Taking a break from living in a crowded city is one thing, but Connors admits that his solution is "probably the most extreme form of escape you could conjure up in the 21st century." "And I needed some way to re-center myself." "And I had quite literally just grown tired," Connors says. Fire Service, and wrote about his experience in his new book, Fire Season: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout.Ĭonnors tells Scott Simon on Weekend Edition that he had been living in New York City for years, working in lower Manhattan and commuting from Queens. He's employed for half of each year by the U.S.
Connors was an editor at the Wall Street Journal, but became captivated by the idea of not just getting away from it all, but living above it all with a sense of purpose. The Mountain Fire Lookout Tower was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.From the snows of April to what he calls the blessed indolence of August, author Philip Connors works in a lookout tower 50 feet above the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.
Between 19 the site was rehabilitated and converted into a public site. After its decommission, it served briefly as a radio antenna/relay for local ambulance and law enforcement services. The last fire called occurred on April 25th, 1970, and it is one of only 2 remaining towers from the original 19 that were built in the immediate area. Originally surrounded by small living quarters, a latrine, and storage sheds, the tower itself is now all that is left on the site. Incidents such as these created a dire need for towers like the Mountain Fire Lookout. At one time rich with thick forests, which in turn created a massive lumber industry, the area was prone to raging fires like the 1871 Great Peshtigo Fire which resulted in thousands of deaths, twelve completely decimated towns, and millions of scorched acres. In use for nearly forty years, from May through September of each year a trained fire spotter would live at the site, spending every daylight hour up in the cab keeping watch for smoke, reporting possible fires via phone to a central Northern Wisconsin fire suppression station. The Model LS-40 tower was built in Chicago in 1932 by the Aermotor Company, and was erected by the Wisconsin Conservation Commission, first several miles east-southeast in far more isolated location reachable only by foot trail, and then disassembled by the CCC and moved closer to service roads in 1935. 860) and just off Forest Road 2106, the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower rises 93 feet, well above a tree line crowded with pines, oak, and maples. Located in Oconto County, Wisconsin in the Chequamego-Nicolet National Forest, just two miles from the community of Mountain (pop. Information about the Fire Tower featured in our material relating to our Fall 2011 limited release, The Fire Spotter Edition.
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