TULARE COUNTY
TOBIAS PEAK
Sequoia National Forest
June 6, 1937: "A guard station and another public campground are located at Frog Meadows and there is a lookout station on Tobias Peak, the elevation of which is 8,200 feet. The lookout is only one mile from the road. It will be manned June 10th and visitors are welcome." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
September 17, 1944: "Miss Ruth Allison, the lookout on Tobias Peak, telephoned to the forest service headquarters here declaring open season on the hunters and asking how she could go about getting a license to shoot the shooters. She said bullets whizzed around her lonely perch atop the peak all morning." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
June 23, 1946: "In most instances the lookout stations are manned by a man and his wife, but the station on the top of Tobias Peak, in the southern part of the forest, at an elevation of 8,550 feet, two sisters are serving as lookouts. The lookouts lead a lonely life but supplies and mail are taken to the stations at regular intervals.
The relay radio station is in Tobias Peak. From this station radio reports come into headquarters here and various other stations. Through the lookouts, fires are spotted promptly but if a fire is in rugged country and far removed from ranger stations, it may make considerable headway before firefighters arrive." (Fresno Bee)
June 27, 1947: "Skillful tracking on the part of a forest service lookout located a lost four-year-old boy, Douglas Weide, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Weide of Glennville, Thursday afternoon. Mrs. Helen King, employed as a lookout at Tobias Peak, was notified that Douglas, who had been hiking with his mother, had strayed off the trail and was in danger of exposure as the temperature in the high ranges was dropping rapidly.
Mrs. Weide, whose husband is employed as a road foreman by the United States Forest Service at the Fulton Ranger Station, Glennville, notified others who organized a searching party. The situation was especially critical due to the 8305-foot elevation of Tobias Peak, and the fact that the boy had become lost on the side of the mountain that is characterized by sharp slopes and heavy brush.
Led by Mrs. King where his tracks disappeared into a particular dense thicket, searchers discovered the lad none worse for his experience except that he was cold and hungry." (The Bakersfield Californian)
July 29, 1947: "Mrs. Helen King and Mrs. Etha Rice, lookouts on Tobias Peak in the Sequoia National Forest, reported to the forest service headquarters here that a severe earthquake Sunday rolled boulders down the slope of Tobias Peak, blocking the trail to the lookout station.
They said three quakes were felt in a 24 hour period, but the third one was the most severe. The tremors were accompanied by a rumbling, grinding noise.
The lookout station is at an elevation of 8,532 feet." (Fresno Bee)
July 5, 1951: "Bea Rice and Helen King, regarded as two of the best lookouts in the west by the Forest Service, are back again this year at Tobias Peak, where they have been keeping guard over thousands of acres of mountain area since 1943. Their efficiency and devotion to duty has won wide praise from forest service personnel and others." (The Bakersfield Californian)
June 17, 1952: "The lookout on the Tobias Peak in the California Hot Springs district of the Sequoia National Forest has been installed. The opening had been delayed until yesterday about a month because the top of the peak could not be reached due to the heavy snows. The opening normally is about a month earlier." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
August 23, 1952: "Robert McGee, dispatcher at local headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service announced no further damage was registered in the forest as far as has been learned, but several lookout stations were shaken badly. Mrs. Helen King, lookout on Tobias Peak, said she was standing by the railing of the 100 foot tower, and hung on until the quake subsided." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
August 26, 1952: "Mrs. Bea Rice, lookout on Tobias Peak, reports the earth's quivering has been so constant since July 21st that she is getting so she can not sleep. Tobias Peak has several big rock slides near its summit." (The Fresno Bee The Republican)
July 16, 1976: "Tobias Peak Lookout post (in eastern Tulare County) was hit by lightning. There were no injuries, but the station's radio was knocked out." (The Bakersfield Californian)