The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-01-16
ONLY WOMAN FIRE
LOOKOUT DWELLS
ON MOUNT AIN TOP
Lives Amidst Coyotes Bears
and Wild Beasts of
West.

of woman's intrepidity equal to that o
Miss Halle M. Daggett, who in he
choice of work has chosen pos
| which makes 1t necessary for her t.
live alone for most of the time on thu
| summit of one of the highest peaks o
a Western mountain range, with a full
half-day's journey between hersel
and her nearest neighbor.
The surrounding region is the haun
Of the wildcat, the bear and the coy
ote, and her only companions her dos
| and-it it not be fOrgotten-her gul
let it not be forgotten-her gun.
Miss Daggett is an employe of the
1 United States forest service, and hel
| duty is that Of a forest fire lookout
| Her station is one of the most remote
being upon one of the highest peak:
of the klamath National Forest, il
Siskiyou County, California.
I She is the only woman who holds
the position Of fire lookout in the ser
vice, and she does it from love Of
! the wild and it's life and an intense
| desire to help in diminishing the dan
ger and damage wrought by the, fires
Of the great Western forests, which
she has has learned to watch for and
fear from childhood.
The Government was for long 10th to
give woman position which would
| subject her to the exposure, danger
and loneliness involved in fire-fnding
but for months Miss Daggett pressed
her cause and brought all influence
to bear. Finally she was granted a
seasons trial.
Such was her satisfaction with her
post, and so we'll did she fulfill it, that
next June she will enter upon her
fifth season as an enrolled member
of the Governments forest fire look
outs.
Miss Daggett spends her days in her
lookout tower 6,444 feet above the lew
ell of the sea, and sometimes above
the clouds.
With her field glasses she sweeps the
horizon for miles and miles around her
for the soaring smoke wreath which
bespeaks the tale of future havoc if
left UNDECIDED. When she discerns the
sinister gray column rising she con-
suits the map lying beside her, a min
iature of the extensive range surround
ing her.
With an instrument which is at
act spot whence the smoke is arising
and Immediately telephones the intel
ligence down to the headquarters of
force is Immediately sent out to fight
the fire.
In the past the forest fires caused an
annual property loss of 100000
and took each year a corresponding
toll of human lives. ~. -
, The daily telephone reports which
she makes to headquarters keep Miss
Daggettl in touch with humanity, and
once a week she has a woman visit
or. Her sisters self-aHpointed task
is the bringing up Of weekly supplies
to the isolated station on the heights.
She, too, is a woman of the field and
forest, and enjoys the three-hour ride
up the mountain trail leading the pack
horse laden with the necessaries of life
for the lonely watcher.
The Daggett sisters come naturally
by their. love of the open, knowledge
of it's dangers and command of it's diff
culties, for they are the children of
pioneer parents.
The father, John Daggett, late Lieu
tenant Governor Of California, crossed
over the isthmus in 1852, and their
mother was brought west from Ken
lucky as a small child at about the
same time.
Clustered near the foot of klamath
Peak are the houses at klamath Mine,
where the Daggett children were born,
so that the mountain on which the
lookout takes up her yearly task has
been lifelond and familiar friend.
Early in life Miss Daggett learned
to know the danger of forest fires,
which year after year consumed mil
lions of dollars worth Of property
and took many lives and from child
hood she was taught to do her part
in lessening the constant menace to
the forest regions of the West.
To few people did the Inauguration
of the protective service by the Unit
ed States Government for the Nation
al forests bring greater JOY than to
this Western girl, and her ambition
from the first was to take some active
official part in the Nations fight for
the protection of the forests.
She was untitled by her sex and it's
limitations to undertake the work of
a forest ranger, but when the lookout
stations were instituted she saw her
and she won her post.
She declares it a never-ending plea
sure to search the vast acres Of her
territory for new beauties at every
changing hour, from one sunrise to the
next.
The birds and the smaller animals
of her mountain home have learned
that she is their friend, and come to
her cabin for food and shelter. She
declined the preferred company of a
cat, pair of owls proving more sat
isfactory as mouse catchers and less
destructive to small life.. sa
The deer come Of. an evening to her
dooryard, and bears, big and little,
make free with the neighborhood of
her spring, a mile away down the
slope, while porcupines find their wayi
into her domain at any hour of the
day or night.
none did she arm herself until she
found the track of big panther out
On the trail. Since then it has been
her habit to buckle on a gun when
going on her morning and evening off, h
cial tramp around the confines of her
post before reporting to headquarters.
A practiced sportswoman, she has
killed her share of marauding coyotes, |
which she has found prowling around |
her province in search of any living |
prev in which to set their destructive |
Teeth.
Here is Miss Daggett's description of |
- fr.nr hor h ch tOneIV STA