The Trans-Mississippi West, 1804-1912: A Guide to Federal Records for the Territorial Period Part IV, a Guide to Records of the Dept. of the Interior for the Territorial Period, Section 3, Records of the General Land Office by Robert M. Kvasnicka

Abstract

an overview of lookouts and the people who staffedthem, as well as to general discussion of thevarious typesof lookout structures, life at the lookout, the much-neglected women on lookouts, especially duringWorld War II, and several other interestingshort chapters. Newman collected many manuscripts and oral histories from the lookouts, took thousands of photographs, gave enthusiastic support to lookout repair and recoveryefforts, and most of all, loved the out-of-doors and lookouts. Plagued with polio since early child hood, Newman died a tragicdeath in 1992.This book was inmanuscript form until the Lane County Historical Society decided that,with lightediting, itshould be published. The author of thisbook, himself a former fire lookout, has given lookouts (that is, the people who staff the lookout buildings) an opportunity to share some of their experi ences. Personal stories from lookouts have been woven into a narrative that covers the yearswhen there were lookouts on nearly every mountain top.Lookout life was lonely.Lookout houses were staffedonly during the summer seasons. Work by the lookouts entailed spotting smoke and fires in the forests,then reporting these "smokes" to the appropriate firefighting crews.The lookouts receivedvisitors and tried their best to explain operations and duties. They were proud of thework theydid. Finding Fire servesas a great introduction to the challenges and hardships, aswell as humor and personal tragedy, of lookout lifein western Oregon. Ken Metzler wrote a nice foreword to the book, recounting Doug Newmans lifeas an avid lookout researcher, author, and out door writer for theEugene Register-Guard. By narrowing the subject down to Lane County, particularly theWillamette National Forest portion,Newman sbook gives an intimate look atwhat ittook tobe a lookout in theheyday of lookoutwork from the1940s to 1970s.Itcompli ments severalotherbroader-scope books on fire lookouts, such asRay Kresek's 1985book cover ingall lookouts in Washington andOregon (Fire Lookouts ofOregon and Washington). Finding Firedoes not cover every lookout site,or person who served as lookout, during thepast almost one hundred years ? no book could. The photographs in the book, for themost part, are poorly reproduced, with many having a very softfocus. The Lookout Designs chapter is okay,but not comprehensive. I assume that Newman's many storiesfrom oral histories and other sources are stored in the Lane County Museum, but there isno way to tell.There is no index and no bibliography. Gerald W. Williams Portland, Oregon THETRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST, 1804 1912:AGUIDE TO FEDERAL RECORDS FORTHETERRITORIAL PERIODPARTIV, AGUIDE TO RECORDSOF THEDEPT. OF THE INTERIOR FORTHETERRITORIAL PERIOD,SECTION 3,RECORDSOF THE GENERALLANDOFFICE by Robert M. Kvasnicka National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., 2007. Photographs, index. 1130pages. $49.00 paper. In 1935, the Department of State began an ambitious undertaking, the publication of the Territorial Papers of the United States. For most of the lifeof the project, Clarence E. Carter skillfully edited many volumes of documents pertaining to the government of several territories, mostly those lying east of theMississippi River. In 1950, the project was transferred towhat was then known as the National Archives and Records Service (now theNational Archives and Records Admin istration, NARA). Unfortunately, Congress "suspended" (a better term would be "killed") the project in 1975, justifying the action on the high cost of publishing the large number of documents produced by territories in the 494 OHQ vol. 109, no. 3 lateryears of the nineteenth and early twen tieth centuries. The last volumes published were those for Wisconsin Territory, which was admitted to statehood in 1848. This left the papers of thegreatmajority of territories west of the Mississippi unedited and unpublished. Scholars wishing to examine thepapers of, for example, Oregon Territory, stillneed to go to theNational Archives or order copies from the Archives.Microfilm versions of the territorial papers are also available. In 1989, NARA launched the seriesofwhich thisvolume isa part, intending ittobe a "con tinuation" of theTerritorialPapers project (p. xv). Italso builds on previous guides, lists,and preliminary inventories. This series consists of guides to records of federal agencies rather than edited versions of the records themselves. Volumes that have appeared thus far cover records of theDepartments of State, Justice, Agriculture, and Interior. The publication reviewedhere isone of three"sections"pertain ing to Interior records. The two volumes...