The control of forest fires has long been the chief responsibility of the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (D.E.C.).
Over the years, trial and error and improved budgets corrected deficiencies and fine-tuned what is today pretty much acknowledged nationwide as a first-class fire suppression system.
It wasn’t always that way. At the turn of the century, huge fires erupted in the Adirondacks. In 1903, following a long drought, the tinder-dry forests became unchecked, and roaring infernos of fire and smoke prevailed until rains finally came to the rescue and put out the fires. Over 428,180 acres of land were burned that year.
Five years later, in 1908, another disastrous fire year occurred that devastated more than 368,000 acres. Fires that were so hot that the very soil was so badly burned in some areas that no new forests would ever grow. The bare rock summits of nearby Coney Mountain, Hitchens, Graves and Grass Pond Mountains on the A.A. Low property, to name a few, are good examples.
The late Louis Simmons, former editor and historian, in his autobiography, tells of that 1908 fire:
“1908, the year of my birth, was also the year of some of the worst forest fires in the Adirondack history. They started during a long summer drought and continued until doused by autumn snow, burning over more than 368,000 acres. My mother often recalled how terrified she was that first summer here, when a pall of smoke from forest fires encircled Tupper Lake for weeks on end. Sawmills were repeatedly shut down and the crews set to fighting the fires, which encroached on lumber yards and burned outlying buildings. Prayers for rain were offered in the local churches, and some residents had rafts and boats ready against the danger of fire destroying the village. Uptown Tupper Lake had been totally destroyed by fire less than ten years earlier and the memory was still painfully fresh. The neighboring village of Long Lake West, about 14 miles south of Tupper by rail, was wiped out by a raging forest fire that fall. My father was engineer of a rescue train which brought the residents out to safety. Old photos show the rails twisted by the intense heat, and the ties burned in the roadbed.”
Long Lake West that Louie refers to was the railroad station for Long Lake. Stage lines connected it with Little Tupper, four miles away and Long Lake 18 miles away. The namewas changed to Sabattis, a common Indian corruption of Jean Baptiste, in 1923. Sabattis was a famous guide and hunter, and the name change was in his honor.
Virginia Jennings of Long Lake has written a fascinating account of that 1908 fire entitled The Day The Town Died, published in the Nov. 17, 1991, Sunday edition of the Glens Falls Post Star. Her father-in-law, Arthur Jennings, was just a baby when fire destroyed the town, and “his mother was so afraid that he would smother that she didn’t save a thing except the baby.” The next day, Virginia noted in her article, “The only living thing found was a horse burned to a blister – moaning in pain.” Destroyed in that fire was the village containing a dozen dwellings, railroad station, large hotel, store and storehouses belonging to lumber dealers, new electric plant, livery with accommodations for 200 horses, schoolhouse and large lumber yard.
Every structure was consumed. The horses in the livery had been turned loose before the flames reached the village, and they found safety in flight. Soon after the flight of the villagers, the 1,300 pounds of dynamite used in blasting out tree stumps exploded with a deafening roar that was distinctly heard at Nehasane, eight miles to the south.
These Great Fires, as they were called, of 1903 and 1908 became the catalyst for sweeping changes that became mandated improvements in fire suppression.
The job title, Fire Warden, now became listed as Patrolman/Ranger, and John Timmons in 1909 became the first in Tupper Lake to bear that title. Mr. Timmons was paid $75 per month. His job was to patrol the woods to stop fires before they started, or at least before they got out of control. He would also enforce new fire law regulations such as the requirement that branches be cut from all evergreen trees down to a three-inch diameter (Top Lopping Law).
The next change was the adoption of a technique successfully used in Maine – observation towers. These towers located on mountain summits would be manned by an observer who would report any sign of fire. Map tables with a locator device called an alidade and an improved telephone system made this a major breakthrough in early detection, an important ingredient in fire control.
Most towers gave the observer a 15-mile radius of coverage. Eventually, 102 towers would be built. Today, only 28 towers remain standing as more effective detection methods eventually evolved.
The 16th Annual Commission Report of 1910 notes that the first of these towers or stations was built here in Tupper Lake at a cost of $928.84, and that six miles of telephone line was laid on Mt. Morris in July of 1909. This was a wooden structure and was replaced by a steel tower in 1919. Richard Giles of Moody was hired as the first observer ($60 a month, $12 extra for provisions if he lived on the mountain instead of going home each night).
Moosehead, near Childwold, had a 20-ft. wooden tower built on its summit in 1910 with J.W. Hinkson as its observer. A steel tower was erected in 1916.
In 1911, a station and a telephone line that connected with the Bell Telephone Co. at the Childwold railroad station was established on Mt. Arab. A steel tower was erected there in 1918, and it remains as one of only two left of the seven originally built in St. Lawrence County. Note: Mt. Arab remains to day one of the last stations that still has its standard design (look-alike) observer cabin intact (12x16 feet with asphalt strip shingles).
The cabin has been restored to its original construction, placed on the historic registry and maintained. This cabin is unique among observer stations that remain in the Adirondacks. Mt. Arab also boasts a full-time summer season summit steward, whose salary is met by contributions to the treasury of the energetic, spirited group known as the “Friends of Mt. Arab,” chaired by Tony Gensel.
The next big change, according to Louis Curth in his seminal book, The Forest Rangers, was to abolish the position of patrolman and that of ranger to be created. The salary was to be $750 a month (the name came from Roger’s Rangers of His Majesty’s Corps, whose famous wood lore and courage helped the British turn the tide in the 1775 war against the French). In 1915, Earl Owen (later famous as a boat builder) of Wawbeek Ave., would be become Tupper Lake’s second forest ranger, followed the next year by John Black, Sr. Other rangers that readers may remember are Ed Harvey (1919-1921), Del McNeil (1922-1950), Ed Reed (1967-1972), Clyde Black (1973-2001) and Scott Murphy (2001-present).
Note:
The fire tower on Mt. Morris, located on private land, serves a different purpose
today, but it is still as structurally solid as when it was erected in 1919.
Students of the New York State Ranger School at Wanakena relocated the obsolete fire tower on Tooley Mountain to Cathedral Rock on the school’s campus at Wanakena and renamed it the Ranger Tower. It is open to the public.
Next on Transitions: Improvements to the Bureau of Forest Fire Control.