Sign is located at the summit of Lava Butte.
Marker Name: Tools of the Trade
Marker Text: Fire finding equipment used today is much the same as the equipment used since the beginning of fire detection.
When first constructed, the 1931 Lava Butte Lookout had a ‘Firefinder,” a fire locating tool invented in 1911 by William Osborne Jr., a Portland based U.S. Forest Service forester. Osborne’s Firefinder looked like a giant compass that could accurately measure azimuth and vertical angle degrees, making it possible to accurately plot the location of a fire on a map. Today the Firefinder is still used, more than 100 years later!
The Firefinder now has some high-tech assistance from the DragonPlot wildfire positioning system. With a TiltScope mounted on the FIrefinder, Dragon Plot uses computer mapping and satellite imaging to provide very accurate fire locations. These locations are often accurate within 300 feet determined from a distance of 20 or more miles away.
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