BRITISH COLUMBIA LOOKOUTS
FORD MOUNTAIN
Fraser - Cheam
April 26, 1960: "B.C. Forest Service will open a second fire lookout station in the Chilliwack area this season.
The new station will be at the 4,700 foot level of Ford Mountain in the Chilliwack River Valley.
Ranger W.S. Carr said tents and equipment would be flown in to the site by helicopter later this week. A permanent lookout will be built later in the summer.
The Ford Mountain lookout will be in operation the second week in May. L. Gurney of Vancouver, a UBC student will be in charge of the lookout." (The Chilliwack Progress)
The new station will be at the 4,700 foot level of Ford Mountain in the Chilliwack River Valley.
Ranger W.S. Carr said tents and equipment would be flown in to the site by helicopter later this week. A permanent lookout will be built later in the summer.
The Ford Mountain lookout will be in operation the second week in May. L. Gurney of Vancouver, a UBC student will be in charge of the lookout." (The Chilliwack Progress)
September 2, 1960: "Like to have your house delivered by helicopter?
That, in effect, is what's happening in the above two pictures. B.C. Forest Service had a special problem in building a new look-out station 4,760 feet up Ford Mountain which overlooks the upper end of the Chilliwack River valley.
Only a rugged trail scales the peak, and toting the prefabricated sections of the 14 ft. x 16 ft. structure would have proven virtually an impossibility. The rangers solved the problem by trucking the sections 14 miles up the Mount Baker Trail to a point just beyond Slesse Creek. A helicopter took them the rest of the way, airlifting the sections in stages from 10 a.m. Wednesday until about 8 p.m.
A crew loaded the sections on to the helicopter, and another four men ... including the future temporary look-out man, Ted Hale, were ready to unload at a site near the mountain peak.
The mountain crew are camping on the look-out site for some ten days until the assembly work is completed.
Then, until the season ends, Ted Hale will be on his own ... watching for fires from a vantage point which spans half of Chilliwack Lake and nearly all the Chilliwack River watershed." (The Chilliwack Progress)
Removed