AMERICAN RIDGE
Yakima County - Snoqualmie National Forest - 17N-13E-30
August 10, 1955: "A Navy helicopter pilot bucked dangerous crosswinds and flirted with a 1,000 foot precipice to lift a critically ill Forest Service lookout from a Cascade Mountain peak Tuesday.
The lookout, William George, 18, of Selah, was recovering at a hospital here Wednesday after an emergency operation for acute appendicitis.
The Forest Service gave this report on efforts to get medical help for George:
The youth, stationed at a lookout point on 6,494-foot American Ridge, radioed to the district ranger at Naches he was not feeling well and a Yakima doctor diagnosed his ailment as appendicitis.
District Ranger Robert Torheim sent a Forest Service patrolman with a pack train to the lookout point but after the doctor advised a horseback trip might be dangerous for George, Torheim asked the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station for help.
The Navy sent a helicopter and two hours after it left Whidbey George was en route to a hospital.
But to rescue George, forestry men said, the pilot had to jockey the 'copter at the edge of a cliff near the lookout station. Bucking shifting winds, the pilot held the helicopter's wheels on rocks by the building while the rear wheels hung over a sheer 1,000-foot precipice." (The Daily Chronicle)
The lookout, William George, 18, of Selah, was recovering at a hospital here Wednesday after an emergency operation for acute appendicitis.
The Forest Service gave this report on efforts to get medical help for George:
The youth, stationed at a lookout point on 6,494-foot American Ridge, radioed to the district ranger at Naches he was not feeling well and a Yakima doctor diagnosed his ailment as appendicitis.
District Ranger Robert Torheim sent a Forest Service patrolman with a pack train to the lookout point but after the doctor advised a horseback trip might be dangerous for George, Torheim asked the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station for help.
The Navy sent a helicopter and two hours after it left Whidbey George was en route to a hospital.
But to rescue George, forestry men said, the pilot had to jockey the 'copter at the edge of a cliff near the lookout station. Bucking shifting winds, the pilot held the helicopter's wheels on rocks by the building while the rear wheels hung over a sheer 1,000-foot precipice." (The Daily Chronicle)
1968: Removed