KINEO MOUNTAIN #15
Maine - Somerset County - Maine Forestry District
1910: "In this territory during the season of 1909 there was built for permanent equipment, a telephone line from from the Moosehead Telephone Company's central at Kineo Point, about one and one-half miles of line to the top of Kineo Mountain and a telephone instrument installed there." "On Kineo Mountain there has been built during the season of 1910 a lookout house situated near the top. The station house is equipped with stove, etc., for use of men on the lookout's." (1910 Forest Commissioner's Report)
June 18, 1917: "Up on top of Mt. Kineo in the Moosehead Lake region, is being erected what is supposed to be the finest watch tower for fire purposes in the world. State Forest Commissioner F. H. Colby has just returned from a trip to the Moosehead country, and while there the final steps for the erection of this lookout were completed.
The steel used is twice as heavy as that used for any other tower. Instead of reachine the top by a ladder, as with other towers, there are steps, so that summer visitors may have a chance to go to the top to secure a view.
Moosehead lake itself is 1000 feet above the level of the sea and Mt. Kineo towers 800 feet higher. The tower itself is 40 feet high.
The station is in charge of Chief Fire Warden Louis Oakes of Greenville, while Melvin S. Blethan of Foxcroft is the watchman." (The Bangor Daily News)
1917: "Louis Oakes, Greenville Jct., Chief Warden, Moosehead Lake region: Kineo Mountain station, which has been greatly improved by the erection of a modern steel tower about 65 feet high, placed on the highest point on Kineo Mountain, which gives the lookout man an unobstructed view of nearly the entire shore line of Moosehead Lake and the mouth of several rivers tributary to the lake; also the fitting up of a commodious living camp for the use of the watchman in charge of this station." (Forest Protection and Conservation in Maine)
1917: "Also in the past year the Kennebec Valley Protective Association co-operated with this department in the building of the lookout tower on Kineo Mountain, paying for the labor of erection, in itself a considerable sum. This tower is really a public observatory and the first of its type to be erected in the Maine Forestry District. Instead of climbing a ladder to reach the top, one may ascend in safety and comfort by way of a winding stairway. Being very easy of access to the thousands of sportsmen and summer visitors who come to the Moosehead Lake region each season the Kineo Tower, with its new contour maps and other equipment, will be of great educational value to the public in the methods of fire protection." (Forest Protection and Conservation in Maine, 1917)
1917: A 64-foot steel tower was erected. "The tower on Kineo Mountain was erected in conjunction with the Kennebec Valley Protective Association, Maine Central Railroad Company, and Ricker Hotel Company.
Excepting the material for the steel tower on Kineo Mountain, the steel towers erected the past season were carried over from the administration of Hon. Blaine S. Viles. These were purchased in 1914 with the intention of erecting them in 1915." (1917 Annual Report of the Forest Commissioner)
April 12, 1918: "Miss Alice Henderson of Gardiner, Kennebec county, Maine, will be the first woman watcher in a fire lookout station in New England, although there are a few in the federal preserves in the west, when she begins her duties next month at the federal station at Mt. Kineo, Moosehead Lake.
For several months Miss Henderson, who is 21 years of age and weighs 130 pounds, will live all alone in that watch tower on top of Mt. Kineo, two and one-half miles from Mt. Kineo House. The federal authorities have consented that a woman be employed in this watch tower.
'I can do the work as well as any man,' said Miss Henderson to Forest H. Colby of Bingham, the Maine land agent and forest commissioner, when she applied for the position.
She is fairly well acquainted with the Moosehead Lake territory and is a great lover of woods. If the season should be particularly dry, another young woman may accompany her. She worked for two summers in sporting camps in the Moosehead lake region.
Miss Henderson will have two and one-half miles of telephone line to look after and during the leisure moments intends to do a lot of knitting for the Red Cross. She is a graduate of the Gardiner High School." (Daily Kennebec Journal)
1920: Inventory shows a 64-foot steel tower.