About

Don Allen III
President

A third generation lookout, Don was basically born into the profession. After being in the womb at Vinegar Hill Lookout on the Malheur National Forest in 1962, he spent the summers of 1965-67 (ages 2-4) on Sand Mountain Lookout, where his father was the lookout staffer. When a dry lightning storm started the Big Lake Airstrip Fire in August of 1967, the Allen family was trapped at Sand Mountain as they watched the east-wind fueled fire march toward them. Young Don, mom Candace, and younger sisters Holly and Heather were whisked away by helicopter before the fire crested the mountain. Don Allen, Jr, calmly stayed behind and both he and the lookout survived.

Young Don assumed that the family would naturally return to Sand Mountain the following summer, and when his mom explained that they would not be going back, she said he cried inconsolably. His connection to the mountain ran deep then, and still runs deep today.

Ironically, after surviving the Big Lake Airstrip Fire, Sand Mountain Lookout burned down accidentally the following year while the subsequent staffer went to Sisters for an evening. 

In the following years, young Don lobbied his parents to take him back to Sand Mountain as often as they could be persuaded to do so. It was on one such trip at the age of 11 that Don witnessed dirt bikes ruthlessly ripping up the fragile soils of North Sand Mountain. When the group drove off down the road, Don found an old board and started crawling on his hands and knees, tears in his eyes, pushing soil back into place all of that remaining weekend. It was then that he promised the mountain to do his all to protect it.

Later, Don would offer to staff Gold Butte Lookout as a volunteer, but he was hired instead by the Fire Management Officer to be on fire crew… a valuable stop along the way to being posted at Coffin Mountain Lookout, first as the relief lookout, followed by 4 years as the primary staffer, But he never forgot his promise to Sand Mountain. 

As off-road travel at Sand Mountain escalated in the late 1980s, he gave up his job at Detroit Ranger District and went all-in to persuading District officials on neighboring McKenzie Ranger District to take measures to protect the fragile geology of Sand Mountain, and to bring a lookout back to the site to serve as a station from which to monitor and protect the area. As good fortune would have it, District Ranger Randy Dunbar was receptive to these ideas.

The foundation for the new “old” lookout was poured by SMS volunteers and District employees on August 16,1989. From that date Don and others stayed on site, working to enforce new administrative protections for the area while also laboring to construct the lookout with the help of a local high school shop instructor from Blue River, Oregon, Jeff Sherman, a tremendous and giving mentor. Don turned in 14 fires as a volunteer. After reporting additional fires while working on the interior of the lookout in 1990, the District hired Don to staff the lookout in 1991 and 1992.

He has been working to restore other lookouts ever since. 

In 1991, Don was recognized by the USFS as a “Master Performer” in Fire Lookout Restoration. He has contributed to a number of Restoration and Operating Plans, and been a guest presenter on three occasions at the University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation Program. Don has received a number of honors, including the “Thousand Points of Light Award” (1992), the “Doug Newman Award” (2003), the “Historic Preservation Award – Heritage Program, Mt. Hood National Forest” (2005), among others.

In his day job, Don is President and co-owner of an electronics engineering and manufacturing company in Beaverton, Oregon.

Bill Joy
Secretary

A charter member of SMS, Bill brings a diverse background and wide-ranging skills that he may never admit he has. After graduating from Central Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon, Bill went from tinkering to getting his formal education in electronics. As a summer job, Bill worked on fire crew at Detroit, Oregon where he no doubt stood out for his work ethic. He was elevated to the Redmond Hotshot crew the following year, after which he enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War where he served as a jet engine mechanic. After being honorably discharged, Bill worked on traffic signal installation and maintenance for several years for California DOT before he moved back to Oregon to be closer to family and fulfill his dream of working on a fire lookout: in 1986 he volunteered to staff Waldo Mountain Lookout on the Willamette N.F. It was at the neighboring Huckleberry Lookout where he was trained by Roxie Metzler, and it was working on Waldo Mountain where he became acquainted over the Forest Service radio with Don Allen III who was stationed at Coffin Mountain Lookout near Detroit.

Bill accomplished his ultimate career goal when he got a permanent position with the US Forest Service as a radio technician. In the 1990s he was posted with the Mt. Hood National Forest, which had a protocol for radio technicians to have a handle of “X-Ray” followed by their last name, so Bill would be heard on the radio as “X-Ray Joy.” This is how he earned the nickname “X-ray” among his friends in SMS. 

With his knowledge of construction, climbing and safety gear, and mastery with all tools, Bill was instrumental in the disassembly of Whisky Peak Lookout. From there on, Bill has been a key member on every single project the SMS has accomplished to date. 

Since he retired from the Forest Service, Bill has in several years amassed more volunteer hours than anyone else in the SMS.

Janet Joyer

As the head archaeologist and historian for the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon, Janet spent over thirty years as guardian of the historic sites on close to two million acres of public land from the crest of the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Over the course of her career, she facilitated the protection, restoration and public interpretation of dozens of buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She organized Passport in Time volunteers and professional contractors for work on such sites as the historic Gold Beach Ranger Station, the Ferris Ford Cedar House near Powers, Store Gulch Guard Station on the Illinois River, and Cedar Guard Station at the foot of Oregon Caves National Monument, all built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s-40s.

