On August 31, 1918, 38-year-old school teacher Mabel McBain (1880-1977) returns home from a summer spent alone at the Skykomish Lookout Station high atop Mount Cleveland in the Snoqualmie National Forest. McBain is the only woman in the Pacific Northwest to serve as a fire lookout forest ranger in the summer of 1918. A leader in the Everett Mountaineers organization, McBain is well known in the Everett community and respected among Northwest mountaineers for her climbing accomplishments.
Accomplished Climber
During most of the year, McBain taught at Washington Elementary School in Everett, where she had lived since 1907. McBain joined the Everett Mountaineers in 1913, early in the organization's history. She held administrative leadership positions and served as hike leader for many trips, both short and long, for the organization. She applied for the forest ranger position with the United States Forest Service during a hiking trip in the area near Index, along Highway 2. Suitable male candidates for such a challenging position were in short supply due to World War I. McBain would later recall, "All the 'good' men were gone to war" ("Mountains Memorable"). McBain jokingly told a ranger on duty that she would like to serve as a forest lookout that summer. Later that day, McBain realized she was serious and that she truly wanted the job. After brief consideration, the Forest Service supervisor concluded that McBain "couldn't be any worse than some of the incompetent men" they were "stuck with" ("Mountains Memorable"). She got the job.
Although Forest Service staff were initially surprised by McBain, her friends were not. McBain was well known as a capable mountaineer with an impressive technical climbing background and spirit of adventure. If anyone in Everett was up to the challenge of spending a summer alone in the rugged wilderness, it was McBain. By the summer of 1918, McBain had an impressive climbing resume. Among her most notable hikes, she was among the group of mountaineers that made the second recorded ascent of Mount Shuksan in the North Cascades in 1916. At over 9,000 feet, Mount Shuksan is considered an extremely challenging climb that should only be attempted by capable and experienced climbers.
Atop Mount Cleveland
To reach her assigned job site, the Skykomish fire lookout on Mount Cleveland, in eastern King County, McBain had to make a steep climb. She was aided by other Forest Service members, who helped carry the gear and supplies she would need to use that summer. McBain's job was to keep watch for any signs of fire in the surrounding Snoqualmie National Forest, use a telephone to report fire signs, and head out to assist as needed. A permanent fire lookout station had not yet been built, so McBain spent the summer sleeping in a tent near her fire lookout perch.
Though often alone in a remote stretch of wilderness, McBain was not lonely. She reported that many friends from the mountaineering community summited Mount Cleveland to visit her that summer. "And everybody who visited me brought fresh meat to camp. It took considerable time finding places where that meat could be kept away from the sun" ("Woman Teacher Back").
McBain felt safe and at home alone in the wilderness, and she remembered her fire lookout service work fondly. "Frightened? Not a particle. You have to remember that on top of a mountain is the safest place you can be … safer than in the middle of the city," she recalled many decades later ("Mountains Memorable"). She explained, "The wild animals are afraid of you. And the kind of man who would bother you wouldn't walk that far to get to you" ("Mountains Memorable").
Although McBain returned home to Everett in late August 1918 to resume her teaching job, she returned to fire lookout positions in the Snoqualmie National Forest again in 1919 and 1920. She would have liked to continue to work on the mountains, but she stopped for only one reason. "The war was over and they needed the men back to do the heavy work" ("Mountains Memorable").
For decades later, McBain continued to serve in leadership positions in the Everett Mountaineers. She continued to hike, climb, and explore Washington's wilderness from her home base in Everett.
