![]() With aerial surveillance (and later, satellites), the need for lookout towers diminished.Īt the height of their operation, Arkansas had 122 known fire towers. Road systems expanded into the forests, and more citizens began to report fires, especially with the advent of cell phones. Towers closed as human presence in forests increased. In the 1970s, toward the end of the era of fire towers, nearly half of the “towermen” in Arkansas were women. This was the primary way of detecting fires until the 1960s, when aerial detection became more accurate and easier. If they detected a possible fire, they were equipped with a telephone to report it. ![]() ![]() Tower watchmen often lived alone in or near the tower and spent the daylight hours scanning the forests for signs of smoke. The Arkansas Forestry Commission was established by Act 234 in 1931, and it too built many more towers. During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built 3,100 towers, including many in the Ouachita and Ozark-St. After the new Forest Service rule, towers emerged nationwide. Prior to 1910, a few fire lookout towers existed, built as early as the 1870s, primarily to protect towns and industrial sites. the following morning.” Early detection suddenly became a priority. As a result of this fire, the Forest Service put in place a new rule: “All fires must be extinguished by 10:00 a.m. In 1910, a fire called the “Big Blow-Up” burned three million acres in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, killing eighty-seven people in what is believed to be the largest forest fire in recorded U.S. Forest Service was created in 1905 to oversee the management of the country’s woodlands. Arkansas has ten lookouts on the National Historic Lookout Register and three on the National Register of Historic Places. At the height of their use (1930s to 1970s), Arkansas had more than 120 fire towers in 1994, forty-eight were still standing. The first fire lookout strictly for protection of American forests was built in 1902 at Bertha Hill near Headquarters, Idaho. The first one built in America was in downtown Harlem, New York, constructed in 1856 in what is now Marcus Garvey City Park. The oldest lookout still standing is the Tuztoromy Firewatch Tower in Sopron, Hungary, which was built in the thirteenth century and remodeled in 1681. Fire towers (also known as lookouts) go back thousands of years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |