Pechuck Lookout
One of the most interesting buildings the SMS has ever worked on is the stone-based cupola lookout at Pechuck Mountain near the south end of Table Rock Wilderness on the west slope of the Cascade Range. While our participation as an organization at Pechuck was brief, and project was taken over by a separate group called Friends of Pechuck, in those early days the repairs to get the building "over the hump" were the result of an intense shared effort.
Pechuck, like many original fire lookouts, actually sits on a minor point near the end of a ridge. Because of it's strategic view over what at one time were some of the biggest trees in the state, the limited view was critical if not sweeping due to the value if the timber that once lined the drainages below. Today, most of those virgin forests are long gone: instead the heavily managed second-growth forests below are criss-crossed by a network of logging and spur roads. Access to the lookout can be very confusing without a good map.
Because of its unique construction and high heritage value, Pecheck was strategically honored as only the second lookout listed on the Histroic Fore Lookout Register. Sand Moountain was the first to be so-listed.