Current Status, Feb. 2001

contributed by Richard Konizeski

Current Status of Ione Gap Filler Annex P60A
based on information taken from 199 Army Corps of Engineers FUDS F10WA011100

Feb 20, 2001

Location: On top of North Baldy Peak, approximately 18 miles southeast of Ione, and 27 miles northeast of Newport, WA, in Pend Oreille County, WA.

Findings of Fact in the report state that a total of 56.50 acres were acquired in 1957 for the Air Force from the US Forest Service and Northern Pacific Railway. The Ione Gap Filler Annex was used as an unmanned radar site.

On February 14, 1962, 56 .00 acres were relinquished to the Forest Service, and on Jan 02, 1962, 0.50-acre fee was conveyed to the US Forest Service by letter of transfer. All the property was incorporated into the Kanisku National Forest.

Site History from the report shows an unmanned radar station was constructed on the site, that the facility was declared excess in 1961, and the property conveyed to the Forest Service and incorporated into the Kanisku National Forest in 1962.

At that time, the following structures were in place:
Communications Building, 19 X 39 feet, concrete block construction with an adjacent offset concrete slab and foundation measuring 35 X 19 feet; sanitary Latrine, 5 X 8 feet, wood construction; partially buried 714-barrel diesel storage tank; radar tower foundation made up of three concrete pads, each approximately 5.5 X 2 feet and 8 inches high

The Forest service maintained a lookout tower to the site from 1963 to 1989. Trail crews continue to use the communications building as a campsite. Some years ago, fuel remaining in the diesel tank was drained by the Forest Service to start `controlled burn` fires, and the tank was not refilled or used for any other purposes, and still remains in place.