Dismantling of T-Lake Twr.
For those of you not familiar with the state land
classifications in the Adirondack and Catskill Forest
Preserves here in New York state I'll try to explain.
A Wilderness Area is an area that no man made
structures are allowed to exist. It is holy ground.
Just as much as being in front of the burning bush on
Mt. Sinai.
The West Canada Lakes Wilderness Area in Hamilton
county, is one of the largest It covers an area a
little bit over 156,000 acres.
When the lines were drawn I firmly believe that it
was no accident that the T-Lake Mtn. fire tower just
barely made it inside the boundary line of this
wilderness.
Being declared a non conforming structure, in
August of 1977 U.S. Army engineers were given the OK
to use this tower for practice. They used shaped
explosive charges to bring the tower down. Once on the
ground, these same charges were used to cut the tower
into smaller sections. Then each section was flown out
to the Piseco airport by helicopter.
As yet I have not seen scientific proof that this
tower , and the 16' x 24' cabin had any adverse affect
upon the environment of the 156,000 acre wilderness
area. All the facility was guilty of was to be view in
a negative way by those that embrace the ideology of
the minority special interest groups.
The following before picture is from the
collection of Dean Lane of Piseco. The after picture
was taken by Joe Peselli of Tribes Hill, and Wells,
NY.
Bill Starr
former N.Y.S. Forest Fire Observer
Fire Tower Historian