BASALT HILL
Merced County - California Department of Forestry
August 24, 1945: "A newly constructed fire lookout station for the Coast Range foothills is in operation about 18 miles west of here. The station is built atop Basalt Hill, the elevation of which is 1,705 feet.
Communication will be maintained constantly, via short wave radio, with the state division of forestry fire suppression crew in Los Banos. Vern Yarborough is in charge of the station." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
Communication will be maintained constantly, via short wave radio, with the state division of forestry fire suppression crew in Los Banos. Vern Yarborough is in charge of the station." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
May 11, 1946: "East Basalt lookout in south western Merced county was placed into operation today, providing additional fire detection coverage in western Merced, northwestern Madera and northern Fresno county.
Division of Forestry officials from the Madera headquarters station indicated the lookout has been under construction throughout the month and the lookout observer was moved in today. Grain harvesting was expected to begin in western Merced county next week." (Madera Tribune)
Division of Forestry officials from the Madera headquarters station indicated the lookout has been under construction throughout the month and the lookout observer was moved in today. Grain harvesting was expected to begin in western Merced county next week." (Madera Tribune)
January 29, 1948: "Before the next hazardous fire season, the California Forestry Division will have completed a new fire lookout station from which fires in the Diablo Range foothills and the San Joaquin Valley from Newman to South Dos Palos can more easily be spotted.
The new tower is being built on top of Basalt Hill, 12 miles west of Los Banos and five miles south of the Pacheco Pass Highway. The elevation at the top of the hill is 1,705 feet and the tower observation platform will be 20 feet above the ground at that point.
Until a lookout was stationed last year on Basalt Hill fires in the valley and along the north slope of the Diablo Range were located by the lookout stationed on Pacheco Peak. From that point experience indicated it was difficult to accurately determine locations of such fires because there are three high mountains between the Pacheco Peak and the views to the north and east. Particularly on windy days, when a wind would carry smoke from a fire quite a distance before the smoke became visible to the lookout, considerable time would be lost before readings could be taken and forwarded by radio or phone to fire fighting crews.
Basalt Hill, north of the three mountains, Mount Ararat, Cathedral Peak and Mariposa Peak, provides a view of the entire West Side of the San Joaquin Valley. The location also will provide another triangle of lookouts from which fires in the mountains can very accurately be determined. Pacheco Peak, 10 miles by air, and Call Mountain to the southeast are the locations of the other two points of the new triangle. A fire finder at each of the three locations is used to furnish the angle of a fire and the three lines from the three lookouts toward the fire intersect each other at the exact location of the fire. Such information is furnished to all fire fighting crews which have access to the fire.
A telephone line has been installed to the new lookout tower, hence, it will no longer be necessary for the lookout to depend on a short wave radio set for communication to the fire fighting crews regarding his first report of a fire. However, the short wave set will be retained in order to furnish communication with crews who may be on the fire lines. The lookout will be able to distinguish progress of fires from his elevated post.
Forrest Eckler will be the lookout during the approaching season. He was on the job during 1947, prior to the present construction work. Eckler and his wife have been living in a comfortably furnished cabin but soon will be able to move into the new quarters.
The tower measures 16 feet square: the ground floor will be used as a garage and the second floor will be the home for the lookout. The observation room, with glass windows on four sides, will comprise the third and top floor.
Forrest uses 6:30 binoculars and enthusiastically describes his views of the valley on clear days. Through the binoculars he has no difficulty in seeing the buildings of Gustine, Newman and Los Banos: on clear nights the lights of the City of Merced, 50 miles away, are easily seen.
The crest of Basalt Mountain is almost entirely of granite rock, many square feet being in a jumble of such rocks, some nearly as large as a one car garage. Grass grows among the rocks but the only other plant life, except for a smattering of wild flowers, are the clumps of buckthorne brush.
The tower is being built under the direction of John Rider, job foreman, and Vernon Messick, carpenter foreman, for the Bureau of Natural resources of the State of California." (The Modesto Bee)