Blue Job Fire Tower, Farmington New Hampshire

History of the Fire Tower

The Blue Job Mountain Fire Tower is one of 15 active fire towers owned and operated by the State of New Hampshire, through the New Hampshire Division of Forests & Lands, as part of a statewide fire tower system. Prior to its use for fire prevention and observation, Blue Job Mountain was likely used for timber harvesting and general agriculture. The mountain was first used for fire detection in 1912-1913 by the state's Forestry Commission. The first watchman was Albert B. Felker (b. 1874), who worked on his parent's farm in Stratford. In following years, John M. Felker (b. 1872), Albert's brother, served as watchman. Although description of the original station equipment is omitted from Forestry Commission reports, it was likely a crudely built platform built on the trunks of topped trees. In many cases, these stations were constructed by the watchmen themselves.

In 1915, a 32-foot steel tower (Blue Job Fire Tower) with a 10-by-10-foot cab was constructed at the summit. This tower was nearly identical to the tower on Belknap Mountain in Gilford. As originally built, the Blue Job tower consisted of a metal-frame cab on a two-tiered steel structure without cross-bracing or additional struts. A ladder was necessary to reach the cab. The state established Blue Job State Forest in 1916, when 99 acres on the east side of mountain was acquired. Blue Job State Forest was managed in coordination with the fire tower on the summit. The watchmen helped to manage the timber stands by removing inferior species and clearing summit views. A 9-by-13-foot, one-room cabin located 50 feet from the tower provided shelter for the watchman.

In 1929-1930, stairs were installed on the tower to replace the ladder to the cab. After completion of the stairs, visitation to Blue Job Fire Tower increased dramatically. In 1930, a new Watchman's Cabin was built near the site of the original cabin. At this time, the stone retaining wall was likely constructed. In 1940, the tower's cab was rebuilt. The Storage Building and Well were likely built in the mid- to late twentieth century.

In 1970-1980, a new cab was added above the original cab, which was converted into an open observation platform. This alteration added approximately eight feet to the height of the tower. An Outhouse was built and modifications to the Storage Building were made in the late twentieth century. A communication building and tower (private) were constructed northeast of the tower. Due to prevalent vandalism in the early twenty-first century, the associated buildings have been boarded up. The watchman's cabin's porch was enclosed and shuttered for security reasons. The outhouse was dislodged from its foundation in the 2010s.

Fire Towers in New Hampshire

A national concern and effort to prevent forest fires and conserve natural woodland resources emerged in the late nineteenth century. Timber harvesting, especially in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, boomed between 1850 and 1900, when lumber production increased nearly ten-fold. In the Northeast, unsustainable woodland management and the abandonment of farms left land prone to fire and subsequent erosion and landslides. Recognizing the need for public forestland and oversight of the timber industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture established the Division of Forestry in 1881. In 1907, this agency became the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). While the USFS was well-equipped to manage federal forestlands, it initially lacked the ability to acquire private land without congressional approval until passage of the Weeks Act in 1911 (see below).

On March 29^th, 1893, the state formed the New Hampshire Forestry Commission (NHFC). The NHFC's primary objective was "to investigate the extent and character of the original and secondary forests of the state…the damage done to them from time to time by forest fires; and any other important facts relating to forest interests…" The Commission focused its efforts on creating a robust network of fire wardens across the state and cooperating with existing private lookout stations. In the early 1900s, a series of major fires burned approximately ten percent of the White Mountains Region forests, attributed to prolonged droughts, railroads, and abusive land use activities. After this uptick in fires and subsequent damages to forests, the state began a focused effort on fire prevention and protection of remaining forests.

