Bishop Mountain Lookout

The Bishop Mountain Lookout, located in Island Park, Idaho, was created between 1936 and 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and its cabin is currently available as reserved accommodations through the United States Forest Service.

Bishop Mountain Lookout
Bishop Mountain Lookout tower
Bishop Mountain Lookout
Bishop Mountain Lookout
LocationForest Road
Island Park, Idaho
Coordinates44.334167°N 111.5525°W / 44.334167; -111.5525
NRHP reference No.86001184
Added to NRHPMay 23, 1986[1]

Background

Bishop Mountain Look was constructed between 1936 and 1938 by members of Company 2515 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), based at Camp Porcupine (F-405), as a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.[2]

When Franklin D. Roosevelt first ran for the office of President of the United States, America was in the midst of The Great Depression, with economic recovery uncertain. Roosevelt campaigned in 1932 on the promise, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people."[3] The CCC, which operated 1933–1942, was part of his New Deal program, providing unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. In Idaho, the CCC, employed 80,000 men, a larger per capita ratio than any other state.[4]

The 72-foot (22 m) steel construction fire lookout tower is topped by a steel cab manufactured by Aermotor Company of Chicago. It is situated at an elevation of 7,810 feet (2,380 m) on the summit of Bishop Mountain, an extinct volcanic vent on the rim of the Island Park Caldera.[5]

The log cabin was built as a 16'x24' one-room, screened-porch structure, with a "vault toilet" in a separate building.[6] The cabin, which has no running water, electricity, bed linens or other basic amenities, is currently available for rental through the National Forest Service. Much of the road access is paved with only gravel, and can only be accessed by snowmobile during many of the winter months.[7]

NRHP certification

The property was added to the NRHP in Fremont County, Idaho on May 23, 1986.[8]

Citations
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. McDonald 1986, p. 3
  3. "President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1933–1945". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  4. Nelson, Ivar (April 7, 2017). "Idaho Civilian Conservation Corps". The Living New Deal. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  5. McDonald 1986, p. 2
  6. McDonald 1986, pp. 5–6
  7. "Bishop Mountain Cabin". Forest Service. US Department of Agriculture. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  8. McDonald 1986, p. 1

Sources
  • McDonald, Joseph A. (1986), Bishop Mountain Lookout, National Park Service, retrieved May 16, 2017CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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