BOUNDARY COUNTY

ROMAN NOSE PEAK

Kaniksu National Forest
​61N-2W-21
June 30,1916:  "Lookout maps have been prepared by placing a contour map on a drawing board and then covering the same with shellac and varnish.  The point corresponding to the exact location of the lookout is placed on these maps, and with this point as a center a circular protractor is fastened to the map which reads in degrees.  This board is then oriented and placed placed on the corresponding peak and is used as a means of taking observations on fires."   (Pend Oreille Review)

September 29, 1921:   "The forest service is building a telephone line to Roman Nose lookout via Samuels and Pack River.  When completed, every lookout or fire station will have a telephone connection with the ranger station at Naples and also can be connected to the main line if wanted by the chief forester at Sandpoint."   (Bonners Ferry Herald)

July 31, 1947:   "The Kaniksu had fought more lightning fires so far this year than in many years past.  The forest service hoped that Roman Nose, probably the last lookout to be placed for the season in North Idaho, would provide the last ounce of protection needed in what could be a touch-and-go fire month.  It was the 64th lookout to be manned on the forest, but there were 62 more in case of emergency.
      Assigned to the lookout was 20-year old Bill Mimnaugh of Spokane, Wash., just graduated from high school after an 18-month tour of duty in the navy.
      As usual, the forest service figured on making one pack trip to Roman Nose -- taking Bill's supplies, his personal gear and fire fighting equipment.  A second trip, however, proved to be necessary when it was found that the weight of last winter's ice had damaged the tower considerably."   (Sandpoint News-Bulletin)

May 21, 1953:   "Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are both students at Brigham Young university at Provo.  He is a sophomore majoring in meteorology.
​      They expect to return to Sandpoint in early June as he will be employed by the forest service to serve at Roman Nose lookout station during the summer months."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

​July 15, 1954:   "The Kaniksu forest lookout towers at Roman Nose and Bald Eagle have been activated since July 4, according to Floyd R. Cowles assistant forest ranger.  These two lookouts assisted by an air patrol, will constitute this year's primary fire detection system for the district.
      The use of high priority lookout towers with daily aircraft patrol greatly increases the effectiveness of detection.  This method was employed last year with these same towers together with lookouts on the other seven districts on the Kaniksu forest.
      Gary D. Millard, Dover, is spending his first summer as a lookout at Roman Nose."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

August 26, 1954:   "Gary Millard came home from Roman Nose lookout Friday and took up his old job at Shiloh guard service station Monday."   (Sandpoint News-Bulletin)

July 14, 1960:   "Roman Nose lookout, situated at an elevation of 7,264 feet, is the district's primary fire detection station.  Strategically located, it also houses an automatic radio repeater station during the summer, which gives the forest's radio communication system a much wider and more efficient coverage.
      Manning the lookout this year are Mr. and Mrs. Oren D. Etter of Naples.  An experienced lookout, Etter manned Roman Nose during the 1959 fire season also.
      Upon opening the lookout, reported that the tower on Roman Nose had been broken into, apparently last fall.  Numerous items of forest service equipment missing."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

September 3, 1967:  "In Idaho's Sundance fire, an 18-year-old fire lookout made it to safety as he fled a windswept wall of flame that destroyed his lookout tower atop 7,264-foot Roman Nose Peak, 12 miles east of Priest lake.
     Using a portable radio, the unidentified youth followed instructions of a Forest service dispatcher and found refuge on a nearby rocky cliff.  He was rescued by helicopter early Saturday."  (Great Bend Daily Tribune - Kansas)

September 3, 1967:  "An 18-year-old Sandpoint fire lookout, forced from his station atop 7,264-foot Roman Nose Peak and trapped on a nearby rock island by the Sundance fire explosion, directed his own rescue Saturday.
     Ordered out of his fire tower just minutes before it went up in raging flames, Randy Langston raced the flames to his rocky shelter and then using a mobile radio, talked to Forest Service dispatchers throughout the night until he could be flown to safety by helicopter Saturday morning.
     A Kaniksu National Forest official said it became apparent about 9 p.m. that the fire, whipped up by 60 mile an-hour winds, was going to endanger Langston and his tower near Bonner's Ferry.
     Gene Napier, forest service dispatcher, radioed Langston to get off the tower and head down the trail.  Langston took his portable two-way radio and obeyed.  But he was too late.  Already the fire had swept across the trail and cut off his only escape.
     'That's when he started to get scared,' the dispatcher said.  Napier told him to get back to the tower.  But that was gone too.  Napier sent Langston to some nearby rock cliffs.
     Langston found a haven under a rocky ledge.  From there he watched 'Sundance roar around him through the long night.
      'It burned everything around him,' a forest service official said.
     Napier kept in touch with the youth throughout the fiery night, getting reports on the fire and bolstering his courage." (Billings Gazette)

January 4, 1978:   "Vandals apprehended-- Three juvenile offenders who vandalized the Roman Nose Lookout, on September 26, 1976, have been apprehended by FBI and Forest Service Special Agents.  The trio was remanded to the custody of the State Department of Health and Welfare and their families have agreed to repay nearly $4,000 in damages caused during the incident."   (Sandpoint News Bulletin)

1999:   The tower was destroyed in a wind storm.

National Geodetic Survey

DESIGNATION - ROMAN NOSE LOOKOUT TOWER
PID - TO1094
STATE/COUNTY- ID/BOUNDARY
COUNTRY - US
USGS QUAD - ROMAN NOSE (1996)

STATION DESCRIPTION

DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1964 (JCC)
THE STATION IS ABOUT 24 MILES NORTH OF SANDPOINT, 13 MILES
WEST-SOUTHWEST OF BONNERS FERRY AND 10 MILES NORTH-NORTHWEST
OF NAPLES. IT IS A FOUR LEGGED STRUCTURE HAVING AN OBSERVATION
CABIN MOUNTED ON TOP. THE OVERALL HEIGHT IS 40 FEET.

A TRAVERSE CONNECTION WAS MADE FROM TRIANGULATION STATION
ROMAN NOSE 1936, THE DISTANCE BEING 17.82 FEET OR 5.431 METERS
WEST.