CHOPMIST HILL
(SCITIUATE)
Providence County
District 1
District 1
1913: "Chopmist Hill is probably the most favorable location in the State for a forest fire lookout station. A steel or wooden tower erected on the highest point of this hill and provided with the usual equipment of such stations, at a cost of $200 to $300 complete, would insure at a small cost a high degree of protection to the watersheds of the Pawtuxet River and branches of the Blackstone River, and to the woodlands of Scituate, Foster, Glocester, and parts of several other more distant towns. Three or four such stations are greatly needed in the State." (Report of the Forestry Commissioner, January 1914)
1918: "Chopmist Hill, 730 feet high, in Scituate, has a 40-foot wood tower. The Chopmist station covers the heavily wooded areas of Providence County and the region south for as far as the steam railroad running through the town of Coventry. (13th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Forestry)
1925: "The tower at Chopmist Hill is in a very bad condition, and in my opinion, it is unfit for further use. It should be replaced by a modern steel tower similar to that at Bowen's Hill in the Town of Coventry. A sixty foot tower with an eight by eight observation room can be erected for less than two thousand dollars, and I recommend that a special appropriation be made for this purpose." (20th Annual Report of the Commissioner of Forestry)
1926: "During the year just passed a modern steel observation tower has been erected on Chopmist Hill, in Scituate, to replace the old wooden tower that was formerly there. The new tower is sixty feet high and commands a far better view of the surrounding country than could be had from the the old forty-foot tower. This tower has been erected and equipped at a cost well within the appropriation of seventeen hundred dollars, which was made last year for this purpose, and is a very great improvement to our system of observation stations." (21st Annual Report of the Commissioner of Forestry)
1955: "With regret, the Division of Forests marked an episode in its history when Mrs. Louise Ide retired June 30 as Chopmist Hill Tower Observer after 25 years of Faithful service and outstanding work in the field of forest fire protection." (20th Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture and Conservation)
November 19, 1964: "You can't see the forest fire tower for the trees in one part of Rhode Island.
Trees are growing so tall around Chopmist Hill fire tower that fire wardens have trouble seeing past them, it was pointed out at a state budget meeting Wednesday.
It would cost to much to trim the treetops, said Calvin Dunwoody, chief of the Division of Forests, since the trees are on private property.
He suggested a higher fire tower." (Portsmouth Herald - New Hampshire)