Lagged NOT Logged

Overgaard Tree 1998

In 1998, I published a story in High Country News, Lagged not Logged. 

Now, LISTEN to a story I helped write for KNAU Earth Notes that involved traveling to see some of the remaining trees in the Kaibab National Forest, AZ.

Paul and I try to incorporate physical searches for lagged lookout trees when we travel the forests of Arizona and New Mexico. Included in our research is:

•  Historical trees that died or fell, including the Overgaard tree, which succumbed in 2002 to the Rodeo-Chedisky Wildfire. 

• Gathering GPS coordinates for the old trees using historical locations and compass data.

With our travel history we have learned:


* How lagged trees were designed and used. These important wonders of history, tell stories of firefighters that located fires in the early 1900’s by sitting like birds for hours in the tops of these trees. 

* Specific information for Arizona visitors and explorers about the lagged trees that are still accessible to backpackers, hikers, photographers and natural history enthusiasts. These amazing old trees have many stories to tell. Their historical value, condition and location is important – before they all fall to the ground. 

One of the easiest trees to access, view and photograph is the Tusayan Tree in Tusayan, Arizona, at US Forestry Dept, 176 Lincoln Log Loop, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023. (Follow US Hwy 69 to the USFS station and ask for updated to the tree. It is unmarked and near an APS Sub-station off first round-about in town).    

Hull Tree, Kaibab NF 2017

 

Hull Tree 1950's

998 High Country News: Lagged Not Logged, by Christine Haese

"Climbed Delodo Tree. Had a bad feeling, so dry and hot. Storm last night brought plenty of lightning, little rain. Spotted smoke to south, blowing northeast and picking up ... Caught hobbled mare and saddled up. Rode to Little Nelson Lake Tree, saw smoke again. Looks like a big fire ... May need extra folks on this fire." -  from Firefighter Journal of U.S. Forest Service fire spotter July 1935

Before the fire lookout tower, there was the "lagged" lookout tree - so named for the steel lags that provided steps to the top of the tree. The Civilian Conservation Corps created a network of these tall trees that spanned ridges and mountaintops across the national forests. Nimble fire spotters climbed to their tops on the spiked steps of tempered steel or wood ladders, then checked the horizon for smoke. Some lookout trees, such as the Hull Tank Lookout Tree on the Kaibab National Forest, still have their wooden platforms. On the Mogollon Rim of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona, a 60-foot-tall ponderosa pine known as the Overgaard Tree still stands, its rungs grown high. And on the Kaibab National Forest, several lookout trees have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
 
While lookout trees were left standing across the United States, they were most common in the Southwest. For more information, contact the Kaibab National Forest, 928-635-8272, Black Range Ranger District of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, 928-535-4481 or the National Historic Lookout Register, 1-800-476-8733.