September 23, 1914: "Forest Guard Usher has nearly completed a new trail from Crane Prairie Ranger Station to Round Mountain lookout, which will shorten the distance from the station to the lookout about one mile." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 5, 1927: The telephone connections were nearing completion.
August 13, 1927: " With compass needles thrown off from 10 to 20 degrees by local magnetic attraction, the temporary lookout is working under a handicap in reporting forest fires, it was learned here today in information received from local forest officials. To offset the local attraction, Leslie Colvill, in charge of the fire control work, was this morning making charts on which the erratic deviation of the magnetic needle can be rectified, through orientation of the charts with mapped points." (The Bend Bulletin)
1928: On July 26 an emergency lookout was stationed.
1929: Due to heavy smoke on August 12th, the intermediate lookout was stationed.
August 9, 1930: "Emergency lookout was placed on Round mountain." (The Bend Bulletin)
June 15, 1931: "Round Mountain was used this season as a lookout point for the training of the protective units. A feature of the school was the running of compass lines at night. Lanterns were placed in the woods by the instructors and the control men were required to find all the lights, by running lines. All lights were found." (The Bend Bulletin )
June 17,1932: "W. Fordham was to go on Round mountain today." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 13, 1932: "On Round Mountain, one of the eight lookout houses will be built on a massive rock." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 20, 1932: "Ability of lookouts to locate small forest fires when looking toward the sun was being tested in the Deschutes country today by R.E. McArdle and D.M. Mathews of the North Pacific forest experimental station. The two men were in the Round mountain country today and were to set off smoke bombs at varying distances from the lookout station to determine the lookout's range of vision." (The Bend Bulletin)
1933: The 14x14 L-4 hip-roof lookout house was completed at a cost of $709.89.
1934: A plan T-1E 14x18 wood frame garage was built.
July 24, 1935: "Lightning apparently struck the Round Mountain lookout house, where Gilbert Bowe is stationed, but conductors carried the bolts into the earth. Bowe reported having been in the very center of a lightning barrage, with blue flames at times enveloping his house." (The Bend Bulletin)
1936: In June, hazard sticks, balanced scales and wind recording instruments were installed.
July 16, 1936: "The efficiency of forest patrol was demonstrated today when lookouts at Wanoga, Paulina Peak, Davis and Round mountains, and Lava Butte almost simultaneously located a half acre fire in the Fall River area. Upon telephoning headquarters the lookouts were told that the conflagration had been purposely started as part of the training school for CCC and ECW workers. The workers are now occupied in combatting the blaze, local forest officials reported. Members of the CCC and ECW camps are all required to take part in the one-day session of the school at one time or another. L.V. Hunter, local protective assistant, is in charge of the training in this area." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 17, 1939: "Donald Garvik, lookout on Round mountain visited his mother, Mrs. Gladys Garvik, last week-end." (The Bend Bulletin)
1940: The first lightning caused fire of the 1940 fire season was spotted by the lookout on Round Mountain. The smoke was spotted the morning of May 23rd about two miles north of Fall River and was confined to a snag.
1941: The lookout received 1.10 inches of rain on the weekend of August 16th and 17th.
July 26, 1943: "Sherwood Jerome, 17, consistently spotted wisps of smoke, indicating fires, hours before other lookouts in the district. He is stationed on Round mountain." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 25, 1944: "Miss Sibyl Walker, former Bend school nurse, has been called into service as a navy nurse and will report in Portland for assignment, it has been learned here. Miss Walker served as lookout on Round Mountain in the Deschutes national forest this season and came down from her station this week. Miss Walker is to report for duty on August 2." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 5, 1945: "Next of the women lookouts to be assigned to a high point was Elizabeth Randell. Prineville school teacher and veteran lookout of former service. Her station is on top of Round mountain, 5,900 feet up." (The Bend Bulletin)
August 24, 1951: "High aloft Round Mountain is living proof that business can be mixed with pleasure, and to good advantage. The proof comes in the form of a young married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Hawthorne, who man the U.S. forest service lookout on the mountain, located just north of Wickiup reservoir. A ministerial student at Yale divinity school, Bob whisked his recently acquired wife west for the first time last summer to perch just a little higher than anyone else and watch for telltale plumes of smoke. They liked it as well that when was out in New Haven this spring, they again forsook the flatlands of their native Iowa for Oregon's Cascades. The forest service has probably never thought of Round Mountain lookout in terms of nuptial bliss, but traditional vine-covered cottage could never touch it, as far as the Hawthornes are concerned. Few people seem to welcome the mile-long trail which winds some eight or nine hundred feet to the lookout, so lack of privacy presents no problem whatsoever." (The Bend Bulletin)
July 21, 1952: "Two minor forest fires occurred in this district over the weekend and both were extinguished without damage, it was reported today. Saturday a small area was burned over in the Snow creek region. This fire, apparently started by a fisherman, was spotted by the Round mountain lookout." (The Bend Bulletin)
1994: During the Four Corners fire the lookout was evacuated.
2001: The lookout was evacuated on August 18th during the Crane Fire.
National Geodetic Survey
DESIGNATION - ROUND MT PID - PB0761 STATE/COUNTY- OR/DESCHUTES COUNTRY - US USGS QUAD - ROUND MOUNTAIN (1981)
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1933 (FGJ) STATION IS ON A ROUND TOP MOUNTAIN 5900 FEET HIGH, ABOUT 12 MILES NW OF LAPINE. IT IS TIMBER COVERED EXCEPT ON THE VERY TOP WHERE THERE ARE LARGE LAVA BOULDERS. THE MARKS ARE ALL IN THESE BOULDERS, THE STATION BEING IN THE SAME ONE THE LOOKOUT IS ON TO THE S OF THE LOOKOUT.
STATION AND REFERENCE MARKS ARE STANDARD BRONZE DISKS IN A BOULDER AS DESCRIBED.
REFERENCE MARK NO.1 IS TO E AND NO.2 IS N BY W OF STATION.
BACHELOR BUTTE LOOKOUT (AZIMUTH MARK) IS 15.5 MILES N OF STATION.
PISTOL BUTTE LOOKOUT (AZIMUTH MARK) IS 6.8 MILES NE OF STATION.
REACHED FROM BEND AS FOLLOWS FROM POST OFFICE--GO S ON U.S. HIGHWAY 97 16 MILES TO A SIGNBOARD ON THE LEFT POINTING TO CENTURY DRIVE. TURN RIGHT ON DRIVE AND GO 10.7 MILES TO A FORK, CONTINUE STRAIGHT AHEAD HERE ON MAIN-TRAVELED ROAD 3.6 MILES TO FALL RIVER FOREST CAMP, GO STRAIGHT AHEAD ON ELK LAKE ROAD 4.5 MILES, TURN LEFT ON A GRADED DIRT ROAD AND GO 1.0 MILE TO BASE OF ROUND MOUNTAIN. TAKE ROUND MOUNTAIN TRAIL HERE AND PACK IS ABOUT 1/2 HOUR.