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Description
Windy Joe Lookout is a solitary wood frame fire lookout station located in a subalpine clearing at the peak of Windy Joe Mountain in E.C. Manning Provincial Park in southwestern British Columbia. The lookout has been decommissioned.
Windy Joe Lookout is significant for the scientific, cultural, and aesthetic values of the building and its surrounding landscape, and for its name.
Located on the subalpine peak of Windy Joe Mountain with views in all directions, the fire lookout is important for conveying the past importance of the fire-watching function of the BC Forest Service in the Cascade Range, part of its mandate to manage the forests of the wilderness by limiting the spread of natural and man-made fires.
Windy Joe Fire Lookout is important physically for its architectural form and its glass-walled observation rooms situated on two levels, which were integral to the original function of the building as a lookout.
By virtue of the site being a relatively easy hike from the main recreational facilities, Windy Joe Fire Lookout is important for its relative accessibility to the public, making it at one time an interpretive site for the public as well as a functioning lookout, and now a welcome hut for hikers and skiers. It is important for its culturally modified landscape, complete with trees cleared in the mid-20th century in order to afford clear views of the surrounding mountain slopes from the observation rooms. The site has high recreational value as a hiking trail destination.
The name 'Windy Joe' is important for its reference to a modern-day pioneer in the area: Joseph Hilton, one of the park's first Park Rangers, who held and passed along the trapping rights for an area that includes E. C. Manning Provincial Park.
References
BC Parks web site, Windy Joe Trail page (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/ecmanning/windyjoe.html)
HistoricPlaces.ca (https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/)
Information
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Registry ID3864
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Date RegisteredAugust 23, 2020
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Last ModifiedMarch 5, 2022
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ActiveNo
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ProvinceBritish Columbia
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LocationManning Park
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Coordinates49°02'37.9"N 120°45'17.1"W
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Elevation1815.0 m
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Lookout TypeD-6 cupola
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Building MaterialWood
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Backcountry AccessTrail
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Terrain DifficultyDifficult
Map
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Manning Park, BC V0X 1R0, Canada
Author
trailchick
March 5, 2022 at 1:16 amI had the great fortune of doing a winter visit to Windy Joe on March 3, 2019. I was working on visiting all of Washington State’s standing fire lookouts, a journey I finally completed in 2019, and my original plan was to ski to Monument 83. Unfortunately temperatures were approaching -20°C so I abandoned that idea and instead snuck in an unplanned visit to this lookout.
Windy Joe is a real gem and here in Washington State we only have one D-6 cupola remaining, North Twentymile, so it was a pleasure to see this one and it’s remarkable condition. Thought you’d enjoy some snowy photos.
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Sounds like one heck of a trip! Thank you for the photos, looks cold! Brrr.
pmjwright
March 4, 2022 at 7:48 pmA photo was published in The Province in 1952, three from a September 2016 hike, and one from my first visit in 1968; that must have been where I got bit with Lookout Fever!
There are informative dioramas and displays inside the lookout cabin.
The lookout cabin is of a type known in BC as the Standard Cabin-with-cupola and was based on a pattern designed by USFS in the Pacific Northwest Region, where it was designated as the D-6 lookout. This pattern was widely used in BC from the mid-1920s until about 1950.
Fortunately, about 6 lookouts of this design still survive in BC: Windy Joe, Woss Lake on Vancouver Island, Sugar Mtn near Cherryville, Mt Brent near Penticton, McBride Top Lookout above McBride, and Mt Revelstoke Summit lookout.
Firelookout.ca
March 4, 2022 at 10:07 pmThanks for the info, Jim!