TAHQUITZ PEAK
Riverside County - San Bernardino National Forest - T5S-R3E-9
January 24, 1921: "When the forest lookout on Tahquitz peak, in the San Jacinto district, California, was incapacitated this fall Mrs. Reindorp, wife of the district ranger, donned khaki, loaded blankets and grub on a horse, and took over his duties, holding the lookout post for more than a week. This is one of the incidents reported to the United States Department of Agriculture through the forest service." (The Evening Herald - Klamath Falls, Oregon)
June 6, 1925: "Clayton M. Teeters, the veteran lookout man of this district, will again hold vigil from the lookout station on Tahquitz Peak." (Corona Daily Independent)
May 10, 1928: "The board this week agreed to raise the salary of C.M. Teeters, who has charge of the lookout station on top of Taquitz peak to $130 a month for the period of about six months during which the lookout watches for fires in the Riverside county mountain areas. His work was highly praised by Forest Supervisor Nash-Boulden, who was at the meeting." (Corona Daily Independent)
July 13, 1928: "When Charles M. Teeters, from his lookout station on Tahquitz peak, signaled to the district ranger yesterday that fires were raging in the Santa Rosa brush lands, twenty men from the county prison camp and a fire-fighting crew of twenty men from Hemet were rushed to the scene." (Corona Daily Independent)
August 24, 1928: "Fred Baird of Corona, county fire warden, was called to Lakeview yesterday to investigate a column of smoke which the lookout on the Taquitz mountain reported rising near that place." (Corona Courier)
November 23, 1932: "Four hundred men today were battling a brush fire which started on the slopes of San Jacinto mountains late yesterday. More than 5000 acres had been denuded today, C.C. Prindell, lookout at Tahquitz peak, estimated." (San Mateo Times)
October 16, 1936: "On August 13, Wayne Fidroof and Ed Musselman reported to Paul Kemp, the Tahquitz Peak Lookout, that they had seen a California condor in the vicinity of Tahquitz Peak. Fidroof, who apparently has had considerable training in ornithology, said that the bird had the markings of a condor.
On August 19, and again on September 9, Kemp sighted a bird that he believes to be the California condor as it had markings characteristic of the bird. Both times Kemp saw the bird rise from a rocky crag about one quarter of a mile south of his lookout and fly over the tower to Wellman Cienega on the San Jacinto Peak trail.
This is the only verification that I have on this bird, but if it is a California condor, it probably moved in on the San Jacinto district with hope of picking up remnants that might have been left of the district ranger and his protection force after the evacuation of the assistant supervisor's training school. - Horton - San Bernardino -- (California Ranger)
May 21, 1938: "D.D. Mitchell has been assigned as lookout man on Tahquitz peak in the San Jacinto mountains for the fire season, according to Forest Supervisor William V. Jones of San Bernardino.
The Tahquitz peak station is handled cooperatively by the San Bernardino national forest and Riverside county." (The San Bernardino County Sun)
September 5, 1969: "Newlyweds Cliff and Gayle Dorn picked a forest-fire lookout cabin atop 8,828-foot Tahquitz Peak for their honeymoon.
They're smoke-watchers for the U.S. Forest Service for the duration of the fire season in Southern California.
'At first,' says 19-year-old Gayle, 'I thought it would be creepy--living up on a mountain away from everybody.
'But now I like it, it seems everybody finds their way up to our place. Hikers come to visit us at all hours of the day.'
She and Cliff, 24, were married in April and began their job in May. They look for signs of fire--and help lost hikers. So far, Gayle estimates 3,000 have climbed the five-mile, winding path to 'our mountain paradise.'
She was interviewed by telephone at a ranger station in Idylwild when she came down for supplies. Cliff remained at the lookout station, out of touch with the rest of the world except by emergency radio.
'It's sort of primitive life on our mountain,' she said Thursday. 'We don't have a telephone and there's no electricity. We have a gas refrigerator and gas lights. The only way down to civilization is by foot--unless you're lucky enough to hitch a ride on someone's horse.'
The couple met through a mutual fried just five weeks before they were married.
The fire season could last until November or December, depending on the weather. 'We'll stay until then and decide what we'll do next afterward,' Gayle said.
Gayle thinks living in the wilderness with her husband "24 hours a day, 7 days a week" has given them some advantages over other newlyweds.
'In a short time,' she said, 'we've really learned to know each other well.'
A short pause,
'Well,' she added, 'I guess we've had time to argue a lot more too.'
Do they ever have any in-law trouble?
'Not usually,' Gayle laughed. But one day there was Cliff''s mother coming up the trail with a bundle of groceries. She said she just
happened to be in the neighbor." (Fresno Bee)