Towers visited

Thursday, January 17th
Smyrna, Delaware NHLR Smyrna fire tower
Standing yet on the west side of route 13 south across from the visitor's center, the 120' steel tower first visited for the Redden, Delaware Conference still "tower's" above the quickly developing semi rural area. New housing developments and rapidly progressing highway construction is changing the appearance of the land. There are 2 aerials on the tower and the cab windows are all boarded up. The landings and all but the bottom set of stairs still appear to be intact. At the visitors center, the attendant had no knowledge of the National Historic Lookout Register certificate which is suppose to be displayed.

Friday, January 18th
Walliston (site) Chesepeak county, Virginia
Hwy 17 South Original site was 1928* This location was across the Dismal swamp canal, west of route 17. There is no access to it but some overturned cement footings could be seen in the brush with binnoculars, along with some other undefined remains.
A telephoto was taken of the site. Walliston was moved to it's second location about a mile north off the highway on a side road. The footings of that location also remain in the brush and a date of 7/11/58 is found on one. No other remains noted. photo taken.

South Mills fire tower, North Carolina
International Derrick type;
31' square @ the base with a record date of 1944, which seems odd, that a steel tower would have been built during the high tide of world war 2. Carnegi steel on beams,
120' tall in Pasquotank county North Carolina. Some confusion here if this was another tower built or not, as record indicates, original tower was a 99' 9" (100') tower and the site of that tower (Old South Mills fire tower) was located about a mile down the road on the right. The footings there measure 20' 6" and appear to possibly have been that of an Aermotor type tower, (but this cannot be proven). A large box trailer here sits astride the four tower footings and a nearby 1930's era shed with sliding garage door and a side entry door looks suspiciously CCC era in nature. The lot is otherwise overgrown, and other old trailers lying about. A photo looking back at the standing tower up the road was taken on roll # 2 , no. 1 frame. Another curious note is that the 4 corners area nearby on the map is called "Morgan corners" with "South Mills" located some distance away in Camden county.

Bellcross fire tower, North Carolina
120' Aermotor, built in 1968 (moved from another location ?)
Notes: All stairs intact, 12 pane cab windows, located at Forestry headquarters for Camden county. 24' 9" base footings. Radio mast on cab, This tower has different ladders than South Mills tower

Winfall tower (site)
Tower down, footings remain at Perhquilmas county forestry headquarters.
20' 9" at the base footings. was a 99' 9" tower probably indicating it was an Aermotor type Rte 17 northbound.
Tower appears to have been removed in the not too distant past.
No other distinguishin features remaining.

Choulan fire tower , North Carolina
Choulan County forestry headquarters
120' built in 1948 at original location (unknown) moved here in 1968
County route 37 has 18 pane cab windows, indicating it may be a 9 ½ X 9 ½ ' observation cab. There is an old antenna on the cab. A Chicago Aermotor nameplate on the verticle frame

Chesapeak fire tower, North Carolina
Aermotor Co. Chicago nameplate
120' tower 1942 18 pane windows
located at a county forestry headquarters

Sunday, January 20th
Bower's Hill (site) Virginia
No evidence remains except a short piece of bent steel protruding from the ground alongside the highway. Highly developed area, housing development now where the tower had stood. No other evidence found and no photos were worthy of taking.

Suffolk tower (site) Virginia
No evidence of tower was found and no photos were taken of the area

Holland tower (site) Virginia
After extensive searching, no evidence of the tower was discovered, a neighbor across the road remembers the tower standing near the tree line in a now completely grown up scrubby field of brush.

Capron fire tower Virginia
The upper 20 feet and cab of this tower is now located in a Forestry museum in Courtland, Virginia It has been preserved to represent what a fire tower looked like but it is doubtful if anything was reconstructed inside the cab with equipment, and such.
Some engineering liberties have been taken in attaching "curled wrought iron" porch railings in place of ladder rails. It is located inside a security fence and no access was available. While intresting perhaps to show the public, a representation of a fire tower, sadly, for those of us studious in the subject, it is hardly a fitting example of a once useful forest fire fighting tool. The original location of the Capron tower is found on the map.

Vicksville fire tower 1940 Virginia
99' 9" tower 18 pane observation cab windows located on Ivor road & rte 616
radio repeater and accompanying small shed here
tower measures 22' 5" X 21' 5" square

Sussex Courthouse fire tower Virginia
International Derrick tower 1933 100' tower
18 pane windows, folded ends on frame however (Aermotor style ?)
privately owned

Disputanna or (Prince George tower)
130' 1936 Aermotor
This tower proved to be the "find" of the day. Innocently standing abandoned in fairly thick second and third growth woods off a county road, our group happened upon this fire tower late in the afternoon of our tower tour.

