SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN #41
Franklin County - Maine Forestry District
1913: "Telephone line and equipment for lookout station at Saddleback Mt. in Franklin county." (1914 Forest Commissioner's Report)
1914: "On Saddleback Mountain a thirty-six foot steel tower has been erected with house on top, and a log camp has been built for the use of the watchman." (1914 Forest Commissioner's Report)
June 10, 1917: "Miss Ethel M. Wade and Kenneth Lee were married the other night at Augusta, Me., and will spend their honeymoon on the top of Saddleback mountain, the second loftiest peak in Maine, where the bridegroom is to be in charge of the lookout station for the Maine forestry district.
This mountain is 4456 feet high and commands a view of 50 miles in all directions. They will live in a log cabin and will be the only residents on the summit.
Both are fond of outdoor life and good shots. There is a lake at the top of the mountain and they will take a canoe to the summit.
The bridegroom was formerly a registered guide and is thoroughly versed in woodcraft. He is a writer on nature subjects and a poet of considerable ability. In accepting his new position, which begins May 15, he relinguishes a position of importance on a daily newspaper." (The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review)
1920: Inventory shows a 36-foot steel tower.
September 9, 1926: "A new lookout tower of the forestry department is rising on the summit of Mount Saddleback in the Rangeley Lakes region of Maine to replace that destroyed by a lightning bolt 10 days ago. With an elevation of 4600 feet, Saddleback is one of the loftiest mountains in Maine." (Daily Kennebec Journal)
October 14, 1926: "Lightning and an earthquake combined to give Arthur Long, state forestry department watchman at Mount Saddleback, Maine, an exciting time during the past summer. Long had just climbed down from the lookout tower when it was demolished by a lightning bolt. The next day the earthquake came, Long said the earth shivered as if a big wave was passing under it and the logs in his cabin fairly cracked before the tremors rumbled off along the mountain range. The watchman said it was the most eventful season of his long experience in the Maine woods." (The Bridgeport Telegram)
August 20, 1954: "If anyone wonders how all those building materials reached the 4,116-foot peak of Saddleback Mountain in one day, refer him to the Maine Forestry Dept.'s pioneer two-plane airlift.
A tractor and roustabouts toted lumber to the summit but cement. gravel, sand, water, shingles and hardware were dropped on the site of a prospective forest warden's camp by flying-machine. The planes piloted by Earl Crabb and Charles Cole made two round trips an hour each.
The department hopes to complete in two weeks the Saddleback living quarters of Warden James Parker, who mans the peak's lookout tower. Building the camp close to the tower will enable better fire and radio watches than were possible when the warden's camp was located two miles below the shaft." (Biddeford Journal)