SISKIYOU COUNTY
BULLION MOUNTAIN
Klamath National Forest
47N-8W-2
47N-8W-2
January 24, 1914: "The most ingenious fire lookout station on California forests during the current fire season is said to be the home which Forest Guard Howard Tyrrell built for himself in the top of a yellow pine on Bullion mountain, Klamath National Forest, 100 feet above the ground.
Tyrrell was assigned to the Bullion mountain lookout by the Forest Service in co-operation with the California Fruit Growers Supply Association, the Association furnishing him with supplies and subsistence and the Forest Service paying his salary.
Tyrrell located his tree home soon after the opening of the fire season. He erected sixt5y feet of ladders up the trunk of a giant pine, from which point limbs afforded him an opportunity to climb fifteen feet higher. Here in the forks, 75 feet from the ground, Tyrrell built a platform about eight feet square upon which he spreads his bed and spends each night during the fire season.
For a day lookout he climbed 25 feet further up and erected a smaller platform where he sits during the day. Five or six feet above this second platform the forks of the tree dwindle to a diameter of about five inches each. These tops Tyrrell sawed off, and on them he spiked a beam where he clambers when smoke appears and sights his fire with an absolutely uninterrupted view of the surrounding forest.
A number of visitors have climbed to the first platform, and three or four have made the second. No one but Tyrrell, however, has ascended to the crosspiece in the treetop.
Next year this enterprising fire guard expects to build a small house with glass sides on the lower platform, where the telephone is hung. With cooking apparatus installed. Tyrrell's trips to earth will be rare.
'It gets a little lonesome up there once in awhile,' said Tyrrell, 'but there's plenty of squirrels and birds around. Maybe another year I'll learn how to eat pine cones and sing.' " (Pacific Rural Press)
Tyrrell was assigned to the Bullion mountain lookout by the Forest Service in co-operation with the California Fruit Growers Supply Association, the Association furnishing him with supplies and subsistence and the Forest Service paying his salary.
Tyrrell located his tree home soon after the opening of the fire season. He erected sixt5y feet of ladders up the trunk of a giant pine, from which point limbs afforded him an opportunity to climb fifteen feet higher. Here in the forks, 75 feet from the ground, Tyrrell built a platform about eight feet square upon which he spreads his bed and spends each night during the fire season.
For a day lookout he climbed 25 feet further up and erected a smaller platform where he sits during the day. Five or six feet above this second platform the forks of the tree dwindle to a diameter of about five inches each. These tops Tyrrell sawed off, and on them he spiked a beam where he clambers when smoke appears and sights his fire with an absolutely uninterrupted view of the surrounding forest.
A number of visitors have climbed to the first platform, and three or four have made the second. No one but Tyrrell, however, has ascended to the crosspiece in the treetop.
Next year this enterprising fire guard expects to build a small house with glass sides on the lower platform, where the telephone is hung. With cooking apparatus installed. Tyrrell's trips to earth will be rare.
'It gets a little lonesome up there once in awhile,' said Tyrrell, 'but there's plenty of squirrels and birds around. Maybe another year I'll learn how to eat pine cones and sing.' " (Pacific Rural Press)
Gone