Page 118 - Flathead Living Fall 2014

48o north
Mike roesch and Stephanie Pieper relax after assisting with stabilization efforts at Heaven's Peak lookout.
The structure was listed in the national register of historic places in 1986 and rep- resents one of the last remaining structures built by the Cps in the country.
however, it has passed into desuetude in recent decades as extreme weather con- ditions and a lack of maintenance have taken a toll on the lookout’s historic fab- ric – a deteriorating roof and floor, missing shutters and windows, and a lack of paint have threatened the building’s long-term survival.
But a recent visit to the fire lookout revealed marked improvements following a three-year project to stabilize the structure.
in 2011, park officials, recognizing that the lookout could be lost, launched a “sta- bilization project,” which was largely com- pleted at the end of this summer, thanks in part to the donation of time, resources and labor by descendants of the original Cps crew members.
Family members of the mostly
Mennonite workers who built heaven’s peak Fire lookout have especially in- vested in ensuring the iconic lookout tower remains part of the landscape for another 70 years.
Milton headings, a 51-year-old Men- nonite from Buffalo, Missouri, recalls his
father, the late Daniel headings, regaling his childhood community with tales of liv- ing and working at the heaven’s peak side camp, warding off grizzly bears with sling- shots and packing gear, hauling equipment and tools to the ridge by mule.
since hearing those childhood render- ings of the mystical heaven’s peak, head- ings has visited the lookout twice – once with his father and once for a multi-week hitch to help stabilize the structure. The majority of his 14 children have braved the tortuous hike to the lookout, the allure of which is lost on none of them.
“My dad helped build it in 1944 and 1945 and he would talk about the expe- rience day after day after day. how they did that back then was quite a feat but he thought of that as one of the happiest times of his life,” headings said.
Far from dominating the landscape, the heaven’s peak Fire lookout appears as a tiny diadem studding the long ridge’s northernmost flank, discernible from the going-to-the-sun road only to visi- tors with a keen eye who know where to look, and accessible only by the hardiest hikers willing to endure a sanity-testing bushwhack.
116 FLATHEAD LIVING | FALL 2014
THere is THis feeling THAT you geT uP THere. iT’s exHilArATing. - Milton Headings -
PHoTo by TriSTan ScoTT