BRITISH COLUMBIA LOOKOUTS
PILOT MOUNTAIN
Bulkley - Nechako
1913: "Pilot Mountain Look-out Station and 1 mile trail." (Report of the Forest Branch of the Department of Lands)
July 1936: "Starting out two years ago with no previous knowledge or experience in radio, we are now operating two stations equipped with transmitters and receivers. These stations are the District Office at Prince George and Pilot Mountain Lookout. What we have been able to do it should, therefore, be possible to duplicate elsewhere. This is the second summer we have relied almost altogether on radio phone for communication with Pilot Mountain Lookout." (Forest Branch Newsletter)
September 15, 1936: "Present-day children get little thrill out of hearing radio originating on the other side of the world, but then Sam Marling took our short wave receiver to the Prince George Public School, the pupils got a great kick out of hearing Lookoutman Albert Biederman broadcast from Pilot Mountain Lookout. Probably it was Biederman's Scotch accent.
Biederman himself is no mean man. He recently found it necessary on the Mountain top to compete with a bear for his water supply. The bear thought he need a bath more than Biederman needed drinking water. When this argument got hot enough and Biederman thirsty enough he popped the bear off with a 22 and is now monarch of all he surveys from his tower." (Forest Branch Newsletter)
November 1, 1946: "We think it about time some tribute was paid to Albert Biederman, who is, we firmly believe, one of the best Lookoutmen in the Service. For the benefit of posterity, you may peruse the snaps of Albert and his Lookout. Albert Biederman, first went up Pilot Mt. Lookout when it was established in 1934. He had been in and around Prince George since 1909. Originally, Albert came from Switzerland, and after working on C.N.R. construction, took up a pre-emption near Reid Lake. Albert has spotted, and accurately located smoke as far away as 70 miles, and, on the area he commands, no smoke has ever gone unspotted. His knowledge of the country is really uncanny. Just so that there will be little or no doubt, he generally reports a smoke as 'bearing 291 degrees 30'. Probably northwest of Lot 2216.' The amazing thing is that he is generally right!
Albert has quite a pre-emption up on Pilot Mountain. In the course of his twelve seasons up there, he has toppled over about 12 acres of trees which were unfortunate enough to block his view. Not satisfied with 'tree toppling', Albert grows some vegetables as well. This gentleman farming is carried out wherever he can find any soil, and, as it occurs in patches, he may show you a dozen potato plants in one spot and then a few lettuce about 100 feet away. In all, there are about a dozen of these pint-sized vegetable gardens,
Albert's radio station is very useful for relay work and call "VX2Y standing by" is well known to all the Forest Service nets.
Probably he is fond of animals, but his friendship for them was strained to the limit by reason of a bear insisting on using Albert's water supply for a bath. For about a week Albert would industriously clean out his rock hole water supply in the morning, and then the bear would take a bath in it during the evening!
Albert had trouble with D.D.T. also. Finding the mosquitoes pretty bad this year, he sprayed his cabin thoroughly, found he couldn't stand the D.D.T. and so slept outside.
Albert demonstrates the keenness of his eye and brain when he comments, upon occasions, 'Vell, I saw Prince George in 1911 and, as far as I can see' 'It's not improved much.' Ouch!" (Forest Branch News Letter)
May 31, 1977: “Vandals have struck again. A B.C. Forest Service fire lookout tower on Pilot Mountain, an isolated spot 12 miles northwest of Prince George has been damaged by what appeared to be two or three vandals.
Ironically, the door to the lookout tower was unlocked and there was nothing of value inside. Deputy Ranger Don Thompson also said that the lookout tower is open to the public from early may to the end of September.
The vandals broke several windows in the tower made of expensive tinted glass to reduce glare. Thompson estimated a cost of $220 to replace the windows in addition to man hours and wages.
Lookout man, Greg Evans, occupies the tower from early May, or earlier if the fire hazard is high, to about the end of September.
Evans keeps a check on existing burning permits, new wildfires and campers burning without a permit and radios to the Forest Service office on Ospika if something is amiss.
The vandals also forced open a trap door to the tower and loosened a support bean.
Thompson said similar acts of irrational destruction have been reported in other lookout towers, in the Prince George area.” (Prince George Citizen)
May 20, 1981: Vandalism damage caused to the lookout in the off season included a shotgun blast through a wall damaged doors and $110 panes of ¼ inch smoked glass. The only solution to help remedy this problem is to place a gate on the access road. (Prince George Citizen)
Lat. 54.047 Lon. 122.892 Elev. 991