DRY LAKE MOUNTAIN
Siskiyou County - Klamath National Forest - 47N-9W-19
May 21, 1914: "Everson T. Rider was appointed lookout on Dry Lake mountain and took his post last week." (Siskiyou Daily News)
June 8, 1916: "Forest Guard S. White and E. T. Rider have been engaged brushing out trails along the Klamath river. Mr. Rider will take his post at the Dry Lake lookout in a few days." (Siskiyou Daily News)
June 15, 1916: "E. T. Rider established headquarters at the Dry Lake lookout station Tuesday for the summer." (Siskiyou Daily News)
August 3, 1916: "Forest Guard Hubbard assisted by L. D. Maplesden has completed brushing out the trail from the Maplesden ranch to the Dry Lake lookout. This will be of great convenience to stockmen and hunters." (Siskiyou Daily News)
June 21, 1917: "Deputy Supervisor Lewis Carrigan and District Ranger William Gott inspected the lookout stations on Dry Lake and Bullion mountains the last of the week. Snow is still on Dry Lake in from five to forty feet banks." (Siskiyou Daily News)
August 23, 1917: "Owing to the high cost of living, Forest Guard E. T. Rider has closed down his free boarding house at Dry Lake lookout station. Hereafter meals will be 50 cents apiece, strictly cash." (Siskiyou Daily News)
May 15, 1919: "The barn at Dry Lake Mountain lookout station is just now showing its comb above the snow. The lookout man will find plenty of snow on the mountain when he goes to his station June 1. Guards Hubbard and Fisher completed the repairs of the telephone line to the station Saturday, enjoying their work in the snow banks the last day." (Siskiyou Daily News)
June 2, 1921: "Ranger Perry Hill chauffeured a party composed of Assistant Forest Supervisor B. I. Shannon, F. M. Stoner and James Langstrath up into the Dry Lake country on the Siskiyous north of Walker Tuesday and returned the next day. The party was left and will make the Dry Lake lookout station their headquarters for a few days, and while there will take triangulations to correct an error of location of that station. Data will also be secured for the making of a vision map of the country surrounding that lookout." (Siskiyou Daily News)
February 16, 1922: "Mr. and Mrs. Perry W. Fisher returned last week from a visit to San Francisco and the bay region. Mr. Fisher has been acting as lookout for the Klamath forest service at the Dry lake station for the past few seasons." (Siskiyou Daily News)
May 17, 1923: "Bill Fisher was among the visitors here last week. He was enroute to the Dry Lake lookout station." (Siskiyou Daily News)
June 7, 1923: "Mr. Fisher left Friday for a visit with his wife on Humbug and to go on to Yreka to get provisions and move to the Dry Lake lookout for the summer." (Siskiyou Daily News)
June 28, 1923: "Mr. Fisher came down Saturday from the Dry Lake lookout station to spend his vacation on Humbug. He reports six inches of snow at the station." (Siskiyou Daily News)
July 19, 1923: "Elmer Rider of Yreka and Bert Jackson are cutting wood for the Dry Lake lookout." (Siskiyou Daily News)
August 27, 1923: "Deputy Forest Supervisor Fred Douthitt submitted a report on inspection of a portion of the Yreka District. Some items mentioned are: Dry Lake Lookout. This station is on Southern Pacific Land leased by stockmen. We should have a written lease. The improvements consist of a small shingled house, a log barn and a small pasture. (This was actually the Deer Camp Station near the lookout site.) A standard lookout house should be built. The house needs painting badly inside and out. A garbage pit should be dug and the present pile of cans by the corral disposed of. The lookout should be furnished with binoculars." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest, Vol. 3, compiled by R. Bower, USFS Retired)
March 20, 1924: "Perry W. Fisher, for 13 years a lookout at the Dry Lake station on the Siskiyous in the Klamath forest, has invented a fire locator with which fire within 20 miles can be detected and located to within 20 acres of their actual place of existence.
Fisher has applied to the United States Patent Office for a patent, which will be available shortly. Fisher has spent about 10 years in perfecting the instrument, which includes a telescope, an adjustment gear mechanism and a map of the range.
Local forest service officials have pronounced it a success, and it is understood that the two of the instruments have been ordered for use as an experiment in the Klamath forest.
Under the present system of fire control it requires the work of two lookouts at different points to get within several miles of a fire location." (Siskiyou Daily News)
May 29, 1925: "The Dry Lake Lookout, which is inside the game refuge, has been used by hunters as a campsite. Supervisor Douthitt will have to put an end to this practice." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest, Vol. 3, Compiled by R. Bower, USFS Retired)
September 26, 1929: "The forest service road crews have brought the road to within two miles of its destination at the Dry Lake lookout station this season, building seven miles of the 15 miles stretch of road this summer.