Fire lookouts (aka fire towers) had been used in western United States and in Maine and New York prior to the twentieth century but were not yet widely in use in the Northeast around 1900. The first fire towers in New Hampshire were built in response to the increased fire risk from the intensive logging of the White Mountains. Clear-cutting operations left a thick layer of slash (tree limbs removed from logs), which when dried became an ideal source of fuel for wildfires. During an unusually dry spring in 1903, massive fires burned large sections of forest in the White Mountains and threatened several towns. One of the blazes threatened a resort hotel owned by the Mount Pleasant Hotel Company, which constructed the first fire lookout in the region in 1904. The State of New Hampshire began funding fire tower construction in 1909, and others were built by private organizations, including the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF) and the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA). The New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA) was established in 1910 to provide fire detection and protection of privately held timberland. Membership fees were based on the acreage of timber tracts members owned and funded the establishment of lookouts over these tracts of forest. These early lookouts were wood construction on mountain summits, such as Mount Pleasant, Mount Rosebrook and Croydon Peak, to provide 360-degree views of the surrounding forests. The same year NHTOA was established, timberland owners and the NHTOA contributed $4,100 toward the immediate building of lookout towers across the state. As a result, ten lookout towers were established, most of which were constructed in the summer of 1910. Their locations were chosen based on their proximity to valuable timberland and places of manufacturing that were more prone to fires.

On March 1^st, 1911, the U.S. Congress passed the Weeks Act, allowing for the use of federal funds to purchase forest land for conservation purposes. The legislature was championed by and named in honor of Representative and later Senator John Wingate Weeks (1860-1926) of Massachusetts, who aptly presented public forestlands as beneficial rather than detrimental for the private timber industry. Through the Weeks Act, 6 million acres of land in the eastern United States was acquired with $9 million in federal funds. By June 1912, over 70,000 acres were acquired to form the White Mountain Region (later known as the White Mountain National Forest). By 1915, the forest consisted of over 100,000 acres of land. The USFS formally established the White Mountain National Forest on May 16^th, 1918, once it reached an adequate size to be managed as a national forest, including the construction of fire towers. The Weeks Act, passed a year after 85 people were killed during wildfires that burned more than 3 million acres of land in Idaho, included a provision that allowed federal agencies to cooperate with the states in controlling forest fires. Through a $200,000 federal allocation, New Hampshire was the first state to benefit in funding for fire protection from the act. The USFS subsequently worked with the State of New Hampshire and the NHTOA to develop a system of fire lookouts with overlapping coverage in the White Mountains, leading to the construction of dozens of lookouts and hundreds of miles of telephone lines to provide communication by the mid-twentieth century.

By 1912, New Hampshire had 12 state-owned and managed lookout stations and an additional six operated by the NHTOA. The NHFC continued to construct and operate mountain-top fire towers and employ watchmen and patrolmen. During dry weather, temporary fire lookout stations were established at various elevated locations. In 1913, the number of fire towers in the state grew to 26, including those established that year at Belknap Mountain, Blue Job, Kearsarge South, and Pawtuckaway, all four of which remain active fire tower locations. By 1914, all permanent fire towers and station were equipped with panoramic maps for identification of fire locations. After the NHFC assumed responsibilities for the NHTOA lookouts in 1917, the number of lookouts managed by the state increased to 29.

Watchmen were a critical component to the state's fire towers system. Early on, watchmen were often timber company woodsmen who took on fire watchman duties during the fire season. They were typically responsible for the construction and maintenance of the fire tower developments and construction of their own cabins and outbuildings at the tower sites. Watchmen were equipped with field glasses, maps, compasses, and rangefinders. A telephone line connected the fire tower and the local fire warden for quick communication in the event of a fire. The watchmen were also tasked with educating the public about forest fire prevention, and access to the towers was almost immediately sought out by outdoor recreators in the state.

Initially, fire lookouts were built exclusively of wood, consisting of either braced structures or platforms built in trees. The first steel tower was constructed on the summit of South Pawtuckaway Mountain (in present-day Pawtuckaway State Park) in 1914, followed by steel towers topped by enclosed cabins (also referred to as cabs) constructed on the summits of Blue Job and Belknap mountains the following year. Steel towers cost slightly more than wood towers to construct, but were more resistant to the elements and deterioration than wood towers and provided better shelter for the watchman. The steel was usually painted black and the cabins were painted dark green, to better blend into the setting. The NHFC's 1924 report stated the necessity for enclosed cabs and considered it standard design for towers built moving forward. At that time, New Hampshire had 12 steel enclosed towers, two wood enclosed towers, eight wood open towers, three cabins on bare summits, and one cabin below the summit. Over the next two decades, wood towers were replaced with steel-framed towers. Various fabricators were contracted to design and supply these steel towers. Example manufacturers include the New Hampshire Structural Steel Company; the Aeromotor Corporation of Oklahoma, which supplied the Kearsarge (south) fire tower; and International Derrick of Ohio, which supplied towers during the late 1930s. In 1939, the state purchased five towers from International Derrick: Warner Hill, Pack Monadnock, Craney Hill, Smarts Mountain, and Sam's Hill. Improvements to telephone lines and lightning protection were often completed when towers were replaced.