Janet’s father was a Forest Service ranger in Alaska, where she was born. She grew up on ranger stations throughout the Pacific Northwest and visited her first lookout at the age of three to view progress on a wildfire. Although her dad allowed her to crawl up the first flight of stairs by herself, her mother quickly intervened and insisted on carrying her the rest of the way to the top and around the catwalk. She has been hooked on lookouts ever since.

On the job, eleven historic lookouts came under her watch including those on Pearsoll Peak, Wildhorse Prairie, Dutchman Peak, Hershberger Mountain, and Squaw (now Acorn Woman) Peak. Throughout her career, she had the good fortune to partner with Sand Mountain Society on many projects, which made her daily life so much easier that upon retirement, she was eager to join their Board of Directors.

Linn Davis

Linn grew up in the woods of rural Clackamas County, building forts, cutting trails, collecting slugs – and visiting his dad’s old lookout on Bull of the Woods. After moving back to Oregon in the mid-2010s, he Googled “Oregon volunteer fire lookout,” sent an email, and has been involved with SMS ever since. Perhaps you’d like to do the same?

Today, he is one of two primary lookout staffers at Sand Mountain, where he spends about two months every summer. He has also helped with about half a dozen other SMS projects.

He holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State and a BA in History from Grinnell College. When he’s not at Sand Mountain, he lives in Portland. For nearly a decade, he has worked at a nonpartisan nonprofit called Healthy Democracy, where he designs and advocates for a unique type of policy-making process called a “civic assembly.” In his spare time, he plays and writes music.

Rick McClure

With a formal background and education in archaeology and anthropology, Rick came to the world of historic preservation through a 34-year career as a Heritage Program professional with the U.S. Forest Service. Historic buildings, including fire lookouts, fell under his responsibility along with other categories of heritage resources, such as archaeological sites, historic trails, and traditional cultural places. As Heritage Program Manager for Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington, Rick organized several Passport in Time volunteer projects involving the stabilization, restoration, and rehabilitation of historic properties, including the Government Mineral Springs Guard Station, Packwood Lake Guard Station, Gotchen Creek Guard Station, and Red Mountain Lookout. While serving in a dual role for Mt. Hood National Forest, Rick oversaw historic preservation work at Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark, and partnered with the Sand Mountain Society on the stabilization of Bull of the Woods Lookout.

In addition to “hands on” preservation work, Rick has decades of experience in historic research and architectural documentation associated with historic buildings on National Forest lands. He has completed detailed significance evaluation reports for many Forest Service buildings, and is the author of several National Register of Historic Places nominations for historically-important Forest Service facilities. He is a recipient of the U.S. Forest Service “Windows on the Past” National Award for Excellence (2003) “For Preservation of the CCC Heritage of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest,” and the State Historic Preservation Annual Award (2015) for Career Achievement, signed by Washington Governor Jay Inslee. Rick retired from the Forest Service in 2014. He and his wife Cheryl, also a retired Forest Service archaeologist, live in the remote mountain hamlet of Trout Lake, Washington.

Rob Hoeye

Rob was born to a master craftsman, a professor of industrial education and production engineering, and a philanthropist. His father taught him to be industrious, curious, giving, and humble, and was quoted as saying: “it is amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t care who gets the credit,” a concept that has shaped Rob’s attitude toward teamwork.

With a formal education in electricity/electronics and computer engineering, and 35 years in the Silicon Forest (Portland) area working in the Test and Measurement, Consumer, and Aerospace industries, Rob came to the lookout preservation scene through innate curiosity of classic and modern technologies. Mid-career, while perfecting his digital panoramic photography, Rob visited several lookout sites (including the one his father once staffed) taking modern panoramas, and stumbled into a Sand Mountain Society project and the Osborn Panoramic photographs taken from lookout sites in the 1930s, which fused his passion for inventing new technologies with the preservation of legacy technologies.

Named on 24 patents, he learned how to research legacy technologies and discovered the need to accurately preserve them for posterity. Once, at a now lost beloved lookout, another visitor said “someone should fix this place.” The comment sparked the notion in Rob that “someone” could be Rob.

For 25 years, Rob has been a contributing fellow of the Sand Mountain Society Heritage Preservation Team, giving significant time, energy, and wisdom to many SMS projects, including the reclamation of 5 structures on the abandoned USFS Flat Creek Compound, and the restoration and maintenance of several fire lookouts, including:Gold Butte; Pearsoll Peak; Sand Mountain; Carpenter Mountain, and; High Rock. He was also instrumental during the milling of lumber at McKenzie River Ranger District (keeping track of needed dimensions, stacking a stickering, and proper curing/storage). He also assisted with the stabilization of Fox Butte Lookout so that it can be restored in the future. 

Additionally, his mechanical, machining, and electrical aptitudes (i.e. developing “millwright” skills) have been irreplaceable with respect to conversion of rough-cut and reclaimed lumber into period-correct finished lumber and custom molding ready for use in the High Rock Project.

Rob received the national “Doug Newman Award” (2001) for his outstanding contributions to the cause of fire lookout preservation.

Now retired from his high tech career, he lives on his vacation property near Lake Billy Chinook in Central Oregon.