When Kjell Petersen stumbled upon the 1953 book “Lookout Wife,” he was stunned by how the author’s account of staffing fire lookouts with her husband mirrored his own experiences manning towers, even though her book is set more than six decades ago.
It turns out, the rarefied world of a fire lookout doesn’t change much from one generation to the next.
“All these years later, a great deal about staffing a lookout has not changed,” Petersen said. “Once you experience living in a lookout tower, it changes who you are and it changes your DNA. It changes your brain. It’s just something that you never grow out of. People who are lookouts are different. They understand each other and appreciate the awesomeness of life.”
The book that captivated Petersen was written by Jeanne Kellar Beaty, who details her experience staffing fire lookouts with her husband, Chip, in the Salmon National Forest in 1949 and 1950.
He set about tracking Beaty down, and found the 92-year-old woman in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, Canada. Petersen asked if Beaty would attend the Northwest Montana Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association’s annual fundraiser as a special guest, and she agreed.
“I really was surprised,” Beaty said. “It has been 62 years since my book was published, so I wasn’t expecting this. It was an honest book, and a good book, but it was not a bestseller.”
The Northwest Montana Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association’s annual fundraiser on June 27 supports the efforts of the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to restore and maintain historic lookouts.
This summer, they’ll do major repair work on Huckleberry Lookout in Glacier National Park, among others, and their past efforts have led to the activation of decommissioned lookouts, such as Baptiste Lookout and Firefighter Lookout in the Flathead National Forest
The fundraiser is at the Belton Chalet in West Glacier and begins at 6 p.m.
Beaty will discuss what it was like for a young, newlywed woman from the Midwest to staff a lookout in a remote wilderness area, and what she’s been doing since – for years, Beaty wrote travel pieces for the New York Times.
Beaty, who is selling her home and moving, said she was recently cleaning out her home and came across a clipping from the New York Times, an article that she wrote after her first summer in a lookout. The article was dated 1949.
Beaty said many of her family members weren’t even aware she’d written a book, and that being rediscovered came as a surprise.
“What was it like to suddenly have people interested in my book after 62 years? I can answer that in one word. I’m astonished,” she said.
At the fundraiser, members of the Northwest Montana Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association will read passages from their own copies of “Lookout Wife” and explain its significance to them. The book is no longer in print, but a copy can be procured by scavenging the Internet.
Petersen said the book holds strong appeal and is required reading to anyone who has staffed a fire lookout because it is such a unique and individual experience.
“When I first arrive at a lookout to stay for 10 days or two weeks, it takes a few days to get rid of all the junk food in your brain, but then the whole world enters into slow motion,” Petersen said. “Then when you come down you have to reenter society again and that is such a violent thing when you have had such serenity for so long.”
For more information on the Northwest Montana Forest Fire Lookout Association, visit them online at http://www.nwmt-ffla.org/