During the 1930s, the state invested in outdoor recreational facilities and saw an increase in hiker visitation to the fire towers. At this time, original ladders that remained were replaced with internal staircases that were easier for watchmen and visitors to ascend and descend when accessing the cabs. A New Deal Program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) operated between 1933 and 1942 to provide work for young men and support the development on state and federal lands. Within New Hampshire, over 20,000 men served in the CCC among the 28 camps across the state, mostly within the White Mountain National Forest and state parks and forests. The CCC planted trees; built fire breaks, served as firefighters when needed; and constructed and maintained roads, bridges, and dams. The CCC also constructed much of the state's parks and forests infrastructure and visitor amenities. In support of the state's fire tower system, CCC crews built and improved access roads and trails, laid new telephone lines, and built watchman cabins and outbuildings at various tower locations.

Following the Hurricane of 1938 that impacted the Northeast region, the need for widespread fire detection and prevention in New Hampshire was significant. The storm caused tremendous damage across the region, destroying approximately 2 billion trees, littering New England forests with deadwood and debris. CCC crews assisted the region's recovery from the storm, including with infrastructure repair and timberland cleanup. The state dispatched numerous crews to remove and operate temporary sawmills to remove the downed timber from the forests. This cleanup effort lasted for over two years and stocked papermills in the region for nearly a decade. To support fire prevention efforts in New Hampshire following the hurricane, 11 new fire towers were built in 1939 and 1940 on state and federal lands.

During World War II, the state, like the rest of the country, was unable to staff many of the fire lookouts with male state personnel. Fire detection relied heavily on surveillance by aircraft during the war, in addition to women staffing some of the state's national forest lookout towers through the USFS's Women Observers on the Forest (WOOF) program. Some of the state's towers were used by state or federal agencies for aircraft detection, requiring alterations to towers. After the war, the towers were staffed again by state watchmen, and most of these alterations were removed. In the 1960s, most towers were staffed six days a week from 8am to 5pm, which increased to seven days from 8am to 8pm during periods of hot, dry weather, when fire risk was highest. By the late twentieth century, most of the state fire towers were 40 to 60 years old. To keep the steel towers structurally sound and functional, the state added additional bracing elements, structural struts, and tension cables. If raising the tower height was necessary, the new cab was exclusively constructed of wood to avoid use of conductive metal in case of electrical storms. By 1980, the state operated 22 fire towers, in addition to three aerial detection routes.

More than 90 fire towers were constructed across New Hampshire on state, federal, and privately owned lands during the twentieth century as part of a statewide fire prevention system. Majority of these towers are not extant. However, remnants such as concrete footings, wood and steel structural pieces, or ruins of former structures, endure at many of the former tower locations. As of 2017, 13 towers remained standing, but inactive for fire prevention purposes. Some of the inactive towers remain accessible for outdoor recreation, while others are inaccessible. As of present (2022), 16 towers remain active for fire prevention purposes, consisting of 15 owned by the state and one owned by the Town of Moultonborough (Red Hill) and operated in coordination of the state and Lakes Region Conservation Trust. Active towers are staffed on weekends and during times of high fire danger, April to October. Across two state regions, the New Hampshire Division of Forests & Lands operates the extant fire towers, oversees 9 ranger districts, and employs two Regional Rangers and 7 District Forest Rangers, who oversee wildland fire control and enforce laws pertaining to timber harvesting and forest protection. Fire watchmen operate autonomously at each lookout and coordinate with mobile fire patrols and over 2,000 appointed Forest Fire Wardens and Deputy Wardens during high-risk of fires and active fires.

