Panoramic photos taken in 1920s and 30s

[Aerosled]

These were taken from Norse Peak in 1929. Just wondering if they are of any interest to anyone? There was a lookout point with a telephone. You can see the phone wire and insulator at 72 degrees.

Some points for refrence: Ravens Roost in the distance at 48 degrees. Fifes Peaks at 75 degrees. Goat peak at 98 degrees. The Drainage at 210 degrees is the Rainier Fork of American River. Silver creek and Crystal Mountain at 240 degrees.

 

[norsepeak]

Great old pics. My back yard.

 

[Aerosled]

Pyramid Peak 1938. Greenwater snowmobilers should appreciate the lack of roads and clear cuts.

Forestry students from Oregon State College (OSU now) and the University of Washington took these photos from over 800 Lookouts and proposed lookout sites in Oregon and Washington.

The camera, called an Osborne Recording Transit weighed 75 pounds. The lense rotated 120 degrees so three photos covered a 360 degree view.

If there was a road they drove their personal car. If no road and it was less than a four mile hike they packed the camera on their back. If more than four miles they took a pack horse.

 

[Abe Lincoln]

Somehow through all the years I’ve been playing around the woods in this area I missed the fact that there used to be a lookout on pyramid, Will have to head up this summer, Maybe try for some current corresponding panoramas

 

[Aerosled]

Little bald on the Naches RD. You can see the shadow of the photographer and camera. The initials G.B.C. are the photographer's initials. George B. Clisby. That's his car too.

There was a set of photos at each lookout and another set in the fire dispatch office at the ranger station. The lookout would give the azimuth and vertical angle to the dispatcher. The horizontal line across the photo is the zero vertical line.

The dispatcher could use a magnifying glass to zoom in on the photo and could sometimes even see the same tree that the lookout saw smoke coming from.

The garage is still there now converted to a snowmobiler's warming shelter.

 

[Aerosled]

Somehow through all the years I’ve been playing around the woods in this area I missed the fact that there used to be a lookout on pyramid, Will have to head up this summer, Maybe try for some current corresponding panoramas

That would be fun...and interesting. Here's another in that area. Calquehoun in 1938.

 

[Aerosled]

A couple years ago the Wenatchee NF had a few of the photos retaken.

One is from Devel's Slide Supplemental. It was a patrol point used by the Bald Mountain lookout. They would hike out there after a lightning storm to get a look for smokes from that vantage point. Devels Slide is just to the right of center in the photos. It is pretty interesting to me because my wife and I hike out to Devel's slide a couple times each summer to take photos. You can see in the photos how the clearings are choked with decadent timber today. It was nice and open 80 years ago.

The other is from Bethel Ridge just east of the microwave tower. It was a proposed lookout site but I don't think it was ever built. You can see recent burns in the old photo where it is dead and dieing timber in the new photo. Getting ready for another fire.

 

[norsepeak]

Excellent pics, interesting to see what it used to look like compared to now.

 

[need to know]

Old Pics

that is so cool, a simpler time when all the leaf lickers did not tell everyone how to live.

 

[volcano buster]

I notice more trees now than in 1938. Not exactly the message I hear on the news.

 

[Aerosled]

Darland Mountain, up the Ahtanum on 10/6/1934. Note that they were taken the same day as Sedge ridge in my next post. The initials R.R. in the lower right indicate the photographer on Darland was Robert Reinhardt. He would have taken a his own car or a Forest Service truck up to Darland.

The initials on the Sedge Ridge photos are R.R.S. for Reino R. Sarlin. As you can see he took a Saddle horse and a pack horse to Sedge Ridge.

 

[Aerosled]

Sedge Ridge, up the Ahtanum, 10/6/1934. The same day Robert Reinhardt took the photos on Darland. There was no road to Sedge Ridge LO then so R.R.S. (Reino R. Sarlin) took horses.

Darland Mountain and Sedge Ridge were both Washington Department of Forestry (Now the DNR) Lookouts. The US Forest Service took all the photos and included State Lookouts that supplementd the coverage of the National Forest. That's why it says Snoqualmie NF on these.

 

[norsepeak]

Excellent pictures, the areas you've shown look a lot different now.

 

[Aerosled]

Bald Mountain 1934. The first two are from the patrol point over at Devils Slide. The one looking north from Bald Mountain is what the modern day jeepers call Funny Rocks and Moonrocks.

 

[Aerosled]

These are for the Blue Mountain folks. Diamond Peak, about 25 miles southeast of Pomeroy on the NE Boundary of the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, 1935.

The Views to the southeast and southwest are into the wilderness. The Retake comparison was taken in 2014.

The drainage in the SE view and the reatke is looking up the headwaters of Crooked Creek.

 

[Aerosled]

Clearwater, in the Blue mountains about 20 miles SE of Pomeroy. These were taken by Albert Arnst on 10/8/1935. The same day he took the photos from Diamond Peak. The 2016 retakes are by Eric Willhite http://www.willhiteweb.com/

 

[Aerosled]

A couple from Southwest Washington. My wife and I lived in Carson, WA in the early '70s. We snowmobiled a few times up in the Yacolt Burn. Does anyone still ride that area?

We took the 41 road from the Wind River ranger Station and went west about 12 miles to Lookout Mountain and the old Summit Guard station and lookout area.

The Gifford Pinchot NF was called the Columbia NF. The old photos taken in 1937 show the Yacolt burn. It burned several times covering about 250,000acres. The first time was 1902, some more in 1916 and the last time in 1927. I suspect the area in the old photos burned in the
1927 fire.

In the old Summit Guard station Lookout photos you can see the old summit guard station on the near ridge at 27 degrees. In the Lookout Mountain 1937 photo looking north the peaks left to right are Saint Helens, Rainier and Adams.

The Lookout Mountain retakes in 2017are by Eric Willhite http://www.willhiteweb.com/