The pads were there long before the road.

I think they landed men in before dropping them from the sky.

Now here's a trivia question (and I don't know the answer).

Did we ever have any beacons in the District for guiding commercial aviation.

Don2

You guys might start hunting for what were called "Fire Maps". I found one at Oregon City that was quite interesting. I think they were for the patrols.

Don2

Fire maps were multipurpose documents which indeed were used by early post-lookout fire patrols. They were used for many purposes however. They showed anything that may be of use in firefighting. Trails, roads, clearcuts, proposed clearcuts and any sort of landmark.

At that time they commonly dug out large basins below culverts to provide water sources for fire trucks. The one just downstream from the Pansy Lake trailhead is a good example. These were marked on fire maps

They were intended to give the folks on the ground enough information to accurately describe the location of any fire. And the location of water sources and any road or trail to provide access to the fire.

If you find any they are valuable resources that were never sold to the public.

Bryon

Those fire maps sound pretty cool, although I have no idea where I would find one.  Sounds like a treasure trove of historical info about the forest!

Any suggestions on where to find one?