Catskill Mountain fire towers
![View From Overlook Mountain Fire Tower](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Vista_From_Overlook_Mountain_Fire_Tower.jpg/220px-Vista_From_Overlook_Mountain_Fire_Tower.jpg)
The Catskill Mountain fire towers were constructed to facilitate
History
Catskill fire protection before towers
When the
The FFGC (Forest, Fish and Game Commission, the DEC's predecessor) was understaffed and unable to focus on fire prevention. Severe fires during droughts in 1903 and 1908 caused thousands of dollars in damages and led to public calls for better fire control efforts. In December 1908, FFGC head James Whipple sought advice from agencies in other states. His counterpart in Maine, E.E. Ring, recommended the use of strategically placed observation towers, stating that "one man located at a station will do far more effectual work in discovering and locating fires than a hundred men already patrolling."[1]
![A black and white photograph of a triangular wooden tower with an open top deck, with some evergreen trees in the foreground. Several men are standing on top of it.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/1909_Hunter_Mountain_firetower.jpg/200px-1909_Hunter_Mountain_firetower.jpg)
Tower construction
An informal system of
Abandonment and revival
In 1996, Hunter and the other four towers were added to the Historic Lookout Register, and then to the National Register the following year.[1] Local committees raised money for their repair, and in 1999 the tower on Overlook Mountain was the first to be reopened to the public. The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development has worked in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation since the early 1990s to maintain the remaining 5 historic Catskills fire towers (Hunter, Balsam Lake, Tremper, Overlook, and Red Hill), and to interpret them seasonally for hikers and visitors.
References
- ^ ISBN 1-930098-10-3.
- ISBN 1-930098-02-2..
...because Hunter Mountain has had so many fires, I consider it the interior fire capital of the Catskills ... There have been more burns around Hunter Mountain than anywhere else in the Catskills except along the Escarpment and in the lower Esopus Basin near Phoenicia
- ^ "Hunter Mountain Fire Tower". Archived from the original on 2007-11-26. Retrieved 2007-10-09.