We 
walked the quarter mile back
along the southern edge of the fort land where we found some delightful old
machines. The main attraction was a magnificent old Shay-type steam
engine, complete with flat cars carrying giant logs which had been placed there
by a log-loading slide jammer. The area is a display for the logging and
timber history. Under an open-sided roof was a working antique
sawmill. Unfortunately there were no workers on the property this day and
the mill stood silent. Still it was a marvelous mechanism. We
continued on to an old fire tower. 
The
information sheet we were using explained that the tower was a Sliderock Lookout,
which stood on Sliderock Mountain around 1933, was manufactured in Columbia
Falls. These pre-packaged lookouts were shipped throughout a four-state region for assembly on a
tower or bare ground. The single-room structures were grounded by a lightning protection system and usually contained a fire finder, radio or telephone, bed, table, stove and cupboards.
Lookouts replaced Forest Service guard cabins and were widely used until the mid-1970s, when
prohibitive maintenance costs and improved electronic fire detection and communication systems made their large-scale use
unnecessary. This lookout was dismantled at its site 40 miles southeast of Missoula, atop Sliderock Mountain. It was
moved to the museum, reassembled and restored, with assistance from the Friends of the Historical Museum and the Missoula Chapter of the Society of American Foresters.
There was still more to see in this rather large area. The Rocky Mountain
Museum of Military History is a small museum inside the museum grounds. It
covered the history of the fort along with an assortment of military artifacts,
books and maps pertaining to military operations. The museum is located in
buildings T-310 and T-316 by permission of the Montana National Guard. The
museum also explains some of the work done by the CCC which used the building
during the depression. This was an all day adventure with plenty of
walking. There seemed to be something of interest to everybody we
met. I would put this on my recommendation list. It's well worth the trip.
*** THE END ***
