Concerned that this website will result in increased visitors to your site?

Rather than type this over I decided to copy and edit an email I sent to a fellow lookout who was concerned about the publiicty this website might bring. When I first considered opening a web site on L.Os I took into serious consideration the possibility it could lead to an increasing number of visitors. There is no way to know for certain until the page is actually up, but a quick look at some numbers led me to the conclusion that this website will not significantly impact the guest registers at L.O.s. For two-and-one-half years now there has been an active website called "Rex Kamstra's Fire Lookout Page". Although his site focuses primarily on L.Os of Washington it is in other respects very similar in scope to the site I hope to post. He has a webcounter on the opening page of his site and it has taken 9,600 hits. At first glance this may seem a lot, but upon closer inspection the numbers look much less intimidating. Figure at least 1,000 of those hits are revisits(I personally have logged onto his site at least 10 times). That leaves some 8,600 visitors over a two-and-one-half year period for an average of 3,840 per year. Oregon has approximately 1.1%(this number may be a bit low or high, but it's in the ballpark) of all w.w.w traffic in the country. That works out to a share of only around 42 hits a year from Oregon! Even assuming that Oregonians "hit" Rex's site at three times the national average would work out to 124 people. Of those 124 how many are actually going to get inspired enough to get off their computerzombie butts(especially considering most of the 124 people live clear over in the metro areas of the Willamette Valley)and travel out to visit a lookout? Maybe 30? Probably closer to 10, but even 30 visitors distributed among nearly 100 LO.s in Oregon doesn't amount to much. The sad fact is that the majority of the lookouts who get lots of visitors do so not because they've appeared in brochures, books or websites(Kerouac's Desolation may be one of a few exceptions), but because they're located close to highways and areas of large population density. The first lookout I staffed, Iron Mtn., sits just North of Highway 20 and is famed for its wildflowers and thus attracts hordes of visitors. My current tower,Pisgah, is located at the end of a rough road in a sage flat some one-and-one-half hours from the nearest town of any size (Prineville)and therefore gets close to nil for visitors. Most of those who do visit Pisgah are local hunters/rednecks who certainly didn't read about the tower anywhere! I honestly don't believe my website will cause any noticeable influx of visitors to any one lookout tower. It is, however, a legitimate concern, and if it does so I will either greatly modify it or yank it completely. In the meantime I will certainly continue to respect any individual LO staffer's wish to be left off the web. The opening page of my site is a map of Oregon with tags designating the location of each of the 90+ staffed L.O.s in Oregon. This map lacks any road, river, town etc. detail and any individual Lookout gets lost in the clutter. All staffed lookouts will remain on this map, but there will be no additional info about or photos of any tower I have been requested to leave off. Please contact me if you are a lookout staffer or someone directly involved in the management of a lookout you would like to be left off of this site.

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