were responsible for most of the fires. The Indians never 

 bothered us about their camp fires at all. While I was 

 patrolling a fire, I came across the lodge of a squaw who had 

 with her a couple of children. I talked to her about the fire, 

 and she said: "White man, he no good, he build big fire 

 and burn up everything, while squaw she build little fire and 

 stand over it." 



The railroads and their employes caused very few fires and 

 if they did, they were extinguished by their own patrolmen 

 without delay. 



For purposes of observations, lookouts are erected at con- 

 venient high places from ten to thirty miles apart. I was 

 given orders by the district ranger, Mr. Campbell, to build a 

 lookout at some suitable and advantageous point and was 

 limited to $25.00 for expenses. I selected a hill near the 

 east end of Burnside Lake, which was near some abandoned 

 lumber camps and near the county road and government tele- 

 phone line. We were supposed to let this out at contract, but 

 I knew that it was impossible to expect anybody to build a 

 tower for that price where transportation was so difficult. 

 So I got a young Finlander and the two of us put up a tower 

 in a week. We built it 30 feet high, 12 feet square at the base 

 and 4 feet square at the top. We went into the woods and 

 cut and hewed four standards about six inches square, 

 then towed these across the lake and hired a team to haul 

 them up the hill. After several unsuccessful attempts at try- 

 ing to raise the sides by the aid of a jim-pole, we abandoned 

 the idea and sawed the standards in half and built a tower 

 in two sections ; the first one 15 feet high with an 8 foot plat- 

 form and the second one the same height with a 4 foot plat- 

 form surrounded by a railing and constructed two inside lad- 

 ders to reach the platforms. The necessary boards we got 

 from the lumber camp which the lumber company was willing 

 to let us do. I found some old lime in the camps so I gave 

 the tower a coat of whitewash in which I put flour to make 

 it stick good. This lookout gave one a splendid view of the 

 towns, lakes and adjacent country for about 30 miles and put 

 us in touch with the other lookouts. 



I had the honor of taking Messrs. Cox and Tierney through 



11 



