The crew worked close to eight hours, placing the 24-foot-tall, metal fire tower and its wooden cab, on Guard trucks for removal to the Garfield Road museum. The detail was organized and led by MFS Forest Ranger Amanda Barker, with help from MFS Forest Ranger Todd Weeks. It took two flatbed trucks to deliver the fire tower to the museum.
The 1136th Transportation Co. based out of Calais provided the vehicles and crew. The tower was lifted on to the trucks by an excavator provided M. Rafford Trucking Co. of Ashland. It was unloaded by a self-loader log truck provided by Robert Flint Trucking of Ashland.
Malcolm Milligan, 13, of Ashland, Boy Scout Troop 179, will take on the restoration of the cab as an Eagle Scout project.
“We wanted to do this to remind the younger generation of the importance of these fire towers in protecting our Maine forests,” Barker said.
The Norway Fire Tower was in place on the bluff, located in Township 9, Range 9 WELS, since 1914. The Maine Forest Service, Protection Division, no longer uses fire towers for forest fire observation, but instead uses air patrol flights. The site will be used for the installation of a new state radio tower.
For more information about the MFS Forest Rangers, go to: http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/ffchome.htm
For more information about the Maine Forest Service, go to: http://www.maineforestservice.com
In photo above provided by the Maine Forest Service: A self-loader log truck, provided by Robert Flint Trucking of Ashland, moves the wooden cab of an old Norway Bluff fire tower off the vehicle at the Ashland Logging Museum, Garfield Road, Ashland. The entire fire tower is being installed at the museum as an historic exhibit. The removal project was led by the Maine Forest Service Forest Rangers.
