Smokey the Bear has his own bedroom at Ray Kresek's north Spokane home, situated on what resembles a pine tree clearing in the National Forest. Really, though, it's Kresek's homage to bygone days of wildland firefighting at his Fire Lookout Museum.
Thirty varieties of regional conifers and other native shrubbery fill most of Kresek's 1-acre plot, forming the backdrop for a unique structure in his backyard: a nearly 90-year-old fire lookout cabin. Built during the 1930s when forestry departments wanted to top every mountain with a lookout, resulting in more than 8,000 such structures nationwide, the cabin now sits atop a manageable 6-foot platform. Adjacent is Kresek's other on-site lookout: a replica of a tower style incorporating pine trees as part of the structure, jutting 60 feet upward.
Next to the lookouts is a 1936 garage built by the Civilian Conservation Corps for use by the Washington Division of Forestry in Usk.