Evidently, it's Women's History Month, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took some time out to honor some "Women of Wildlife." Wildlife and nature are topics near and dear to my own heart, so the list piqued my interest. But the person who fascinated me the most on the list was Hallie Morse Daggett, a woman they call the "Guardian of the Forest." Before I knew it, I was researching to learn more about her, and I thought I'd share a little bit about this woman who did more for the state of California in the early 20th century than any of the females in government roles of any kind there today.
Born in 1878 in Liberty, California, Hallie spent her childhood enjoying the great outdoors with her family. Liberty, which is now a ghost town, sits just south of Santa Rosa and is about 45 miles north of San Francisco. Her father, John, ran a local mine and eventually became the state's lieutenant governor when Hallie was just four years old.
Because of their father's standing in the business and political worlds, Hallie and her sister, Leslie, grew up as society girls who attended some of the best schools in Alameda and San Francisco. Despite this, their true joy was found in the woods surrounding the area where they lived. Along with their brother, Ben, they spent their time hiking, fishing, hunting, and riding horses in the Siskiyou Mountains. She was supposedly not afraid of the wild animals that roamed the forest, and she was an excellent trapper and rifle shot.
She was, however, concerned about the fires that often started in the California wilderness, which is what led to her career as the first woman to become a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service.
In 1913, the man who had served as the fire lookout at Eddy’s Gulch Lookout Station in the Klamath National Forest in Northern California in 1912 decided to take a better-paying job, so the current assistant fire ranger began looking for someone to replace him. He received three applications, and sent his supervisor a letter about the three candidates.
Of the first candidate he said he could not recommend the man because his "reputation for the various cardinal virtues that go to make up a desirable employee of Uncle Sam’s is not of the best." Of the second candidate, he said he was "a passably good fellow," but that "his eyesight is reported to be not of the best."
The third candidate, he said, "is no gentleman." According to the book "Women in Forestry," he wrote the following of that third applicant:
...has all the requisites of a first-class Lookout…The novelty of the proposition which has been unloaded upon me, and which I am now endeavoring to pass up to you, may perhaps take your breath away, and I hope your heart is strong enough to stand the shock. It is this: One of the most untiring and enthusiastic applicants which I have for the position is Miss Hallie Morse Daggett, a wide-awake woman of 30 years, who knows and has traversed every trail on the Salmon River watershed, and is thoroughly familiar with every foot of the District. She is an ardent advocate of the Forest Service, and seeks the position in evident good faith, and gives her solemn assurance that she will stay with her post faithfully until she is recalled. She is absolutely devoid of the timidity which is ordinarily associated with her sex as she is not afraid of anything that walks, creeps, or flies. She is a perfect lady in every respect, and her qualifications for the position are vouched for by all who know of her aspirations.
He ended the recommendation by suggesting they try "the novel experiment of a woman Lookout." And on June 1 of that year, Hallie began her $840 per year job as "Forest Guard." She'd keep the job for the next 15 years. Apparently, the idea of a woman taking the position was so novel that she often made newspaper headlines across the country.
Hallie worked in a small cabin 6,600 feet up a mountain. It was a three-hour hike from the nearest road. "I grew up with a fierce hatred of the devastating fires and welcomed the [Forest Service] force which arrived to combat them. But not until the lookout stations were installed did there come an opportunity to join what had up till then been a man's fight; although my sister and I had frequently been able to help on the small things, such as extinguishing spreading camp fires or carrying supplies to the firing line," she once wrote.
During the off-season — she worked between four and seven months each year with two days off each month — she'd travel to Los Angeles and San Francisco to visit her friends, and she often spoke at women's clubs, explaining to the audience exactly what purpose the U.S. Forest Service served. In 1917, a motion picture producer from New York wrote to her and asked if he could make a movie about her. She responded, in part, "The scenery, I think, you will find very satisfactory. I would suggest, however, that you time your coming on or after September 1st as the country is at present too smokey to secure good results."
She did not seem to like publicity for herself, but she did like to promote the work of the Forest Service and was extremely dedicated to her job. (I'm guessing she easily could tell Elon Musk five things she did each week. Heck, after reading about how dedicated she was, I bet she could tell him five things she did each hour.) She was also quite patriotic and "raised and lowered the flag daily" at the lookout station.
Many people felt that she probably got lonely spending so much time on her own. A reporter once asked her what she did all day. Did she read? She said she read occasionally, but she was "mostly on the lookout for fires."
Plus, Hallie wasn't exactly alone. She had a telephone at her disposal that allowed her to "stay in touch daily with her local world." She also mentioned that there were several men stationed in other nearby lookouts throughout the forest. Leslie also visited her each week, bringing supplies, newspapers, and her mail, and "hunters, prospectors, and campers" often passed through, sometimes stopping to visit.
Hallie did eventually retire back to a cabin on her homestead, Blue Ridge Ranch, which was about 10 miles from her post. Later, she moved to a new cabin in the town of Etna, where she lived until she died in 1964. Today, it still stands and features a memorial to the country's first female fire lookout. Not much is known about what Hallie did with the rest of her life, though — did she marry? get another job? continue promoting the Forest Service? — but I did read that even upon retirement she continued the ceremony of raising and lower the American flag daily at her home.
