MISSOULA COUNTY
MONTANA BUILDING (missoula)
Lolo National Forest
July 2, 1926: "Three fires in the Lolo forest reserve, set by lightning last Tuesday were arrested before they had time to spread and are now reported out. One was on the ridge south of O'Brien creek. The second was between Haye and O'Brien creeks and the third was behind the Mills ranch between Lolo and Dead Man's gulch. All three were spied from the roof of the Montana block by Robert W. Holland, lookout man." (The Daily Missoulian)
August 6, 1936: "In 1929, during the beginning of my first season on the Lolo, one of the principal lookouts for the district was stationed on top of the six-story Montana Building, in the center of the city. After having several fires in sight of the lookout that were reported by everyone else before the lookout saw them, it was decided to attempt to find out what was wrong before we discharged him. The lookout appeared to be wide awake and interested in spite of his record, or we would have given him his papers and investigated afterward. After digging into the matter thoroughly, it was found to be almost impossible to discern a small smoke on the surrounding hills on account of the general haze of the city and its many columns and banks of smoke raising in every quarter. Starting from scratch we moved the lookout to the top of Jumbo in the latter part of July. There, during the first two weeks, wind carried the whole outfit off down the east side of the mountain three times, causing the loss of part of our meager equipment each time. After the third time we managed to engineer a set-up that could take the wind even though it couldn't meet the unreckoned but rapidly increasing PR situation. The lookout spent most of his time packing water for visitors and repairing his emergency telephone line. He still had the city smoke on one side, where a number of out grass fires were occurring, so we finally moved him to Blue Mountain, ten miles from town. According to experts, he doesn't fit the fire plan 100 percent yet, so next season we hope to move him to Black Mountain, make him 100 percent, and set an all-time record for moving a lookout." (Author not listed -- Northern Region News)