Old Lookout Gives Visitors New Outlook on World

Cathy Van Duyne watched anxiously as her teenage daughter lugged a sleeping bag and lantern up a steep flight of stairs to the cabin of a remote fire lookout in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Methodically, Alicia Van Duyne, 16, fiddled with a lock attached to a heavy chain on a gate guarding the historic Morton Peak Fire Lookout’s door. Finally, she unfastened the chain and entered the tiny room perched atop a 30-foot tower overlooking mountain wilderness and smog-shrouded flatlands.

Within moments, mother and daughter were settling into the cramped quarters as the first customers to rent a lookout tower under a new program aimed at raising funds to maintain the San Bernardino National Forest’s seven aging structures. All was silent except for the occasional cries of scrub jays and ravens and Cathy’s persistent cellphone.

Taking it all in from below was Van Duyne’s husband, Michael, who shook his head, smiled and said, “We’re the Swiss Family Robinson!”

The lookout lets for $60 on weekdays and $75 a day on weekends and holidays. Reservations are managed through the Big Bear Resort Assn. at (800) 4BIG-BEAR.

Perched 4,624 feet above sea level, the 14-by-14-foot cabin in the sky features two beds, windows, an observation deck, a nearby outhouse and a chance to step back in time -- with some hesitation.

“Hey, Mom, I’ve got an idea,” Alicia said nervously. “How about you try the outhouse and see if there’s a snake hiding in there?”

Built in the 1930s by the Civil Conservation Corps, the lookouts were the first lines of defense against forest fires. By the 1970s and ‘80s, however, most had been closed because of budget cuts and the advent of more sophisticated methods of fire-spotting, including satellites and air patrols.

In 1995, the San Bernardino National Forest Assn., a nonprofit volunteer group, joined forces with the U.S. Forest Service and put the towers back in service. Today, seven of eight fire lookouts in the forest are open and staffed during fire season.

The one at Morton Peak was slated for demolition. The walls and water tank were riddled with bullet holes, the roof leaked and the windows were gone. A huge hole had been burned through the floor.

Volunteers and Forest Service firefighters spent more than 1,000 hours on the restoration. The materials were bought with $5,000 obtained from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Now, besides serving up to eight months a year as a working lookout, it will be available as an unusual overnight rental. And if it proves popular, the volunteer association may expand the program beyond Morton Peak.

“Visitors who come to Morton Peak will get something unique -- a link to the past and a place with a purpose,” said Kris Assel, executive director of the association. “The really cool things about it are the awesome views and the isolation.”

The Van Duynes would add that just getting there was an unforgettable experience. Their journey began at the Mill Creek Ranger Station on Highway 38 in Redlands, where they paid the fee, picked up the keys and signed a waiver warning that they were in for a rugged experience with inherent risks.

They also received directions to the nearby four-mile dirt road leading up to the lookout.

It was late afternoon when they nosed separate four-wheel-drive vehicles onto the winding, rocky lane that climbed slopes so steep it felt as if they were flying.

After 40 minutes, they reached the gray tower with its 360-degree view of the surrounding mountains, the Santa Ana River Valley and the flatlands below stretching out to Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.

Leaning over a railing on the deck, Cathy Van Duyne, a financial service representative at a Big Bear Lake credit union, took a deep breath and said, “Wow! This is really neat. And quiet. Very quiet.”

Later, over a dinner of sliced chicken, salad and fruit juice, she said she leaped at the opportunity to rent the tower after learning about the program from friends at Big Bear Lake’s Discovery Center.

“For us, it was a chance to take one last family outing before moving next month to Colorado,” she said.

“I wouldn’t mind coming up here again,” added Michael Van Duyne, a construction worker in Big Bear Lake. “In fact, I kind of wish we had rain and lightning. It’d be so romantic.”

The next morning, while packing up to head home, the Van Duynes compared notes.

“I was a little disappointed that fog rolled in after 2 a.m.,” Cathy said. “I kept looking for stars and didn’t see any.”

“The only bad thing for me were those 28 steps to the top,” said her husband. “But overall, it was better than roughing it in a tent -- and a lot better than sleeping on the sidewalk before the Rose Parade.”