Slash Ridge fire lookout tower gets spruced up

During a stormy week in mid-August, volunteers from Wisconsin and Forest Service Heritage Program Leader Terri Liestman refurbished the Slash Ridge fire lookout on the grounds of the Grand Encampment Museum (GEM).

The Slash Ridge fire lookout was built in the mid-1920s and was located about five miles west of Ryan Park before it was move the GEM.

Liestman said the guard station, the fire tower and other pieces of equipment are still owned by the Forest Service and GEM is a repository for those buildings and items. Tours are given of the fire tower which was in need of repair for that practice to continue.

"It wasn't to the point of safety issues yet," GEM Director Sarah Rytting said. But there were leaks in the roof and the lookout house floor was in poor condition.

"In general, there is maintenance that always needs to be done to the buildings," John Varner, the GEM Board President, said, adding that they started assessing the Forest Service buildings and structures in 2003. The assessment found the flooring was not original, the viewfinder was not in service, the windows needed new glass and reglazing, and the shutters on one side of the tower had been damaged by wind.

"This is not a restoration, this is conservation," Liestman said. We are making it structurally sound and safe ... and replacing materials to make it have the look and feel of (a) historic (tower)."

Making the tower watertight was one of the most important issues.

Improvements from the project include a new floor inside the lookout house, repair of the roof to stop leaks, reglazing the windows and refurbishment of the fire viewfinder.

The Osborne fire finder housed in the Slash Ridge tower is a classic type developed by William Osborne, a Forest Service employee from Oregon, and commonly installed in towers from 1920 to 1935. Liestman is taking in the fire finder to Denver in hopes of finding parts and restoring it to working condition.

Liestman is planning to rehabilitate more than 20 fire towers across the country by 2016, the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act. She has already finished over 15. A publication documenting the rehabilitation of the towers and their history will be available through partners of the project by the anniversary date.

A large and diverse group of volunteers have been helping Liestman restore fire towers across the country. The volunteers have come from HistoriCorps, veterans associations, the National Smokejumpers Association, Forest Service Passport in Time, retired tradesman and the Forest Fire Lookout Association.

For the Slash Ridge tower project, Liestman is appreciative of having volunteers with technical expertise instead of it being a project where she is training people how to do the work. There were seven retired carpenters from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters And Joiners of America Local 1146, in Green Bay, Wis., that traveled to Encampment for the project.

Some of the carpenters first worked with Liestman on a project in Colorado in 2004. Since then they have traveled the country, continually picking up new volunteers. Frank Schmechel, the crew leader for the project and former Unionteward, said, adding "We're just retired union carpenters that come out and we pick up friends and neighbors and we go and just have a good time." The Wisconsin crew and Liestman stayed at the Spirit West Lodge during a soggy Wyoming week.

A common theme among the volunteers was how nice people in the Valley are and how well they have been treated. Even with the rainy week they have been impressed by the beauty and access to nature in the Encampment area. The only complaints, both jokes, were that the elevator to the top of the fire tower was broken and there is not enough oxygen in the air.

"It's just absolutely gorgeous country. This museum to me is the neatest thing, how this community is behind it, everybody helping out and is behind it is wonderful," Schmechel said.

In order to maintain the old fire tower and other historic buildings owned by the Forest Service, they seek matching fund grants so that they can maximize funding for materials and support volunteers.

A major source of funding for the fire tower projects is from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NHTP). Some grants provide funding for materials others fund planning. The NTHP has ample grant funding for Wyoming and is actively looking for projects.