In 1916, the Forest Service began preparations to establish the highest fire lookout in the Pacific Northwest at the top of Adams. This was part of an endeavor that began in 1915 on Mount Hood and 1916 on St. Helens The idea was to situate lookouts far above all low-lying hills and mountains to give the lookouts an immense area for observation without obstructions. Being at , the new lookout would also be the third highest in the world and still is. In 1917, building materials were moved to the base of the mountain and in 1918, Dan Lewis packed the building materials and lumber to the lower portion of Suksdorf Ridge. The following summer was spent hauling the building materials to the top. The four men assigned the job, Arthur Art Jones, Adolph Schmid, Julius Wang, and Jessie Robbins, had a difficult task ahead of them until they engineered a way to quickly and, for the most part, safely bring the building materials up the slope using a deadman/rope technique. Construction of the standard D-6 building with a ¼ second story cupola began in the summer of 1920 and was completed a year later by Art, Adolph, James Huffman and Joe Guler. It was manned as a lookout during the last year of its construction through 1924. After which it was abandoned because of the difficulties of operating a lookout that high and because lower level clouds, smoke, and haze frequently and effectively blocked the view of the lower elevations. Arthur Jones was likely the one person most involved in the project, spending five seasons on the mountain. Others who worked on the project or staffed the lookout include Rudolph Deitrich, the last lookout, and Chaffin Chafe Johnson.