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UTE MOUNTAIN, Daggett County — The U.S. Forest Service has assigned a wildland firefighter to the Ute Mountain Fire Lookout Tower and opened the historic structure for tours following a full renovation.
"I was just really excited that they were restoring the tower," said Clare Boerigter, a wildland firefighter in her third season with the Forest Service.
When she's not assigned to a fire, Boerigter serves as the spotter in the tower and provides interpretive tours at the site on Fridays and Saturdays.
"I spent a lot of time learning about this place," she said. "So when people are interested in that, it's really rewarding for me."
When construction was finished in 1937, Ute Tower was the first of its kind in Utah, putting its occupants' living quarters up above the trees. Now it's the last remaining fire tower in the state.
Originally built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the Great Depression, the tower was staffed for more than three decades by a trained spotter and a smoke chaser. It was closed to the public and decommissioned in 1969 after severe rot was discovered in the tower's legs.
In 1980, the tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. That helped launch the first renovation project in 1982, which allowed the tower to reopen to the public five years later.
The tower was closed a second time in 2008 when rot was again discovered in the legs. A major renovation project in 2014 restored the tower's structural integrity and repaired the living quarters, making it possible for the public to return to a site that Boerigter said is beloved by many.
"Almost every time I'm open, I get someone up here who remembers coming here as a kid — 'Oh, it was closed then.' 'It looked like this back then.' — so that's pretty cool," she said.
On Friday, a record-setting 68 people visited the tower. Most days, though, Boerigter welcomes about 20 visitors. Other days it's just her, and the young flock of homing pigeons that are part of a new project with roots in the wildland firefighting practices of the 1920s.
"Firefighters would go to the fire lines and bring a homing pigeon with them," Boerigter said. "Then they could communicate back, if they needed extra supplies or support, to their district ranger."
The plan is base the pigeons at the Red Canyon Visitor Center and at Swett Ranch, where visitors can use them to send messages to the lookout at Ute Tower, Boerigter said, "simulating the flights made in the past by (homing pigeons) in the 1920s."
Boerigter said she loves showing people around the tower. And yes, she does sleep there from time to time, an experience she describes as "pretty awesome."
"The windows do rattle a little bit," she said. "I've figured out that if you can slide a map up there, it quiets them down a little bit."
