The Argentine Rock Lookout Repair Group announces that it plans will hold a planning meeting on Tuesday Feb. 11th at 6:00 pm in the Mineral Building at the Quincy Fairgrounds. All are welcome to attend.
The Argentine Group has been working on restoring the old lookout for several years and has made some significant progress, organizers said. Gravel was put down to improve the road for access, concrete was poured for the foundation for a new set of steel stairs leading up to the lookout, heavy steel beams for the stairs were carried up and are ready for the stairs welding, along with some beginning woodworking repairs on the old building itself.
“We’ve made a fair amount of progress the last two years, doing basic access work, and this year comes the big push to restore the lookout itself and finish the job.” said Jeff Greef, chairman of the group. “We particularly need volunteers now with basic carpentry skills to build some wood stairs, replace the siding, install windows and trim, that kind of thing,” said Greef.
The group was started in Fall of 2020 when the national group, Forest Fire Lookout Association, sent their representative Chris Rivera up to Quincy to start a chapter for the purpose of repairing Argentine. The group then got a Resource Advisory Committee grant of $140,000 from the Forest Service to finance basic access repairs such as road work and an updated staircase up the cliff.
“We’ve got a bit of a funding pinch right now to get all the materials needed to finish the job,” said Greef. “We’ve applied for some other grants, but unless we get another $20-30,000, we will have to stop at some point for lack of funds,” said Greef.
“But our main resource is local volunteers, from the brave people that carried 180 sacks of concrete up that hill on backpacks to people who help get rid of the demolition waste, to carpenters good with a hammer and saw. We will need more volunteers, and always looking for new sign-ups,” said Greef.
Information provided by Argentine Rock Lookout repair group