Mark Hufstetler

listen here for interview 1- November 29, 2022

listen here for interview 2- January 30, 2023

to listen to a shortened (~15 minute), AI-created podcast of these interviews please click here

Interview 1 Summary:

Mark Hufstetler describes being born in Utah in 1958. He says his father was a career U.S. Forest Service employee, and Mark’s family lived at Forest Service ranger stations within the Challis, Bridger, and Dixie National Forests until his family purchased a homestead in the Uinta Mountains. Mark tells of visiting Twin Peaks and Fly Creek Point Lookouts in 1966, sparking an interest in lookouts. After attending college in Salt Lake City, Mark describes spending six years with Glacier National Park concessions, where he visited many lookouts. Mark discusses getting his master’s degree at Montana State University and then working as a historian in Glacier National Park. He describes working with the Flathead National Forest as a volunteer lookout for 24 days on Cooney, Cyclone, and Baptiste Lookouts. In 2018, Mark staffed Porphyry Peak Lookout with the Lewis and Clark National Forest before returning in 2019 to Baptiste Lookout as a paid staffer.
Mark says he has worked there ever since and plans to return in 2023.

Interview 2 Summary:

In this second interview, Mark focuses on the Flathead National Forest’s volunteer program, which he says is a “unique opportunity for the community” by having volunteers who do all the duties of regular lookouts for ten days to two weeks. He says the volunteers have two days of training to learn weather, the firefinder, radios, and other equipment and duties. Mark tells of the uniqueness of lookouts he has staffed, like Baptiste’s remoteness, and the great interplay of weather. Cyclone Lookout has a view of Glacier National Park that Mark says equals or exceeds what tourists can see in the park. At Porphyry Lookout, he tells of being the only lookout for one hundred miles, but you can drive to the lookout, so there is no solitude. Mark talks about his own unique duties: working with main lookout, Leif Haugen, before lookouts return, helping with volunteer and Forest Service training, response to fires, and updating manuals. He discusses how things change seasonally and says he is gratified by learning self-reliance as a result of his lookout experiences.