Standing Indian USFS Lookout House

[MintakaCat]

On my last trip up to Standing Indian Mountain I was talking to a number of hikers who didn't realize that at one time there was a fire tower on top of the mountain. So I did a little research and found a photo of the fire tower, or as the USFS called it, a "Lookout House."

Actually, the USFS Lookout House on Standing Indian Mountain predates the one on Albert Mountain. The first fire lookout on the mountain was nothing more than a log cabin with a ladder to its roof. In 1929 the Lookout House shown below was built on the summit. This was just prior to the Appalachian Trail being constructed near the summit.

http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/1/9/3/7/7/standing_indian_lookout_house.jpg

The Standing Indian Lookout House was abandoned in 1951 and it was removed in the 1960s, however, you can still see evidence on the summit of its construction. With a little searching you can see a couple of the anchors still imbedded into the rocks that held the guy wires for the Lookout House. These guy wires were used to give the building an improved structural integrity in high winds, which is so common at these elevations. You can also see the guy wires in the above photo.

No doubt, the portion of the AT that reaches the summit from Deep Gap is an old Forest Service road that was used to access this Lookout House many years ago.

My guess is that with Albert Mountain only being 3.6 miles away, the USFS didn't see much use in having the Lookout House on Standing Indian Mountain. In fact, fire detection on Wayah Bald was discontinued just 6 years earlier.

So there you go, a little history lesson on that portion of the Appalachian Trail.

[Kerosene]

Neat! I love this kind of stuff.

[troglobil]

nice info, thanks

[Egads]

Nice work. Where did you find this info?

[Gray Blazer]

Cool. I saw on mapquest that they showed a fire tower up there.

Standing Indian was mentioned on the Weather Channel on Sunday night for having so much flooding rain.

[Hikes in Rain]

Earl Schaffer mentioned the Standing Indian tower in his book, and I did see the anchors the night I stayed on the summit. (Hung my water bag from one, in fact) First photo I've seen of it, however, which is really cool! Thanks for posting that.

You know, it's a little too bad it isn't still there. Would have made a nice shelter, with a killer view!

[Marta]

My favorite part of Walking With Spring was when he was walking through Western NC, staying in lookout towers and riding buses to general stores to buy cornmeal.

Here's an interesting book about NC's lookout towers:

http://www.blairpub.com/outdoortitles/hikingnclookouttowers.htm

A number of them are in danger of being demolished. The book's author is active in an organization that is trying to preserve them.

[Egads]

I imagine the cables did double duty of grounding the lightening. Notice the gutter and barrel in the picture to catch & store the rainwater cool :D

[MintakaCat]

Here's another photo I found from 1951 showing the Standing Indian Lookout House.

http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/1/9/3/7/7/standing_indian_tower1951.jpg

[OldStormcrow]

Wow! Very cool photos....thanks!

[mbanja]

I hiked the standing indian loop several times before it occurred to me that there are thousands of other miles on the AT. It's a great three day or two day. Anyway, there is still tons of evidence on the top other than the anchors. I spent a new year's eve up there years ago and noticed at about midnight my dog was leaving bloody footprints everywhere. I figured it was some A$$#0!@ who left some beer bottles. When I was up there a few years ago I had some time to kill and saw glass all over the top of the mountain once I really started looking. I noticed that it wasn't bottle glass - but window glass! Another hiker who came by told me about the old lookout house and said he remembered hiking up to see it when he was a teenager. He said that instead of diassembling it and packing it out that they just pitched it over the dropoff ten feet away. I wasn't motivated to check out that part of the story, but I did pick up about three or four double handfulls of glass shards. I'd love to say that I packed 'em out, but instead I carried 'em off into the bush and buried 'em. Some shards were several inches long with their tips just sticking out of the mud. A quick way to end a hike wandering around barefoot on a great peak! Great picture, thanks for posting it!

[Rain Man]

Earl Schaffer mentioned the Standing Indian tower in his book....

As I recall, he has a photo of it in his DVD too.

Rain:sunMan

.