Twenty men have been employed on the construction of the road under W. W. Wooldridge. A crew of three or four men will be retained as a maintenance crew to keep the right-of-way cleared of snow banks and open for travel.
The road leaves the Klamath river highway near Oak Knoll and proceeds over the spur ranges toward the Dry Lake lookout" (The Siskiyou News)
October 17, 1929: "E. T. Rider and sons moved down from the Dry Lake lookout station Friday." (Siskiyou Daily News)
October 24, 1929: "Evan C. Rider from the Dry Lake lookout station on the Siskiyou mountains arrived in Yreka, Friday night. The station has been closed after one of the most strenuous seasons in its history. It is the most important of the government stations in Siskiyou county.
Rider says that the new road has been constructed to within a mile and a half of the station, to which point it is open to automobile traffic." (The Siskiyou News)
December 5, 1929: "Al Barnum succeeded E. L. Spencer as lookout operator at the Dry Lake lookout station."
"George Fox enjoyed a turkey dinner Thanksgiving with E. L. Spencer at Dry Lake lookout station." (The Siskiyou News)
July 10, 1930: "The new forest service road to Dry lake lookout was completed for the Fourth of July." (Siskiyou Daily News)
August 14, 1930: "The forecasting unit left Wednesday morning, after getting the early morning weather report, for the Dry Lake lookout station and sent in the report for the next 24 hours from there last night. It is expected to go to the Happy Camp district, where the fire situation is most acute, some time today." (Siskiyou Daily News)
August 28, 1930: "The new forest service road to the Dry Lake lookout will be kept open during the deer season.
It had been planned to close the road due to the fact that most of it leads through a game refuge and the forest service and the fish and game commission doubted the advisability of allowing hunter to enter the section.
However, it was finally decided to keep it open this year as an experiment. Motorists traveling the road will be required to register at Oak Knoll and to check in and out of the ranger station at Dry Lake." (Siskiyou Daily News)
September 3, 1931: "Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Fox were in charge of the dry Lake lookout station while Al Barnum motored to Yreka to attend the Pioneer Bridge dedication." (Siskiyou Daily News)
September 8, 1932: "(Fox Diary) Took material to Dry Lake Lookout and laid new mastipave on the floor. Finished 6:00 P.M. Tom Bigelow came next morning and we installed new lookout table and fire finder. I finished putting 1/4 round around the edge of the mastipave and reinstalled the telephone. Next day cleaned and waxed floor and cleaned up around the lookout." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest, Vol.4, Compiled by R. Bower, USFS Retired)
May 4, 1934: "(Fox Diary) Morford and I went to Dry Lake Lookout and installed new maps on fire finder." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest, Vol. 4, Compiled by R. Bower, USFS Retired)
April 25, 1936: "Title was accepted by the Klamath Forest for 20 acres for Dry Lake Lookout site. The site had been leased for the Lookout from the Southern Pacific Land Company." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest, Vol. 5, Compiled by R. Bower, USFS Retired)
August 23, 1941: "The Dry Lake Lookout register show only R.C. Gibson as lookout reporting on August 8. The Lookout was only manned 3 weeks." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest Vol. 5, Compiled by R. Bower, USFS Retired)
June 6, 1960: "Lookout opened by Nancy Hood. Could not get car all the way." (Chronological History of the Klamath National Forest Vol. 8, Compiled by R. Bower USFS Retired)
1971: The lookout was removed.
National Geodetic Survey
DESIGNATION - DRY LAKE LOOKOUT HOUSE
PID - MX1124
STATE/COUNTY- CA/SISKIYOU
COUNTRY - US
USGS QUAD - CONDREY MTN (1983)
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1952 (WRH)
THE STATION IS LOCATED ABOUT 20 MILES AIRLINE WEST OF HORNBROOK,
19 MILES AIRLINE NORTHWEST OF YREKA, AND 7 MILES SOUTH OF THE
CALIFORNIA-OREGON STATE LINE, ON THE HIGHEST PART OF A HEAVILY
TIMBERED MOUNTAIN.
THE LOOKOUT HOUSE IS A 14 FOOT SQUARE, WHITE, WOODEN BUILDING,
AND IS THE PROPERTY OF THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE. IT IS 59.12
FEET, 18.02 METERS WEST OF STATION DRY LAKE (USFS). THE CENTER
OF THE HOUSE WAS INTERSECTED. THE LOOKOUT HOUSE IS ABOUT
25 FEET HIGH.