SIERRA COUNTY
VERDI PEAK
Tahoe National Forest
September 29, 1939: "Mr. and Mrs. Loren Walker are home from Hobart Mills, where he was a forest service lookout during the summer." (The Folsom Telegraph)
November 12, 1958: "Snow last weekend may have ended the season's work for the lone woman fire spotter at the 8400-foot lookout station on Verdi peak, but she had already been at her post more than month longer than usual.
Miss Lane Endicott, who mans the Verdi lookout only a few miles west of Reno, usually shuts up shop on the peak in the first week of October, but dry weather this year extended the period. This is her third season on the job.
There are 49 lookouts in the Tahoe Range, mostly manned by husband and wife teams, and the Verdi lookout which Miss Endicott staffs by herself is the most isolated of the string.
Miss Endicott has a high record this year for spotting fires by the way, with 10 to her credit. From her vantage point she can observe a circled area of 35 to 45 miles.
The petite brunette took up the unusual occupation after being in many different services of the forest department in Washington, D.C., and on Mt. Fremont.
Asked about what she does with her spare time, Miss Endicott said, "There really isn't any spare time, but there is a great deal of opportunity to meditate on future work after the fire season is over."
She has a number of musical compositions to her credit, including a ballad on looking down at Reno from a mountain peak, and has tried her hand at writing fiction but feels her job is too technical to provide much material." (Reno Evening Gazette)
October 20, 1961: "Mrs. John Picetti and children spent Saturday with Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Fischer at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lookout Station atop Verdi Peak." (Mason Valley News)