Show fay LL alone 6 feet above sea level on top v i of klamath peak in county call a young woman tor months at a time during the prevalence of the forest fire season last year did her part and did T it well in the effort the government Is E making to preserve the forests of the coun try from destructive flames which have for years past caused an annual property loss T 25 and cost each year an average of 75 luman beings she Is miss haelle M daggett and she Is the only roman lookout employed by the forest service ai boon as the season of forest alrea begins this year miss daggett will again be found at her post posted in her small cabin on top of the mountain leak it will be her duty as last year to scan the rast forest in every direction as tar as bhe can see ay naked ee and telescope by day for smoke and or tha red glare of fire by night and report the result of her observations by telephone to the main effice of the forest patrol miles and miles away few women would care for such a job fewer still ifould seek it and still less would ba able to stand he strain of the infinite loneliness or the roar of he violent storms which sweep the peak or the jenace of the wild beasts which rom the heavily hooded ridges miss daggett lo wever not only eagerly longed or the station but secured it y itter considerable exertion and low she declares that she en y y oyed the life and was intensely interested in the work she had 0 do F perhaps the call of the wild Is at n her blood her parents are ilo her father john dag ett having crossed the isthmus I 1 t fsr n 1852 and her mother a mere yaw aby being taken across the N from kentucky the same fear miss daggett was born at he klamath mine in the shadow t the peak on which the lookout la perched she spent of her early years out of boors riding and tramping over be hills with her brother so that ca t was natural that with her in cwm ZW orn love of the forests ahe should be anxious to take part in he fight which the forest service nen are making tor the krotec lon of the forests debarres debarred De barred by sex however from the kind f work which most of the ce men are doing she saw no until lookout stations vere established and then after barnest secured the ilace she held so well some soon became to feel as she expresses it that t of the service men pre lookout Is an ounce of prevention then the hated that after a few days of are three dally reports to be sent to the distri ife on the peak she would tele headquarters in town to prove that hone that she was frightened he by Is serene and extra reports it they are not w loneliness and the danger but lastly a little very little housework to do ahe t 1 i was j full j of pluck i j and high not a very busy day as judged by our mode ausec me nuis which constitute the salmon river watershed and as she made her dally reports by telephone she more in love grew more and with her work even when the tele phone wires were broken and when for a long time she was cut off from communication with the world below she did not lose heart she not only filled the place with all the skill which a trained man could have shown but she was re appointed when the fire season opened a few weeks ago miss diggetts daggetts Dag getts earliest recollection she says abounds with smoke clouded summer daya and fires that wandered over the country at their own sweet will unchecked unless they happened to interfere seriously with someone s claim or woodpile when they were usually turned off by backfiring and headed in another direction to continue their mischief until they either died for lack of fuel or were quenched by the fall rains consequently she grew up with a fierce hatred of the devastating fires and welcomed the force which arrived to combat them but not until the lookout stations were installed did there come an opportunity for her to join what had up to that time been a man s fight although ehe and her sister had frequently been able to help on the small things such as extinguishing spreading camp fires or carrying supplies to the firing line then through the liberal mindedness and courtesy of the officials in her district she was given the position of lookout at eddy a gulch station in the fourth district of the klamath national tor est and entered upon her work the first day of june 1913 with a firm determination to make good for she knew that the appointment of a woman was rather in the nature of an expert and naturally felt that there waa a great deal due the men who had been willing to give her the chance it was a swift change in three days from san francisco civilization and sea level to a solitary cabin nearly 6 feet elevation and three hours hard climb from anywhere hut in spite of the fact that almost the very first question aaker by everyone Is isn t it awfully lonesome up there miss daggett declares that never for a moment after the first half hour following her sisters departure with the pack animals when she had a chance to look around did she feel the slightest longing to retrace her steps while she had been on the peak before in her early rambles she had never thought ot it as a home one of her pet dreams had always been of a log cabin and here was an ideal one brand new the sum mer before and as cozy indoors as could be wished while outdoors all outdoors was a grand er door yard than any estate in the land could boast it was a prospect of glorious freedom from four walls and a time clock klamath peak Is not really a peak in the conventional vent ional sense of the word but it Is rather the culmination of a long series of ridges running up from the watersheds of the north and south forks of the salmon river its central location in the district makes it however an ideal sp t for a station alsa daggett describes it as the hub of a wheel with the lines of ridges as spokes