Fire Towers

This past Friday, I had the privilege of hearing Peter J. Barr speak about his new book, Hiking North Carolina’s Lookout Towers (Blair, 2008). He was speaking at Black Bear Books in Boone, and his program included a power point program on some of the National Forest Service towers.

"In the second decade of the 20th century," Barr writes, "numerous lookout points established atop mountain peaks provided the first long-distance fire detection network in North Carolina." (4) In the early years, the fire detection networks were just the tops of balds or rocky mountains. As time went on, stone or steel towers were built to elevate and house the men, and at time women, who were employed to watch for fires.

There have been numerous towers erected across the Toe River Valley. Here are details, taken from Barr’s book, on those towers.

Avery County
Hawshaw Mountain, erected in 1934. Still standing, but not publically accessible.

Mitchell County
Devils Nest, erected, unknown. Dismantled and burned ca.1970.
Locust Knob, erected in 1974. Still standing, but not publically accessible.
Roan High Knob, erected ca.1936. Removed ca.1946.
Woody Knob, erected in 1959. Still standing, but not publically accessible.

Yancey County
Green Knob, erected in 1931. Accessible.
Mount Mitchell - more than one tower. A new tower is currently being constructed.
Phillips Knob, erected in 1961. Still standing, but not publically accessible.

Barr has written a good book. It is a hiking guide. While it has great history not found in any other source, it does contain a good bit of hiking data.

Now if I could just find my hiking boots....