|
|
|
Red Hill Fire Tower
|
|
Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved. |
|
Photos of Red Hill By Warden Ed Maheux RED HILL FIRE TOWER, MOULTONBOROUGH, NH
Ernest B. Dane offered to build a tower and cabin on Red Hill if the State of NH would maintain it. The state agreed and in 1927, the tower was constructed. Mr. Dane gave the State of NH a check for $1,175 to build the tower and cabin and equip them with a telephone line. Steel for the 27 foot tower was provided by NH Structural Steel Co. of Manchester, NH. The first watchman was listed in 1927.
FACTS Elevation—2029’ Hiking Trails—3 1) Red Hill Tower Trail—From Red Hill Road Parking lot 1.75 miles one way 2) Loop Trail—From logging road off of Red Hill Road to Red Hill Tower trail near summit. Approx 2 miles one way. 3) Eagle Cliff Trail— From trailhead at Range Road (Sandwich).
TIMELINE 1934 - A well was blasted into the ledge, southeast of the summit. Well is no longer usable.
1939 -The tower was reported as 45 feet tall, although it is unknown when the additional 18 feet was added to the original 27 foot tower.
1972 - An additional 10 feet was added to the tower, bringing it to it’s current height of 55 feet.
1981 - The State of NH closed the tower due to budget cuts.
1987 - The town of Moultonborough, with financial assistance from several towns surrounding the mountain reopened the tower.
2000 - Lakes Region Conservation Trust purchased the land from the Dane family. (Approx. 1800 Acres)
2003 - On August 5th, the Red Hill Fire Tower was added to the National Historic Tower Register.
2004 - A new parking lot was built and the trailhead was improved.
2006 – Improvements to the “Indian Carry Trail”, now called “Red Hill Loop Trail” gave hikers an alternate route from the fire tower trailhead to the summit.
RECENT FIRE HISTORY 1984 - A fire burned on Eagle Cliff which was started by campers. (Unknown size)
1986 - A 50 Acre fire burned over the summit, destroying the outhouse. Cause of the fire was believed to be arson.
1988 - A large forest fire burned 316 acres. This was an arson fire with at least seven known ignition points. This was the largest fire in the State of NH since 1952 when a fire on Mount Shaw (also in Moultonborough) burned more than 2500 acres.
1990 - Another large arson fire with multiple ignition points burned 216 acres. This fire burned over the summit and trapped the watchman and 4 hikers in the tower. This fire killed most of the trees on the summit, approximately 10 acres of dead trees on the summit. The damage from this fire is still very evident today.
Both the 1988 & 1990 fires took fire crews about 24 hours to surround and about 3 days to do mop up to extinguish “hot spots” At the height of the blazes, approximately 250 firefighters from as far away as Concord to the south and North Conway to the north assisted in containment operations. There were also numerous helicopters used for water drops from the Maine Forest Fire Service as well as a private contractor.
|