and an unbroken rim of peaks encircling around it come eternally snow capped and most all of them high er than itself to the east there is a shoulder of snowy shasta and an unseen neighbor lookout on eagle peak to the south the high jagged edge of trinity county and just discernible with the glasses a shining new cabin on packers peak to the west behind orleans mountain with its over watchful occupant a faint glimpse of the shining pacific shows with a favorable sunset and all in between is a seeming wilderness of ridges and gulches making up what Is said to be one of the finest continuous views in the whole of the west bird and animal life were also very plentiful says miss daggett filling the air with songs and chatter coming to the doorstep for food and often invading the cabin itself I 1 positively de dined owning a cat on account of its destructive intentions on small life a pair of owls proving satisfactory as mice catchers besides being amusing as neighbors as well frequently deer fed around the cabin in the evenings and there was a small bear down by the spring besides several larger ones whose tracks I 1 often saw on the trail in addition to these a couple of porcupines helped keep me from becoming lonesome by using va alous means to find a way into the cabin at night all these animals being harmless it had never been my custom to carry a gun in so called west ern fashion until one morning I 1 discovered a big panther track out on the trail and then in deter ence to my family s united request I 1 buckled on the orthodox weapon which had been accumulating dust on the cabin shelf and proceeded to be picturesque but to no avail as the beast did not again return at many of the stations the question of wood and water Is a serious one on account of the elevation but I 1 was especially favored as wood lies about in all shapes and quantities only wait ing for an ax to convert it into suitable lengths while water unlimited could be melted from tho snow banks which lingered until the last of july although it did seem a little odd to go tor water with a shovel in addition to a bucket later the supply was packed in canvas sacks from a spring about a mile away in the timber this was al ways a job sought by anyone coming up on horseback and thanks to the kindly efforts of the guards who passed that way and my few visitors it was always easy to keep the pot boiling my sister brought up my supplies and mall from home every week a distance of nine miles the dally duties of life at miss daggett s look out are small merely consisting of an early morning and late evening tramp of half a mile to the point of the ride where the trees obscure the north view of the cabin and a constant watch on all sides for a trace of smoke A watch of this nature soon becomes an instinct according to miss daggett for she found herself often awaken ing in the night for look around in fact she w he they also serve who only stand and wait and there la always the great map spread out at ones feet to study by new lights and shadows while waiting and the ever busy phone with its numerous calls which must be kept within hearing so that one cannot wander far that phone miss daggett says with its grad bally extending feelers made her feel exactly like a big spider in the center of a web with the fires for flies and those fires were certainly treated to exactly the speedy fate of the other unworthy pests through all the days up to the close of the term on november 6 when a light snow put an end to all danger of fires she felt an ever growing sense of responsibility which finally came to be almost a feeling of proprietorship resulting in the desire to punish anyone careless enough to set fires in her door yard the utter dependence on the telephone was brought vividly to miss Daggett fl mind one att ernson eoon after her arrival when an extra heavy electrical storm which broke close by caused one of the electrical arresters on the out side of the cabin to burn out quite contrary to precedent and she was cut off from the world until the next day when someone from the office came up in haste to find out the cause of the silence and set things aright they often joke now she bays about expecting to find her hidden under a loe for safety but it gasn wasn t quite so run ny at the time there seems however to be very little actual danger from these storms in spite of the fact that they are very heavy and numerous at that elevation one scon becomes accustomed to the racket or at least miss daggett did dul in the damage etoila cause by starting fires lies their chief interest to the lookout for it reoul res a quick PP to detect in among the rage of toga which arle in their wake the puff of smoke malch tells of some tree struck in a burnable spot U shows at once but in one In stanca there was a laase of almost two weeks before the fall of the smoldering top fanned up enough smoke to be seen at night the new fires show up like candle and are easily spotted against the dark background of the ridges but are not BO aisy to exactly locate for an report upon the speed and of this report however de the efficiency of the service as was proved by the summers record of extra small acreage burned in spite of over forty fires reported to the electrical storms miss daggett adds are attributed most of our present day fires as trav eler and citizen alike are dally feeling more responsible for the preservation of the riches bestowed by nature and although como still hold to the same views as one old timer who made the comment when lightning fires were being als cussed that he guessed that was the way of clearing the forests the general trend 0 opinion seems to be that man in the form of forest service la doing an excellent work in keeping a watchful eye on the limits of that alth arto erto wholesale clearing |