Property Description

Blue Job Mountain Lookout and its associated buildings and structures are located in Blue Job State Forest in Farmington. Blue Job Mountain has an elevation of 1,357 feet. While Blue Job State Forest covers 289 acres, the fire tower area is approximately 5 acres containing the fire tower, associated watchman buildings and structures, an access trail, and a well. The fire tower is only accessible by a 0.8-mile, maintained trail from a trailhead on First Crown Point Road. The trailhead which is located in the Town of Strafford, consists of a gravel parking lot and visitor signage and maps. The trail is earth and bedrock and steeply ascends the southwest slope of the mountain. The area is heavily forested, with mixed deciduous-coniferous cover.

Blue Job Mountain Fire Tower is a 40-foot-tall, three-tiered, steel-frame fire tower with a square, hip-roof, wood-frame cab. It was built in 1915 as a fire tower. The tower's painted steel frame sits on four poured concrete piers on bedrock. The tower structure consists of 3-inch, L-profile vertical steel columns with horizontal struts. Steel rod cross-bracing has been installed on the first and second tiers, and steel cross-bracing is present on the third tier. The legs and lower two tiers are tapered from sixteen feet-square on the ground to ten feet-square at the third tier, which contains the platform. The square third tier was added in the mid-twentieth century to raise the tower 8 feet. Additional secondary struts have been added above first primary strut and across the third tier. Guy wires from the third tier anchor to the bedrock. The steel structure exhibits substantial rust and loss of protective finishing.

Stairs ascend northeasterly from a poured concrete platform at the south corner of the tower base. The tower stairs consist of three flights with bolted plate steel stringers and bolted wood treads. Landings have wood platforms reinforced by steel cross beams. Handrails on the stairs and at the landings consist of welded 1.5-by-1.5-inch steel bar railings and posts with a smaller mid-rail. Wire fencing has been added to the landings and platform. The cab has wood clapboard cladding and bands of three one-over-one sash, vinyl windows on each elevation. The original wood, one-over-one, single-hung sash windows were replaced in 2015-2022. The cab's interior has a wood paneled ceiling, finish-grade plywood paneled walls, and hardwood flooring. A tubular steel railing encircles the hatch at the southwest wall of the cab. The hatch hinges on its short end and has a counterbalance weight. The cab contains typical fire tower equipment and furnishings: an Osborne Fire Finder in the center and a map hung from the ceiling. The cab dates to the 1970s, and the interior was renovated prior to 2014.

There are two concrete block communications buildings immediately northeast of the tower. A steel communication tower on concrete piers is to their northeast. An unused concrete pad is within the tower base area.

Associated buildings are clustered east of the fire tower and consist of a watchman's cabin, a storage building, and an outhouse. There are also two connected, concrete-block, one-story, private communications buildings and a telecommunication tower immediately northeast of the tower; however, they are not associated with the fire tower. The cabin and outhouse are arranged in a southwest-northeast line along a terrace. The terrace is formed by a dry-laid stone Retaining Wall. A set of poured concrete steps lead downhill from the terrace to the storage building, which is southeast of the cabin. The Watchman's Cabin is a three-bay-by-two-bay, one-story, front-gable, wood-frame building with an enclosed, hip-roof porch on its facade (southwest) elevation. Its roof is covered with asphalt shingles and the walls are clad in wood clapboard. A concrete block chimney is located on the southeast elevation. The cabin sits on concrete block piers. The southwest elevation has a centered entry flanked by single openings, covered in plywood. The entry contains a vertical plank door and poured concrete stairs. Fenestration has been boarded up with plywood and was originally six-over-six wood sash windows. The windows have wood surrounds. The_Outhouse, a small, board-and-batten structure, is in a ruinous state and has fallen from its foundation. It was noted to have been knocked over in a 2015 report.

The Storage Building is a one-story, single-bay, front-gable building with an asphalt shingles-covered roof. The walls are clad in wood shingles and the foundation is a combination of wet-laid stone and concrete. The only entry is on the southwest elevation and consists of a plywood door. Fenestration is limited to single openings on the southeast and northwest walls that are covered with wood board shutters.

A Well associated with the fire tower is located along the trail, approximately 550-feet southwest of the fire tower. The well has a poured concrete bulkhead with a square, steel cover.

Photographs of Blue Job Fire Tower