NEW YORK LOOKOUTS
POKE-O'-MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN
Essex County
State Conservation Department
State Conservation Department
1912: The Conservation Commission established a lookout at this point. (Second Annual Report of the Conservation Commission)
1917: A 35-foot steel tower was erected. (7th Annual Report of the Conservation Commission)
1918: "An excellent device known as the Osborne Fire Finder has been developed by the U.S. Forest Service. By means of this instrument a panoramic map of the territory visible from a mountain station may be prepared. This makes it possible, especially for an inexperienced observer, to locate fires more accurately than by ordinary topographic map. One of the new fire finders was tried out on Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain station during the season, and a map made. It is planned to make similar maps for other stations next year." (8th Annual Report of the Conservation Commission)
1922: A new cabin for the observer's living quarters was constructed. (Twelfth Annual Report of the Conservation Commission)
September 8, 1927: "The state conservation department is having a telephone line laid between Keeseville and Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain. District Superintendent Hopkins of Saranac Lake is in charge of the work. W.S. Weston of this village, Harry Torrance of Keene and A.G. Winslow of Keeseville, forest rangers, are among those at work on the new telephone line which is to connect with the fire observer's tower on Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain. The line is to be nine and one-half miles long. Poke-o-Moonshine Mountain is over 4400 feet high and affords a splendid view of this section. The telephone line is for communication from the observer on the mountain to other forest rangers in case of fire." (Adirondack Record-Elizabethtown Post)
October 24, 1947: "A forest fire detected from the fire observer's tower on Pok-O-Moonshine mountain at 12:55 p.m. on Sunday, burned over about one acre of soft maple on the William Cooley property at the south end of Long pond before it was controlled.
The Willsboro fire department fought the blaze, one that might easily have caused a much greater loss." (Essex County Republican)