Job Change And A Side Trip

 As we transitioned from the month of July to August, so transitioned our job.  Having run short of volunteers the Forest Service chose to close the buildings on the Swett Ranch and leave it to self-guided tours of the fourteen acres.  We are taking up a new post in the cab of the Ute Mountain Fire Lookout Tower.  Our commute to work is now a 15 mile trip, about half of which is a dirt road climb to the summit of Ute Mountain.

Like the Swett Ranch, the Lookout Tower is on the National Registry of Historic Places.  While there was voluminous history and hundreds of family stories to get to know about the Swett Ranch that was not the case of the tower.  It came into existence 28 years after the Swett Ranch was founded, was only operated during fire season, usually May to October, and went out of service in 1968.  Occupancy was a string of entry-level firefighters, rarely the same people from one season to the next.

So our stories to tell visitors was primarily about the physical structure itself, the operation of the lookout tower, the Forest Service's current forest management techniques and the transition of the tower from working part of the firewatch system to being a museum. 

Cyndee studying what little literature we had to work with.

What made this tower special, and worth turning it into a museum, was that it was one of only five ever built like it and only one of two left standing.  It is double the size of a standard cab at 14x14 and was built to live in, complete with two beds, a cook stove, tables and chairs, book shelves, and Forest Service provided china and dinnerware.  Of course all the usual firewatch tower tools and equipment as well.

The ubiquitous Osborne Fire Finder.
Virtually every firewatch tower in the world has one of these.

For the purpose of the museum we had a single cot as an example of how they lived in the tower.  But when in operation there would have been two single bedframes with mattresses.

We can attest to how drafty a night's sleep it would be in the cab of the tower.  The wind blew more often than not and those original 1937 wood-frame windows, every-other-one designed to slide left or right to open, were loose!  We had pieces of cardboard and folded paper stuffed in the frames all around the room to try to stifle the rattling.  When it rained the water just came right in.

The heat and cook stove.  It is dual-fuel, coal or wood.

One thing was for sure, we couldn't complain about the view!

So, how about that side-trip I mentioned in the title?  On one of our three-day weekends we popped over to Salt Lake City for a trip to the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island.  Cyndee had never seen the lake and I had only really seen it from the air when I was traveling for work.  Going out to Antelope Island was to be a first up-close for both of us.

Antelope Island is a large island on the Great Salt Lake, 
accessed by a long causeway.

At 42 square miles Antelope Island is a lot more than a sandy bump in the lake.  It has a well done visitor and interpretive center, miles of paved road and a large historical ranch.  With its desert-like environment one wouldn't think there could be much grazing for large animals but this place supported cattle, bison, deer, and pronghorn antelope to name a few.  And all but the cattle are still on the island and thriving.

We saw more large wildlife on Antelope Island in an hour than we have seen all summer long at Flaming Gorge.

Semi-solitary bulls dotted the island.

Multiple herds with a lot of new calves.
That's a northern suburb of SLC up against the mountain.

As if the hundreds of free-ranging bison all over the island 
weren't enough, they also have a good number of these sculptures.

The island's name-sake was plentiful too.
Although with this being the first week of August 
they were not in a herding mood.

Lots of individuals scattered all around the island.

Yet another herd of bison.  I was surprised at how well they do grazing 
along the salty marshes of the shoreline of the island.

The historic ranch on the island is the Garr Ranch.  It was a much bigger operation than the Swett Ranch Cyndee and I are caretakers for at Flaming Gorge.  The State Park System of Utah has done an excellent job of preservation/restoration and they are rewarded with thousands of visitations.  One of the ranches operations was sheep.  Between the 1930's and 1950's they would sheer as many as 10,000 sheep in a 7 to 10 period in May.

Story board in the sheering barn at Garr Ranch.  In addition to explaining the 
sheering process it also gave the ranch hand's salaries.  Ranch Hand - $150/mo, 
Sheep Herder - $175/mo.

Purpose-built sheering barn.  Staging stalls on the left with an "alley" 
behind the stall for bringing in the sheep.  A "common-rail" belt-drive (all the 
pulleys above the stalls) provided power to the sheers.  The wide space in 
front of the stalls is the sheering floor.  And finally, the conveyor belt on the right 
would transport the wool to the bagging machine.

The ranch was well established before the sheep operation came to be.  It was founded in 1848 and epitomized the evolution of ranching in the Great Salt Lake Basin.

Camping is also part of the State Park's activities.  Facilities range from primitive to full hook-up RV sites.  During our August visit (hot!) we found far more unoccupied campsites than occupied.

This was the most densely occupied campground we saw.
This CG had power so these folks had the luxury of being 
able to run air conditioners to fend off the baking sun.

Antelope Island was a whirlwind trip and we were back to Flaming Gorge in less than 72 hours.  The operation of the firewatch tower had to resume.  It was nice getting back to 60 degree weather.

A bonus when we returned to Flaming Gorge was that our hummingbird feeder was finally getting some visits.  We had it out all season but it was only getting a casual fly-by, now we had some that were sticking around.

We had a single feeder that was
hung from a Ponderosa Pine

This is a male Rufous Hummingbird

We had never been anywhere this species appears.
Their normal summer range is usually southern Idaho 
but this male and three females decided to stay a little 
south or they just laid over awhile as they were starting
their migration.

We haven't seen our gopher snakes in awhile but other reptiles have made a showing.

Our days in the firewatch tower are coming to an end.  It has been cold and wet of late but visitorship hasn't suffered.  The kids have all gone back to school and clientele has made a decided shift in the  "senior" direction.  Bow season for elk has also started and we are seeing a lot of hunters that stop in while scouting hunting spots.

We're just taking in all the views and high altitude living we can while it lasts.