The Forest Service used the lookout primarily for seasonal fire watch. However, during WWII, it was used to look for Japanese Balloon Bombs. These were hydrogen inflated balloons with incendiary devices attached to them. These balloons were dispersed from Japan between November 1944 and April 1945 with the hopes that atmospheric winds would carry them to US forests. Japan launched more than 9,000 of these weapons to cause wildfires. Since 1997, the lookout has remained unstaffed and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Following its construction in the 1930s, the complex has not experienced any significant alterations except the addition of a helipad. As the lookout has been unstaffed since 1997, Payette National Forest Heritage Program employees, with the help of contractors and volunteers, visit the lookout to accomplish light maintenance tasks. With the last trip out to the lookout taken in the early 2000s, this historic landmark needed significant stabilization measures to ensure the cabin’s preservation.

For the last five years, Payette National Forest Assistant Forest Archaeologist Morgan Zedalis and staff have been arduously working to plan a multi-year phased stabilization effort so the property can be preserved for another 90 years. This effort would only be accomplished through collaboration with the Forest’s Wilderness Program and with the significant help of packers, carpenters and volunteers.

After years of planning, in August, Zedalis and a team made up of staff, packers and stock, carpenters and volunteers made it out to the lookout, ready to stabilize and repair this historical landmark. The entire trip took 11 days and required Zedalis and her team to hike nearly 100 miles.

The main goal of this project was to successfully stabilize the cabin near the lookout tower. The cabin’s covered porch was in dire need of repair. The two posts which held up the covered porch were falling down and after big snow loads, the entire structure needed to be stabilized. In 2013, the cabin had also sustained damage from a bear. The bear, in search of carpenter ants, had ripped up the porch logs, posts and decking.

While doing the repairs on the building, the team adhered to Wilderness ethics and law. They used local native standing dead trees for the posts, sill logs and porch joists. The trees were felled with crosscut saws, debarked using draw knives, and were notched using axes and wood chisels - making use of traditional and historical methods and skills. The porch floor was dug out, lined with native granite rock, and porch floor joists were laid with rough sawn decking. A rotten bottom sill log on the cabin was replaced, along with the posts bearing the weight of the covered porch. The interior of the cabin had been overrun by packrats, requiring the entire inside of the building to be cleaned out. With the nearest water source being a quarter-mile away, the job was anything but easy. But, after days of hard work, the cabin was clean and rodent proof.

The team also reduced the fuel load around the cabin by bucking and dispersing down and dead trees in an effort toward wildfire prevention. In accordance with Leave No Trace principles, the team naturalized their work areas, to ensure the area looked as it did prior to their arrival.

Throughout the entire journey, Zedalis ensured that their efforts were not only in compliance with the Secretary of Interior's Standards for the cabin’s stabilization, but also the Wilderness Act. Zedalis worked closely with the Forest’s Wilderness manager and staff to ensure that the project was informed by their management perspectives. The Heritage Program plans on continuing their work on the cabin by replacing the cedar shakes on the roof, among other repairs, next year.

The needed stabilization work was completed on the lookout cabin, making the trip, the obstacles and the extensive work all worthwhile in protecting and preserving this historical landmark. Through the hard work of Payette National Forest Heritage Program employees, experienced carpenters, packers, stock and volunteers, this essential piece of history will be maintained for future generations.