SAND MOUNTAIN
Pennsylvania - Union County - White Deer State Forest > Bald Eagle State Forest
1912: "The bare top of Sand Mountain is high enough to be used for a lookout station at present. A small tower would be of great benefit. A fire road leads to the summit." (Report of the Department of Forestry, 1912-13)
May 10, 1917: "The Chief Forest Fire Warden of the State Department of Forestry has signed a contract for the purchase of a sixty-three-foot steel observation tower, to be erected on the White Deer State Forest in Union county, near the Forest House. This will be the fifth tower of its kind in Pennsylvania, and the first of a series of about a hundred which it is proposed to erect in the forested parts of the State as an aid in controlling forest fires.
The tower will be crowned with a circular built-in room about seven or eight feet in diameter, with a continuous glass window around the whole circumference. At the beginning of the forest fire seasons the room will be stocked with instruments and provisions, so that a fire guard may be on duty every hour. The tower will be connected with forest headquarters and other towers by telephone. Many of those who have leased camp sites in this region have asked permission to install telephones in their camps and connect with this line. The permission will probably be granted." (Harrisburg Telegraph)
1917: "A new steel tower was erected in August and September of this year on Sand Mountain, Union County. The tower is sixty feet high and from which the observer can detect the first smoke of a fire anywhere within a radius of from 15 to 25 miles. A tabulation of the cost of the tower follows: Cost of tower - $350.00; Freight on tower - $24.98; Staking out site and digging holes - $26.72; Foundation - 50.40; Erection - 173.91. Total cost of $626.01.
A right of way for a telephone line to Sand Mountain tower has been cleared and poles set between the forester's headquarters and the tower, a distance of four miles. Needless to say that the efficiency of the tower will be greatly handicapped until the wires are strung.
The tower was purchased from the Aermotor Company of Chicago." (Report of the Chief Forest Fire Warden for 1917)
1917: "One large 60-foot steel lookout tower including a cabin and telephone connections, has been built on Sand Mountain. It overlooks many thousands acres of forest land. An observer is kept night and day on this tower during the dangerous forest fire season." (Forest Leaves, V.17-18, 1919-1922)
1918: A line was built from the Forest House to the tower on Sand Mountain, in Union county. This line was about four miles long and is a part of the proposed line extending throughout Brush Valley Narrows to Livonia. The right-of-way for this line was obtained and a large proportion of the work completed during 1918." (Chief Forest Fire Warden Report for 1918)
Removed