Firetower Panoramic

[spyboy]

I was bored yesterday so I took a drive north from Manchester to go shoot some pictures of Mt Washington (which I've done many times).

But for some reason, I decided to keep driving north up 93 and set my gps destination to The Balsams (yeah, that's a drive from Manchester).

On the way I saw a stone tower, and as I got closer I saw it was Weeks State Park and the Mt Prospect Firetower.

So, I turned in and drove to the top and took a hike up the stairs to see what kind of shots I could get.

The (ranger, fire warden?) was in the tower and let me come up inside (I've never been in the "office" at the top.)

I asked if I could shoot some photos from there and he said no problem, so I setup my tripod and took a panoramic of the interior.

My settings were adjusted right, so I had to lighten the images when I got home (and also noticed dust on my lens, damn!) but I think the shot came out fairly well for a (unique for me) experience.

Enjoy...

http://www.kmembrydesign.com/firetower.html

I also shot an exterior of the tower

http://www.kmembrydesign.com/firetower2.html



Kirk

[Brad]

Very cool pictures. I like the old woodwork inside the tower. It looks like it is an octagon.

[Charlie]

thanks that was nice and i like the maps on the ceiling

[Steve M]

That was great. Looks like anyone up there doesn't have much to do. Esp. if he is alone.

[spyboy]

The guy that was up there (he didn't want to be photographed, so he hid behind me as I shot each part of the pano) said he likes that it's quiet.

It was his last day, not only for the season, but he was "retiring" from the position, after 17 years of fire spotting.

He said he usually spotted unauthorized burns (people burning trash in their yards) luckily no forest fires this season.

He did know his geography though (I guess sitting alone in a tower you would pretty much know the terrain and maps). He pointed out where Camel's Hump was out to the west (not visible when I was there). Since I used to live in South Burlington, Vermont it was fun to hear about the peaks over there that I hiked and knowing someone was watching from way over in New Hampshire

Kirk

[Steve M]

The guy that was up there (he didn't want to be photographed, so he hid behind me as I shot each part of the pano) said he likes that it's quiet.

I bet. That's how those tower guys are. Anyone remember the guy in tower on the Red Green show???

[Acrophobe]

That's a lovely fire tower - looks positively medieval. There's one not far from my house I bike to alot (one from which, incidently, you can see Mount Washington), but it's all ugly rusted steel I-beams.

[spyboy]

Yeah, most are just the metal frames. The interior of the stone tower actually is a metal frame, it looked like it was free standing (not attached into the old stone walls). The tower was originally built by John Weeks in 1912 on his estate (ah yes, back when people owned mountains...) His house is next to it (if you view the second pano from outside you'll see it opposite the tower).

From the interior pano, you can see the old wrought iron ladder heading straight down through another trap door. I didn't notice it when I was below the top on the metal structure. They may have cut part of it off or something.

I want to know who goes up on top to maintain their weather gear on the tip of the tower!

Kirk

[Bill O]

I like that cool sighting device with the topo map.

A little perspective. For everyone who thinks wildfires are consuming our country, they're not. Just think, wildfires used to be so widespread that anywhere there were mountains and forests they had to build a network of manned observation points. Wildfires used to consume large tracts of land in New England, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New York.

They also killed thousands of people. Google the "Peshtigo Fire". A fairly unknown story that was overshadowed by the cow-induced Chicago fire on the same day.

[Steve M]

Here is a good example of what most of the fire towers look like here in North Florida. None that I know of are manned unless there is a reason.