A small number of people make the unconventional choice to venture away from mainstream society to live or work in total solitude.
Kevin Silagi made it all the way to Eagle Scouts before applying for his position at Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area in Eastern Oregon.
Towering over the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, Dominic Luebbers peers out his window, noting the weather. There’s not a cloud in sight. Every ten minutes he uses his binoculars to look for smoke in the area, searching for anything abnormal.
Although he now considers it a hobby, in the past Luebbers spent every summer from 2001 to 2006 working as a fire lookout for the US Forest Service. On most days the occasional voice on the dispatch radio was his only company.
While human society is built around interaction and communication between groups of people, there are individuals who willingly live in isolation for long periods of time. Some do it to fulfill an innate desire to be alone, while others find themselves living in isolation because their jobs require it—not necessarily because they want to.
Whatever their occupation—be it maintaining trails, conducting research studies, or keeping lookout for forest fires—these people make the choice to trade in their mainstream lifestyles and live a large portion of their lives in solitude.
Luebbers finds the isolation exuberating.
“A few days of hiking and camping can bring you closer to nature; however, there isn’t anything quite like living in the middle of it for three months,” Luebbers says.
According to Sarah Levy, volunteer and service programs coordinator for the US Forest Service, volunteering in isolated environments is rare; most volunteers who go to remote areas usually work in groups, and those that do have gone through extensive safety training. These volunteers sometimes maintain trails where camping overnight is a necessity due to the distant location of a site.
“We do our best to make sure that every group of volunteers that go out is able to stay in communication with their forest or ranger district,” Levy says.
Exceptions to the norm include fire lookouts, like Luebbers, who would sometimes go as long as five days without any face-to-face interaction with another human being.
“I found it was rather easy to go days without seeing anyone, but going days without having a conversation with another person was more difficult,” Luebbers says.
Luebbers has worked at multiple lookout locations, each one different from the last. The average lookout tower in the Willamette Valley is about five thousand feet in elevation. The average n Although it was difficult for Luebbers to adjust to the isolation at first, he soon began to enjoy it.
“I found that I would talk to myself a lot and did a lot more in-depth thinking about things than I would normally do,” Luebbers says.
Silagi majored in psychology before getting a job in the wilderness.
Licensed counselor Anne Allanketner says there are many possible reasons why certain people prefer to work or live in isolated environments. For instance, some may find it an important source of personal nourishment. Often the person may consider him or herself an introvert and enjoy time spent alone to “regenerate” after losing energy from day-to-day interactions.
According to Allanketner, being motivated by a mission is another reason why some people are drawn to solitary environments. She says people, such as astronauts, explorers, missionaries, and military personnel, are so intensely absorbed in completing the job at hand that they don’t consider the human deprivation their work requires from them.
When University of Oregon graduate Kevin Silagi applied to be an interpretive intern with the US Forest Service, he knew the position would require him to be stationed in a remote area. After a few weeks on the job, he was hooked.
“It was one of those things where I figured I’d be gone for three months and then I would have to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life when I got back,” Silagi says. “Now there is no question in my mind: this is what I want to do.”
Silagi has worked as an interpretive intern at the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area in Eastern Oregon for the past five months before becoming a volunteer. Although he sometimes interacts with children and park visitors, he will often go entire days without encountering another person.
This solitude doesn’t always entail the loneliness one might imagine. In fact, it’s one of the aspects Silagi enjoys most about his job.
“It’s funny but I’m never afraid of being alone in the woods, like running into cougars or bears,” Silagi says. “When I’m alone in the wilderness, I worry about running into people because it breaks the spell that the woods have over me.”
Silagi plans to apply to forestry jobs outside of Oregon in the upcoming months.
For Luebbers, the perks of his jobs greatly outweigh any loneliness he might experience.
“I enjoy spending time in a place with spectacular views, like people who want to have a corner office in a tall building,” Luebbers says. “I have seen amazing sunsets, heard thunder echoing in canyons, seen tremendous storms, and intense fire activity.”
Both Silagi and Luebbers have always had strong ties to nature. Silagi says that living in a cabin in the woods has been a dream come true.
“I was an only child so I was used to being alone,” Silagi says. “Pair that with a love of nature and you have a great recipe for a park ranger. I enjoy my time in the woods alone, exploring the forest and wandering in my mind.”
These kinds of solitary jobs are not only important to the people who do them, but also to the community at large. According to the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, the number of major wildfires between 1950 and 2000 has increased dramatically not only in North America, but all over the world. In July The Oregonian published an article about the decline of fire lookouts—fewer than 20 percent of Oregon’s one thousand lookout sites still have structures, and only 106 of them are staffed.
Luebbers is nothing but passionate about the work he has done with the US Forest Service.
“I believe it is of the utmost importance for those working at lookouts to do their best and prove that lookouts are still a viable form of fire detection in order to preserve this unique piece of history for future generations,” Luebbers says.
Although Luebbers no longer works as a lookout, he continues to travel to these isolated areas. He estimates he’s been to around 220 individual lookout sites.
During his travels Luebbers encountered a variety of individuals also drawn to the beauty and peaceful solitude these places provide.
“I have met people writing books, doing art work, wood carving, sewing—and then some people who don’t like people at all,” Luebbers says.
Author Henry David Thoreau famously secluded himself on the shores of Walden Pond for two years, and like Luebbers and Silagi, Thoreau found that this period of isolation granted him time for introspection and reflection. Perhaps these men have tapped into a form of self-discovery that can only be found in moments of solitude.
“The silence and lack of distractions allow you to reflect and really get to the root of our actions,” Silagi says. “It gives you time to question the things you have done, your aspirations, and your purpose.”
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