NEW MEXICO LOOKOUTS

OSO RIDGE

Cibola County
Cibola National Forest
9N-12W-4
June 4, 1933:   "A government airways beacon tower on the continental divide, at Oso Ridge, N.M., is being made to serve as a fire lookout station at a substantial saving to the Forest Service, Supervisor John Adams of the Cibola forest said Saturday.
     A cabin for the lookout men is to be built soon, and bids for its construction will be opened by the Cibola office June 8." (Albuquerque Journal)

June 30, 1934:  "Inexperience in mountain flying was believed responsible by local pilots for the airplane crash on the Oso Ridge near the continental divide, 23 miles south of Grant, Friday morning, in which Thuric M. Ellis, 28, veteran pilot from Auburn, Maine, was killed and Edward Thaw, 25, Milton, Mass., student flyer, thought to be at the controls of the ship at the time of the wreck, received such serious injuries that he died late Friday night in an Albuquerque hospital.  Thaw never regained consciousness.
     The crash was witnessed by Sam Taylor, fire lookout on Oso Ridge.  He said he first saw the ship gliding down toward an open patch of ground with the motor dead at 9:55 Friday morning.  It suddenly dipped into the ground and hit on its nose, he said.
     Taylor rushed to the scene and gave first aid to the two men.  He called help from Grant by telephone, but Ellis died before reaching that town, as rough mountain roads slowed the progress of the car in which they were being carried."  (Albuquerque Journal)

August 9, 1934:   "A crew of 15 men started work early this month on construction of a forestry road to lead from the Oso powerhouse to the Oso lookout, a distance of about two and a half miles, Forest Ranger J.H. Mims announced."  (Gallop Independent and Evening Herald)

June 25, 1939:   "It was believed lightning started the fire during an electrical storm in the area three days ago, that the fire gained headway because of the extreme dryness of the forest.  The Forest Service recently placed emergency lookout guards at Oso Ridge and on Mount Sedgewick."   (Albuquerque Journal)

July 3, 1944:  "Two young women have lonely but important jobs as fire 'lookouts' in rugged, mountainous forest in the wilds of New Mexico, guarding against fire timber badly needed by Uncle Sam in the war effort.
     At the Oso ridge fire lookout, 8,620 feet high in the Cibola national forest 25 miles southwest of Grants.  Mrs. Orby Swatzell perches in a cabin part-way up an airway beacon tower and scans the horizon for the white puff of smoke which spells danger in timber land.
     Mrs. Swatzell got her job when her husband, hired as lookout, was rejected because of poor eyesight.
     Mrs. Dick Clawson, the other feminine fire-fighter, is serving her second season as lookout in the Zuni Indian country at McCaffery."  (Los Cruces Sun-News)

May 3, 1947:   "Three fire lookouts are now manned in the Cibola forest area and three more will be staffed by May 15.  The Oso lookout has William J. Porter on duty."   (The Gallup Independent)

1965:  A CL-100 Series all steel lookout cab was constructed on a 10-foot cinder block base that serves as a storage room.  (Source "Lookouts of the Southwestern Region,"  USFS)