On July 17, Kevin Lavelle, Jim Wright and Peter Rennie, all former BC Forest Service staffers, chartered a helicopter to fly up Mt. Cartier to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Mt. Cartier Dominion Forestry Lookout, the highest forestry lookout in Canada. The trio landed on the south shoulder of the mountain and hiked the remainder of the way up to the lookout. They came equipped with sturdy hiking gear and a bottle of champagne to toast the anniversary and to pay homage to those hardy souls who constructed, maintained and manned the lookout (Sam Desimone was the first lookout man). The weather was clear and calm with only a hint of wildfire smoke from far off.
Mt. Cartier Lookout, the 17 km horse trail to the lookout and telephone line, were constructed in the early 1920’s as part of the Federal Government’s commitment to protect the ‘Railway Belt’, a strip of land on either side of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mt. Cartier Lookout became operational in July, 1924, according to a Calgary Herald newspaper article back in the day, and joined Joss Mtn., Mara Mtn., Eagle Pass Mtn. and others that served as a network of lookouts designed to provide early detection and suppression of wildfires within the Railway Belt.
Unfortunately, the lookout was built too high, and storm systems would linger at high elevation, that ultimately delayed the early detection of wildfires, so the lookout was abandoned sometime after 1929. The BC Forest Service would later re-locate to Sproat Mountain, some distance south of Mt. Cartier, with a temporary lookout in 1939, and a permanent structure built in 1956.
During the mid 1970’s, the Mt. Cartier Lookout fell into disrepair; this did not go unnoticed by then District Ranger George Benwell. He undertook restoration of the structure and upgrading of the trail over the next 2 or 3 summers. Since 1987, Canadian Mountain Holidays has utilized the lookout for its radio communications that serves the Heli and backcountry ski industry that thrives in the region to this day.
Happy 100 Anniversary Mt. Cartier Dominion Forestry Lookout, and may you survive another 100 years.
