Description

About this book

Before aerial surveillance and satellite monitoring, the Black Hills National Forest relied on a network of fire lookout towers staffed by personnel who spent entire seasons scanning the forest for smoke. “Black Hills National Forest: Harney Peak and the Historic Fire Lookout Towers” is a 128-page pictorial history of those towers and the people who worked them, assembled by Jan Cerney and Roberta Sago from archival photographs spanning the full history of the program.

Cerney is a prolific Black Hills regional historian who has written eight volumes in the Images of America series. Sago is the special collections librarian and archivist at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, which holds much of the archival photography this book draws from. The combination of a regional historian and a primary-source archivist shows in the material: the images in this volume came from collections, not stock archives.

The Harney Peak Fire Lookout sits at the summit of what is now called Black Elk Peak (renamed in 2016), the highest point in South Dakota and the Black Hills at 7,242 feet. The structure is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register. The book was published in 2011 under the peak’s historic name; the mountain’s new name does not change the historical record the book documents.

What’s inside

• More than 200 vintage photographs documenting the towers, the forest, and the lookout personnel
• History of the first lookout structures at Custer Peak and Harney Peak, built in 1911
• Coverage of 20+ towers constructed across the Black Hills over several decades
• Documentation of the shift from wooden structures to stone and steel construction
• The Civilian Conservation Corps role in building and rebuilding towers during the 1930s and 1940s
• Accounts of lookout personnel: the isolation, the routine, and the hazards including lightning exposure
• The Harney Peak Fire Lookout’s place on the National Historic Lookout Register

Specifications

• Pages: 128
• Dimensions: 9.25″ x 6.5″
• Weight: 10.3 oz
• Binding: Paperback
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Series: Images of America
• Authors: Jan Cerney and Roberta Sago
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7385-8370-9
• Published: May 2011
• Language: English

Who is this for?

History readers with a connection to the Black Hills. The fire lookout era is a specific and well-documented chapter in US Forest Service history that gets very little attention outside of regional collections. If you have spent time on the Black Hills trails and noticed a stone tower at a summit, this is the book that explains what it was for and who built it.

Hikers who have reached Black Elk Peak (Harney Peak) and seen the stone fire lookout at the summit. That structure is the centerpiece of this book. The tower has been a hiking destination for decades, and the book gives it a proper history.

Collectors of the Images of America series. Arcadia publishes hundreds of these pictorial history volumes covering towns, parks, and regions across the country. This volume covers a subject (Forest Service fire detection infrastructure in the Black Hills) that has no equivalent in print elsewhere.

Gift buyers looking for a specific, local history title rather than a general Black Hills coffee table book. At 128 pages and $24.99, it is a substantive paperback with a focused subject, not a glossy oversized volume.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Images of America series?
Images of America is Arcadia Publishing’s flagship series of pictorial history books. Each volume covers a specific place, institution, or subject using historical photographs from local archives and collections. There are thousands of titles in the series covering communities and sites across the United States. This volume covers the Black Hills National Forest’s fire lookout tower system.

The mountain is called “Black Elk Peak” now. Does this book use the old name?
Yes. The book was published in 2011, before the official renaming in 2016. The text and cover use “Harney Peak,” which was the peak’s legal name at the time of writing and throughout the historical period the book documents. The history in the book is accurate regardless of the current name. If you search for this book, either name will find it.

How many photographs are in this book?
More than 200 vintage photographs. Like all Images of America volumes, this one is primarily a visual record rather than a text-heavy history. The photographs document the towers, the personnel, the construction, and the landscape across several decades.

What is the Harney Peak Fire Lookout?
The Harney Peak Fire Lookout is a stone tower built at the summit of Harney Peak (now Black Elk Peak), the highest point in South Dakota and the Black Hills at 7,242 feet. It is one of the most visually distinctive structures in the Black Hills and is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register. The tower was constructed with Civilian Conservation Corps labor. Today it is a popular hiking destination at the end of the Black Elk Peak Trail.

Were lookout towers really effective for fire detection?
They were the primary detection method for most of the 20th century. A trained lookout at elevation could spot a smoke column 20 or more miles away on a clear day and radio in coordinates using a device called an Alidade. The system required a network of towers with overlapping visibility so a fire’s location could be triangulated from multiple towers. Most towers were decommissioned as aerial surveillance became more cost-effective from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Who are the authors?
Jan Cerney is a Black Hills regional historian who has written eight books in the Images of America series. She lives on a ranch near the Badlands. Roberta Sago is the special collections librarian and archivist at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD, where much of the archival photography in the Black Hills region is held. The combination of regional history expertise and archival access produced a book with primary-source photographs rather than stock images.

Does buying this support the Black Hills National Forest?
Yes. BHPFA is the official nonprofit partner of Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Scotts Bluff National Monument, and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, as well as the Black Hills National Forest and Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Proceeds from every purchase support education programs, conservation projects, and visitor services at these sites.

Is a digital version available?
Yes. A Kindle edition is available through Amazon. ISBN 978-0-7385-8370-9 is the print edition sold here.

About the Black Hills National Forest

The Black Hills National Forest covers approximately 1.25 million acres across western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. It is managed by the US Forest Service and includes Black Elk Peak (7,242 feet, the highest point in South Dakota and the Black Hills), Spearfish Canyon, Pactola Reservoir, and the Sylvan Lake area. BHPFA is the official nonprofit partner organization for the forest, supporting education, conservation, and visitor services.