IDAHO COUNTY

MOCUS POINT

Clearwater National Forest
36N-11E-25
1935:   A lookout was established with a tent camp and a larch tree topped at 55 feet.  The tree was equipped with platform and a spiral steel rod stairs.

1941:   Ten feet of the tree top was cut off.  A crows nest built at 45 feet and a wooden ladder replaced the steel stairway.

1945:   40-foot native timber tower legs were cut and peeled.

1947:   A surplus lookout cab was acquired and moved to the site.

1949:   Funding was received for the construction of the 40-foot tower with L-4 cab

1973:   The lookout was removed.  (Kresek)

1981:  "At the beginning of the 1935 fire season, the first lookout ever to man Mocus Point was moved in and set up housekeeping in a tent camp.  Communication with the Ranger Station by SPF radio proved a failure, so Ranger Roy Lewis has a telephone line extended down from Gold Meadows.  To increase visibility from the flat-topped ridge, Assistant Ranger Jack Godwin topped a larch tree near the tent at 55 feet and built a platform with railing at the top.  The top of the tree projecting through the platform was used as a post on which to mount the Koch map board for the lookout map.  For safety the tree was guyed at three points with steel cable and the crows nest wired for protection from lightning.  Access to the top of the was by iron tree steps driven into the pole at proper intervals.
     Not everyone could make it to the top via the iron steps so, in 1941, ten feet was cut off the top and the crows nest lowered to 45 feet and the scary iron steps replaced by a wooden ladder.
     In 1942 Ranger Herb Flodberg had material salvaged from Boundary planting camp and an abandoned lookout packed to the point.  Lookout man Harry Cummings, by himself, then built a 14' x 18' cabin for living quarters.  District investment records show a construction cost of $472.00.
     In 1945, lookout man Norman Mohr and Fish Lake Guard Monte Miles cut and peeled all timbers needed for a 40-foot tower.  Larch tower legs, top cross members and a fifty foot gin pole were cut on Trail #208 at least 1/2 mile toward Fish Creek Lake.  Lodgepole cross braces and stair risers were cut in a patch of timber up the ridge from the lookout.  To lose weight, timbers were allowed to dry most of the summer then with a team of work horses skidded to the proposed site near the lookout tree.
     In 1947 a surplus precut lookout cabin was supplied by the Couer d'Alene Forest and Pierce warehouse man, Jack Godwin was inveigled into trucking it to Jerry Johnson lookout on the Powell District.  That fall District packer 'Speedy' Thompson and Alternate Ranger Charley Smith, using all available District packstock, moved the cabin material across the Lochsa Canyon to Mocus Point in two trips.
     In 1949 money was provided and George Brocke and family were moved to Mocus where with some help from the lookout man the construction got underway.  After cement for the four piers was poured, tower legs were framed in two pairs rather than try to make a complete assembly as shown in plans.  The gin pole was raised and anchored in part, to the old lookout tree.
     In a matter of ten days or so the Brockes with their lookout helper had the stairway and cabin in place.  Mocus tower was at last a reality.  According to the District investment record, cost of construction was $2975.00 which probably included a lot of contributed time.
     The point was last manned by the Lochsa District in 1953 then dropped from the fire plan.  Sometime after Mocus was transferred to the Powell District in 1963 it was again activated and was still in use in 1966."  (Louis Hartig, 'Historic Facilities of the Lochsa Ranger District' - 1981)