Ray Warren and Gary Williams will present a historical view of forest fire lookouts in the area on Sunday, Nov. 22 at the Mariposa Museum and History Center at 2 p.m. Both men have played supervisory and training roles for fire spotters when they worked in the national parks or forest service. The spotting towers have been crucial to forest protection since they were set up, beginning in the 1930s.

Many of the structures have deteriorated with time, weather and vandalism. Others still play a vital function during the fire season which usually runs between May and October or November, providing early fire detection and location. This is especially true in the wild and wooded national park and national forest areas. Two of them covering the Yosemite area are still actively used by spotters.

Like the lighthouse keepers of an earlier era, fire spotters spend long lonely days, keeping watch. Doing the job meant you had to be able to enjoy the solitude, yet be ready to apply concentrated attention to the task at hand by making a systematic scan of the surrounding area every 20 minutes.

Warren and Williams have collected stories about the experiences of spotters who have sometimes had encounters with wild animals or fast moving fires. The long days can suddenly become exciting when the towers are threatened by windstorms and lightning.

Log books, fire reports and personal stories collected from fire spotters give a unique perspective on this solitary job. The speakers have also brought together a series of photos, including some panoramas that give a good idea of the view from a tower.

The design of the spotting towers varies according to when and where they were built. Mostly, they are small square rooms atop steel or wooden towers which are often located on the highest point of a particular area.

There are large windows on all four sides giving, usually, a 360 degree view of the surrounding area. The windows might be shaded by drop down shutters. A balcony or catwalk often surrounds the room on the outside. The towers were originally positioned and located in a very systematic and deliberate manner to give maximum visibility of wild areas.

Inside the elevated room, which is about 12 by 12 feet in size, or maybe just slightly larger, there is small space for the personal belongings of the spotter, a bed and perhaps a hot plate, along with log books, communication equipment and maps.

In the center of the room is the carefully leveled brass "fire finder," a calibrated disk marked in degrees with two sight posts on opposite sides. Sighting on this simple device can give emergency personnel a precise location to be plotted on a map from observed coordinates .

The Forest Fire Lookout Association is a nationwide program dedicated to saving and restoring several of these structures as historical points of interest. To help support their efforts, certain of the lookouts are occasionally rented out as unique weekend retreats in the off season.

This the last free program of the year for this series of entertaining and educational talks on historical subjects. Residents and guests are welcome to come and hear the stories and enjoy the refreshments. Mariposa Museum and History Center is located at 5119 Jessie Street. For more information contact the museum at 966-2924.