MINNESOTA LOOKOUTS
NORTHWEST ANGLE
Lake of the Woods County
166N-35W-2
166N-35W-2
1950's: "The nation's northernmost ground observer post . . .
IT IS a cardinal principle of air defense that an attacking enemy must be detected and tracked as far from his target as possible. This is necessary to allow sufficient time for interception and adequate air raid warnings to the target areas. In the Ground Observer Corps, this principle is carried to its extreme by Kilo Echo Five Three Black, the nation's northernmost ground observer post. From here could well come the first warning of an air attack on this country by low-flying enemy bombers.
Kilo Echo Five Three Black is located on a freak of geography known as the Northwest Angle. This spur of land, some 130 miles square, is closer to the North Pole than any other part of the United States. It is actually a peninsula off the land mass of Canada, jutting into the Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota, and is entirely separated from the rest of the United States by water.
Going over a map of the area are three of the Northwest Angle's timber experts and plane spotters: Mr. Norman Hohm, Mr. Clarence Selvog, and Mr. Don Richards. Mr. Selvog is post supervisor and Mr. Hohm is chief observer.
The Northwest Angle's lone ground observer post is located at a pulpwood camp operated for Minnesota & Ontario Paper Co., or Mando, for short. Its post supervisor is Mr. Clarence Selvog, a Mando employee who helps direct timber-
cutting operations on the Angle.
There isn't much aircraft-reporting business for Mr. Selvog and the few other lumbermen who are his skywatching assistants. Only one airliner flies regularly over the sparsely-populated forests of the Angle. Most of the time, the only things to be seen in the air are flights of wild ducks which abound in the region and occasional small airplanes which are the principal means of transportation there.
Skywatching in the Angle is necessarily combined with the countless other duties which fall on the men there. During the fire season, this combination works out particularly well, for at that time a huge 80-foot fire lookout tower at the lumber camp is manned. The tower itself is owned by the State of Minnesota Department of Conservation, but Mando operates it to protect the timber in which it has such a vital concern.
On the few occasions when a strange aircraft is sighted or heard, Mr. Selvog or one of the other men at the camp suddenly changes from lumberman to ground observer. He cannot, however, put an Aircraft Flash call through to the Minneapolis Filter Center simply by picking up a telephone. Instead, the call must first go by radio to the State Division of Forestry office at Warroad, Minn., on the mainland. Here the call is relayed swiftly to the filter center.
More often than not, Mr. Selvog's radioed messages are received and forwarded Situated at the northernmost part of the United States, this lumber camp ground observer post on the Northwest Angle could well sound the first alarm of a low-level enemy air attack across the northern Minnesota border. at the Warroad station by his wife, who
works for the state as a forestry radio operator.
Unlike many fire lookout towers acting as observer posts in other parts of the country, the pulpwood camp on the Northwest Angle is manned in winter as well as summer. In fact, winter is one of the busiest times there, for that is when the pulp wood which has been cut during the fall is transported to the paper mills. By arrangement with the Canadian government, the pulpwood is trucked out over Canadian roads which cross muskeg. These roads are impassable until cold weather freezes the soggy ground.
The Northwest Angle post is only one segment of Mando's outstanding contribution to air defense. Throughout northern Minnesota, the company has seven other lumber camps active as ground observer posts. In addition, it has three radio-equipped trucks and four "walkie-talkies. Aircraft Flash calls from the Northwest Angle are radioed across the water to Warroad, Minn., where they are relayed by phone to the Minneapolis Filter Center. This relay is accomplished by Mrs. Clarence Selvog, wife of the post supervisor, who is a radio operator for the State Forestry Division at Warroad." (Aircraft Flashes, vol.2)
IT IS a cardinal principle of air defense that an attacking enemy must be detected and tracked as far from his target as possible. This is necessary to allow sufficient time for interception and adequate air raid warnings to the target areas. In the Ground Observer Corps, this principle is carried to its extreme by Kilo Echo Five Three Black, the nation's northernmost ground observer post. From here could well come the first warning of an air attack on this country by low-flying enemy bombers.
Kilo Echo Five Three Black is located on a freak of geography known as the Northwest Angle. This spur of land, some 130 miles square, is closer to the North Pole than any other part of the United States. It is actually a peninsula off the land mass of Canada, jutting into the Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota, and is entirely separated from the rest of the United States by water.
Going over a map of the area are three of the Northwest Angle's timber experts and plane spotters: Mr. Norman Hohm, Mr. Clarence Selvog, and Mr. Don Richards. Mr. Selvog is post supervisor and Mr. Hohm is chief observer.
The Northwest Angle's lone ground observer post is located at a pulpwood camp operated for Minnesota & Ontario Paper Co., or Mando, for short. Its post supervisor is Mr. Clarence Selvog, a Mando employee who helps direct timber-
cutting operations on the Angle.
There isn't much aircraft-reporting business for Mr. Selvog and the few other lumbermen who are his skywatching assistants. Only one airliner flies regularly over the sparsely-populated forests of the Angle. Most of the time, the only things to be seen in the air are flights of wild ducks which abound in the region and occasional small airplanes which are the principal means of transportation there.
Skywatching in the Angle is necessarily combined with the countless other duties which fall on the men there. During the fire season, this combination works out particularly well, for at that time a huge 80-foot fire lookout tower at the lumber camp is manned. The tower itself is owned by the State of Minnesota Department of Conservation, but Mando operates it to protect the timber in which it has such a vital concern.
On the few occasions when a strange aircraft is sighted or heard, Mr. Selvog or one of the other men at the camp suddenly changes from lumberman to ground observer. He cannot, however, put an Aircraft Flash call through to the Minneapolis Filter Center simply by picking up a telephone. Instead, the call must first go by radio to the State Division of Forestry office at Warroad, Minn., on the mainland. Here the call is relayed swiftly to the filter center.
More often than not, Mr. Selvog's radioed messages are received and forwarded Situated at the northernmost part of the United States, this lumber camp ground observer post on the Northwest Angle could well sound the first alarm of a low-level enemy air attack across the northern Minnesota border. at the Warroad station by his wife, who
works for the state as a forestry radio operator.
Unlike many fire lookout towers acting as observer posts in other parts of the country, the pulpwood camp on the Northwest Angle is manned in winter as well as summer. In fact, winter is one of the busiest times there, for that is when the pulp wood which has been cut during the fall is transported to the paper mills. By arrangement with the Canadian government, the pulpwood is trucked out over Canadian roads which cross muskeg. These roads are impassable until cold weather freezes the soggy ground.
The Northwest Angle post is only one segment of Mando's outstanding contribution to air defense. Throughout northern Minnesota, the company has seven other lumber camps active as ground observer posts. In addition, it has three radio-equipped trucks and four "walkie-talkies. Aircraft Flash calls from the Northwest Angle are radioed across the water to Warroad, Minn., where they are relayed by phone to the Minneapolis Filter Center. This relay is accomplished by Mrs. Clarence Selvog, wife of the post supervisor, who is a radio operator for the State Forestry Division at Warroad." (Aircraft Flashes, vol.2)