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By Paul Fattig
Mail Tribune

A squadron of turkey vultures rides the thermals below the Rustler Peak fire lookout, floating like brown kites above the dark green forest.

"They like to play on the wind currents," observes veteran lookout Brenda Tippin from a 30-foot tower roughly a dozen air miles northeast of Butte Falls.

"We also get hawks, an occasional peregrine falcon and hummingbirds flying up here."

Each summer for more than 90 years, fire watchers have been staffing the lofty lookout perched on the 6,208-foot-elevation peak in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

"The work hasn't changed that much over the years," says Tippin, a former teacher in her 15th fire season atop Rustler Peak. "We still use the same old firefinder system we always have."

The Osborne firefinder uses a circular map and a sighting instrument invented in 1911 by William Bushnell "Bush" Osborne Jr., a young U.S. Forest Service employee.

Rustler Peak was first staffed by a fire lookout around 1912, although a structure wasn't built until 1917, the same year one was erected on Mount McLoughlin, rising to nearly 9,500 feet 13 air miles due south.

"The people who staff fire lookouts are an important part of fire detection," explains Joel King, ranger in charge of the Butte Falls and Prospect ranger districts. "They let us know when a fire is just beginning so we can attack it when it's small. The result is minimum cost and minimum resource damage."

M.J. Harvie, aviation and fire staff officer for the forest, agrees.

"We've got a lot of steep, dissected terrain here," she says. "There are other options like aircraft, but aircraft is costly. Lookouts still use the same basic tools: a pair of binoculars, firefinder, maps and a radio."

In addition to keeping an eye out for wildfires, lookouts also aid communications and serve as weather observers, she says.

"Dutchman Peak (lookout) out in the Applegate is a good early-warning device for us," she says. "The lookout is able to look down south into the Klamath. They can see what is coming up from the south where lightning often builds up first. They are an on-site weather observer for us."

Experienced fire staff like Tippin are old hands at "reading" the weather as it develops, she says, noting they are also experts at looking for "sleeper" fires following a storm.

In fact, Tippin was the first to spot and report the Boulder fire in the Sky Lakes Wilderness in the south fork of the upper Rogue River drainage following last Sunday's thunderstorm that swept the region. The fire burned some 16 acres, but was being mopped up by week's end. She also reported two smaller fires in the wilderness.

Before arriving at Rustler Peak, Tippin, 48, a 1976 graduate of Crater High School, served four fire seasons atop 9,473-foot Trinity Mountain in the Boise National Forest in Idaho. That was where she and her husband, Russell, spent their honeymoon. He and their daughter Trinity, a talented violin player, sometimes drop in for a visit when Tippin is working at Rustler Peak. The family lives in Trail.

Built in 1948, the 14-by-14-foot box which serves as a home while Tippin is watching for fires includes a propane heater, refrigerator and lamp. The building, on the National Historic Lookout Register, is well grounded for Mother Nature's pyrotechnic displays.

The first fire lookout was a fellow named William Ray Parker who shot a bear in the meadow below, hence the name Parker Meadows. Parker also was a fire lookout on top of Mount McLoughlin.

"His son came up to visit me one time — that's where I got the information," Tippin says, noting her human visitors often include folks who visit lookouts as a hobby.

Four-footed critters joining her on the mountaintop range from deer to golden-mantled ground squirrels and chipmunks.

"I have one old doe that has been hanging around ever since I first came up in 1992," she says. "She's like the mother and grandmother of all the deer on the mountain."

Two small aquariums filled with tiny fish keep Tippin company. She also has several bird books and "Go Tell It On The Mountain," a 1996 book by those who have spent time on a fire lookout, such as Edward Abbey. A chapter in the book was written by Tippin about the Rustle Peak lookout. She focused on an earthquake that struck Klamath Falls in 1993, rocking the tower like a cradle.

Depending on the snow conditions, Tippin usually begins her fire-lookout duties in late June or early July. Her work typically ends around mid October.

But in 1992, she started in late May and worked through late October.

"That was a very dry year," she says. "I can remember a time when we started getting lightning at 4 or 5 in the morning and it went on all day long.

"We were almost making ourselves dizzy spinning around," she says. "You'd see a smoke out one window, then see another out the other."

She normally stays up at the lookout for a work week, getting one or two days off. But the hot weather with thunderstorms earlier this week meant no days off.

Those thunderstorms also left work for her in the form of potential "sleepers," fires ignited by lightning which smolder for a while before taking off.

"Anytime we've had lightning it's possible for fires to pop up weeks after lightning," she says. "But in this hot weather I think those sleepers would show up sooner rather than later."

She'll be keeping an eye out.

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

Facts about fire lookouts:

Number of lookout towers staffed in Jackson and Josephine counties: 11.

Period when many lookouts were established: following major fires of 1910.

Organization that built many of the lookouts: Civilian Conservation Corps, established in 1933.

Tools used by lookouts: a pair of binoculars, an Osborne firefinder, maps and a radio.

Typical season for a lookout: Late June to mid October.