BLACK MOUNTAIN
Riverside County - San Bernardino National Forest - T3S-R2E-15
May 1, 1928: "Miss Rita Morris of Hemet will be in the United States forest service at the Black mountain lookout station during the coming summer season, according to an announcement this week by J.L. Cranston, chief ranger for the San Jacinto mountain area of the San Bernardino national forest. Miss Morris will be the first woman lookout in Southern California. There have been several woman forest fire lookouts in the northern part of the country." (Corona Daily Independent)
August 24, 1928: "A twenty-year-old southern California girl will soon complete her first year of service as the only feminine forest ranger in this section of the country. Miss Rita Morris maintains the Black mountain lookout in the San Bernardino National forest near San Jacinto peak, it was recently reported by automobile club of southern California representatives upon their return from the range, and she has a wide area of heavily timbered mountainside to guard against fire." (Santa Ynez Valley News)
May 31, 1929: "The only woman in forestry field service in this part of the state, Miss Rita Morris, age nineteen, has again gone on duty at the Black mountain lookout station, in the San Jacinto mountains.
Miss Morris was on duty last season at the isolated fire lookout station, perched 6000 feet high on top of a peak some distance east of the Banning-Idyllwild road. Yesterday she took over the station for the summer months, to keep a keen eye out for smoke pillars and report them to forest rangers." (Corona Daily Independent)
October 6, 1929: "Being a fire lookout--spending lonesome days and nights in a small 'chicken coop' perched on the tips of towering peaks--has been man's work for years.
But that masculine priority did not deter Rita Morris, 21-year-old mountain girl, and now she is installed in her house on stilts on the very highest point of Black Mountain, looming nearly 8,000 feet above the floor of southern California in the San Jacinto mountain range.
Those who toil up the tortuous slope of Black mountain find the plucky girl at her duties unafraid of the lonesomeness, the solitude or the dizzy heights. 'Mena,' a beautiful German police dog, is her only companion.
Food is hauled to her once every six weeks on the backs of burros, and water she gets from a spring developed by the forest service on the side of the mountain several hundred feet below.
You ask her if she ever gets lonesome, and she tells you, 'Yes and no. See those four little dots away down there?'--pointing to what appears to be 2-by-4-foot clearings thousands of feet down the steep proclivity--'well, that's been my home since I was a baby.'
'So I guess I come by this mountain work naturally; and, having all this time, I guess it has sort of eliminated that lonely feeling that grips the average person alone in the hills.'
Storms beat around the crest of the tall peak, and the station was chipped by lightning recently.
'I've gotten used to that, too,' says this member of 'the weaker sex.' " (Montana Standard - Butte)
July 26, 1930: "Reports by telephone from O.E. Custer. fire lookout on the lofty Black mountain, overlooking the northern slope of the San Jacintos on which the flames had raged for hours, said the fire appeared to be dying out late last night. Earlier in the evening the flames had topped the ridge near the Poppet Flats, where a fierce fire raged for days two years ago and burned over areas there acted as a firebreak." (Corona Daily Independent)
June 12, 1931: "Norman Harris, twenty-three-year-old Riverside forest ranger and former junior college graduate, says the Riverside Enterprise, will begin one of the lonesomest jobs of the federal forest service next week as he reports for duty as lookout atop Black Mountain, a peak of the San Jacinto range lying adjacent to the Banning-Idyllwild road.
With the exception of a short period of relief, Harris will live during the summer, day and night in the white, glassed-in stilted house. Commanding a view of hundreds of miles of mountains and valley, it plays a big part in the federal forestry department's grim game of tag with demon fire." (Corona Daily Independent)
March 16, 1934: "Three of the 10 peaks at present have lookout stations. They are Kellar, Strawberry and Tahquitz. The fourth present station, on Black mountain, will be transferred to Barton peak, above Banning." (Corona Daily Independent)
July 24, 1941: "The United States forestry man at Black mountain lookout station discovered a man through his powerful glasses setting fire to brush and weeds along the highway early Monday morning.
The lookout called the sheriff's department at Riverside and the news was dispatched to Banning quickly. Deputy Sheriff Claude McCracken and State Traffic Officers Doyle Jessup and Charles Gandy hurried to Cabazon to see if they could apprehend the culprit. The lookout man saw him get out of his car, light several fires and return quickly to the car and drive away.
The state fire truck also was sent to the scene of the fires, which they readily extinguished. So far the guilty person has not been located." (The San Bernardino County Sun)
November 29, 1962: "Black Mountain lookout station is expected to be complete very soon, the Forest Service has announced.
This station will replace the older post on Ranger peak.
All metal, the structure is of the latest design and will provide a wide view of the north side of the forest. The possibility of a formal dedication was mentioned by the service." (Desert Sentinel - Desert Hot Springs)