes on a tree. If you doubt that a line from Skykomish to North Bend was a potential, take a look at the "street signs" just east of North Bend as you head up the Middle Fork. That green sign that says something like "SE Lake Dorothy Road" says it all. King County had a potential road through that pass on their books - only the ALWA put an end to that. "Interesting too that Harry Majors in his book Exploring Washington says there was a fish hatchery at Dorothy ca 1915." Yup Art, Dorothy was one of the first remote egg-taking stations for eastern brook. There was also a collection weir and trap at Lake Hancock in those old "County" days, long before the Game Dept. was created by public Initiative in 1933. I doubt there was a "hatchery" at Dorothy, although a rack/weir/trap might have been linked to some egg eyeing troughs, then the eggs could be packed down after they had eyed. That was the program at Twin Lakes (Lk Wen) for a while as well.

zimmertr
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Randito
Snarky Member



Joined: 27 Jul 2008
Posts: 9495 | TRs | Pics
Location: Bellevue at the moment.
Randito
Snarky Member
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 10:06 am 
Also note that in the 1960's the FS had plans to build a road past Lake Dorothy and Dear and Bear Lakes and connect to the Taylor river road. Thankfully the ALW put a stop to that.
Quote:
However, it was the plans of the Snoqualmie National Forest to expand timber sales and build a road up the Miller River valley to Lake Dorothy and then onto the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River to the city of North Bend that started a grassroots campaign to remove the unilateral decision making away from the Forest Service.[3] In addition, there was much criticism by conservationists that recreational usage should not be exclusive to the upper alpine terrain as the regional forestry leadership advocated saving the lower forests for possible timber sales

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Brian Curtis
Trail Blazer/HiLaker



Joined: 16 Dec 2001
Posts: 1696 | TRs | Pics
Location: Silverdale, WA
Brian Curtis
Trail Blazer/HiLaker
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 10:41 am 
Lookout Billerina wrote:
I doubt there was a "hatchery" at Dorothy, although a rack/weir/trap might have been linked to some egg eyeing troughs, then the eggs could be packed down after they had eyed. That was the program at Twin Lakes (Lk Wen) for a while as well.
That's still the program at Twin Lakes! I don't think they eye them on site anymore, though. But they still go up there and and collect CT in traps on the inlets and fertilize the eggs on site.

that elitist from silverdale wanted to tell me that all carnes are bad--Studebaker Hoch
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kim Brown
Member
Member


Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
Kim Brown
Member
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 10:55 am 
Yah, every time I head out around there I think about what might have been re the Lk Dot highway. There's a concrete bridge on the Taylor Rv trail that was meant to be a part of it. I did not think about the wires not being to a LO only. I have read autobiographies from old-timers who wrote about carrying heavy phone boxes on their backs and having to search for a wire to strike for contact with the outside world, so I guess I should have figured that out on my own. I would like to have seen them install the wires; no doubt they just carried spools straight up slope..? I like to think I would love a life like that, but in reality, I would probably have lasted only 5 minutes. Andy Holland, Miner's Ridge (1930), suffered from appendicitis all summer long during his first gig up there and didn't want to disappoint his boss, so suffered it out (luckily it never ruptured; he didn't know what it was at the time). But the worst thing that happened to Andy was that some nice backpacking ladies did him a "favor" by making him a pan of brownies while he was out patrolling - but in doing so, they had unwittingly used his entire summer supply of sugar and chocolate.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Magellan
Brutally Handsome



Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 13116 | TRs | Pics
Location: Inexorable descent
Magellan
Brutally Handsome
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 11:39 am 
Very interesting history here.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kim Brown
Member
Member


Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
Kim Brown
Member
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 9:40 pm 
I contacted the Skykomish RD; they know a bit about their district. There were fishing cabins at the west end of the lake way back when. I'll dig up more information here and there. Interesting stuff.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Ski
><((((°>



Joined: 28 May 2005
Posts: 12797 | TRs | Pics
Location: tacoma
Ski
><((((°>
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 9:57 pm 
just a note: as noted above, and as was noted by Rod and another member in another thread (Olympic Trail Shelters thread??) - NFS had phone wire strung up all over the place. on the insulators: I've seen brown, white, and brown/white.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kim Brown
Member
Member


Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 6900 | TRs | Pics
Kim Brown
Member
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 10:04 pm 
I read somewhere (probably on this forum) that insulators were originally white, but they were used as target practice, and so they then used brown ones because they were better hidden. That doesn't explain the 2-tone ones, though. Maybe some guy ordered a box of them because they looked cool in the Sears & Roebuck catalog. So yeah, thanks Ski; I'll check out that wonderful Olympics thread about the phone wire. Makes sense; they walked & rode all over the place, and a communication system would have been created. Re the cabins at Lk Dorothy, I wonder if they were private in-holdings that were eventually purchased.

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Ski
><((((°>



Joined: 28 May 2005
Posts: 12797 | TRs | Pics
Location: tacoma
Ski
><((((°>
PostWed Jul 29, 2015 10:25 pm 
> start here <edit - OOPS. actually the post just above that one. > <edit again: when I found the statement in the Reed Marshall interview about using the phone to call Promise Creek from the camp at Alta Creek, it became pretty clear they had wires hanging all over the place. >

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
   All times are GMT - 8 Hours
 Reply to topic
Forum Index > Pacific NW History > Was there a L.O. above Dorothy?
  Happy Birthday speyguy, Bandanabraids!
Jump to:   
Search this topic:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum