Gerry Mountain

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  PamelaMcDonald (guest)

  Gerry Mountain - sixty years ago, in 1949, a young man named Dennis McDonald had returned as an Army Lieutenant from the Second World War and was a student in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. During the summer months he was employed by the BC Forest Service to do visibility mapping. In those days the government did not use aircraft to look for forest fires, but relied on forest look-out stations. Dennis's job was to climb to the top of high mountains and draw a map of the area visiible below. When he mapped the area visible from a mountain near Penticiton, which provided such an excellent view of the Okanagan Valley, he was required to give the look-out a name. He chose the name of his wife and wrote on his map "GERRY MOUNTAIN". For more than twenty summers, various young men and women lived at Gerry Look-out, maintaining constant vigilance for forest fires. The people in the area became very familiar with the lookout and the BC Forest Service people who manned it. When aircraft began to take over the role of searching for forest fires, the look-out was dismantled, yet the local people continued to call the mountain Gerry Mountain. Geraldine McDonald, whom Dennis affectionately called Gerry, also served Overseas during the Second World War in the Royal Canadian Air Force. She is now a retired teacher living in Kamloops, B.C. In 2009, at the age of 87, she climbed Gerry Mountain to enjoy the view that her husband had been inspired to name after her.

  16 years ago | reply | hide comment
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  jpouncyshaw.ca (guest)

  Well done Geraldine. You are inspiration to all your friends.

  16 years ago | reply | hide comment