BARFIELD
Merced County - Merced County Fire Department
February 12, 1948: "Fire Committee, Fire Chief and Engineer Bedesen authorized to look into question of installing fire lookout station on Barfield School House." (The Gustine Standard)
May 30, 1963: "Granted a request received from Fire Chief James Laginha for the installation of a Radio-Base at the Barfield Station Lookout." (The Gustine Standard)
June 29, 1975: "The fire station here, located approximately four miles northeast of the Ballico post office at the junction of Lee Road with East Avenue, is one of 22 strategically located facilities maintained by the Merced County Fire Department.
It is unlike the other stations, however, in that it is the only county-owned station with a fire lookout tower.
From a vantage point 230 feet above sea level and 50 feet above the rolling countryside house in a glass-walled room roughly 10-square feet, fire watchers or lookouts scan thousands of acres of tinder-dry acres in search of smoke." (Merced Sun-Star)
July 1, 1975: "The present tower and station were put into use for the 1962 fire season, the combined facility replacing both the Dickinson tower which straddled the Stanislaus-Merced County line at Keyes Road and the old Barfield Station which consisted of a small one-truck garage and a former schoolhouse converted to living quarters for the resident fireman and his family.
Barfield is one of two towers within the county, the second being a California Division of Forestry facility southwest of the San Luis Dam near Los Banos.
Because of the frequency of wildfires, the station and tower crews are on the alert and manned '24 hours a day,' according to Engineer Bill Parsley, who with Engineer Eldron Thorton keeps this facility a part of the county fire fighting network." (The Modesto Bee and News-Herald)
November 17, 1983: "The county fire department also provides Castle Air Force Base with weather information four times a day from a 65 foot tower at Barfield, used to spot fires." (The Gustine Standard)