The neighbor gentleman across the way came over to see what was all the commotion with four vehicles and people taking pictures of the fire tower. After some immeadiate concerns were dispelled, Mr Chris Hargrieve introduced himself. Chris has been the unofficial caretaker of the tower since the Division of Forestry no longer uses it. In the past he has climbed the tower to look for smoke in the area. He shared his many memories about events at the tower he has remembered such as " a cat that did 3 successful parachute jumps from the top of the tower" and "moonshining days" in the area when the tower was used to watchout for revenuers. ! Other stories went on for nearly 45 minutes while we made our aquaintances and who we were and what the Forest Fire Lookout Association is and does.

This part of Virginia during the Civil War, i.e. "War of the Rebellion" or "War of Northern aggression" however you may call it, depending on your viewpoint , was a focal point from beginning to end. On Mr Hargrieve's farmfields he explained, active fighting went on throughout the war. A "Civil war" railroad cut across his lower field and even today, entrenchments that were the front lines, can be found. Occassionally a skeliton remains are still unearthed by the plow and rusty bayonets even are still found during plowing times. The "Cattle raid" during the war crossed part of his present day farm fields and it was of great interest to hear his anecdotes of family and area history.

Chris left us with a renewed spirit in knowing that there were folks out here who still appreciate these old towers and the job that they have done and would like to see them preserved and written about. Chris has email capability and we will be following up on his and Disputanna tower's story in the near future. A good possibility for the Historic Register here in Virginia.

Elburon fire tower Virginia
130' International Derrick 1933
We arrived here from the Prince George tower (Disputanna) after dark so only two silouette photos were attempted (with dubious results) This tower's base is grown up in large cedar trees alongside the main road and in the failing light our group, with flashlights in hand examined the structure's steel work. Rust apparently has been arrested on this tower because of the sheltering effects of the cedar trees which filter much moisture, but a deep layer of humas underlies the tower base. An older pole with a blue insulater can still be found next to a newer power pole.

Darkness prevented any further photography here and we left the site, and soon found a fine eating establishment up the road in Surrey where we had dinner and ended our day of tower touring.

Monday, January 21st
Ark fire tower, Virginia
Route 17 North, beyond Yorktown over the Hampton roads bridge tunnel.
Aermotor 99' 9" tower 18 pane cab windows, Repeate station

Matthews fire tower, Virginia
Located off the more modern main road, this tower is actually better accessed by finding the old road, which leads right to the tower. We parked in a neighboring yard and after gaining permission, were allowed to walk through the back area of this independant trucking company yard to take photos. It is a standard 99' 9" Aermotor tower, standing unused and abandoned to the elements. All the windows appeared intact and moderate rusting was found on the folded steel frames. Heavily overgrown by the surrounding woods.

Middlesex fire tower, Virginia
Tower No. 3, Aermotor 99' 9" tower 18 pane windows
off Route 17 westbound

Miskimon fire tower, Virginia
99' 9" Aermotor tower 18 pane windows

Lieyles fire tower, Virginia
Aermotor Chicago nameplate 99' 9" tower 1955
Small shed at base of tower, no road access, behind a private house
Off route 3 north

This tower spotted a ways off the road, we could find no access without going up a private driveway which did not look too inviting, so we elected to park on a gravelled area over the curb in a harvested and replanted timber lot and hike through heavy briars and brush to the tower. Setting in the corner of this reforested pine field, the tower still retains all it's stairs and landings, including the bottom set. Obviously unused or cared for, for decades, it sits forlornly by itself, forgotten except for folks like us.

Caret' fire tower, Virginia
In a picturesque setting, exactly where you'd expect a fire tower to be, stands the Caret' lookout. On a slight knoll in rolling farm fields, west off a secondary road from route 17
It is a heavy duty 120' Aermotor tower with 18 pane observation cab windows. As in mostly all the towers we visited, it too has a "cantilever designed" weight to open the heavy trap door. A repeater shed and a new antenna is mounted high on the tower's cab , which indicates it is still used for radio communications. A well kept farm occupies the ground before the tower and there are sweeping fields nearby that give this tower a most appeasing photographic quality.

Center Cross fire tower, Virginia
99' 9" tower 1962 Aermotor design
Corner to corner ladders, repeater shed, 2 miles west of route 17
15 pane windows with sun shades and a chimney hat for a stove in the cab
7'X7' cab photos #15-16
Ground repeater cabin
Tower has 9 diagonal landings and had been red oxide painted.
Records indicate this tower had been moved to this location in 1962 from Quantico, VA.
Note: We returned to this tower the next morning and took photographs.

Tuesday morning, January 22nd
King William fire tower, Virginia
99' 9" tower, Aermotor design
Tower sets in a clump of evergreens along route 30, it has 18 pane observation cab windows and the familiar "cantilever door weight design" Tower steel says "Tower No.1" but footings say "Tower no. 2" indicating that parts from another tower were used to construct this one. All steps are intact, an old cedar pole ,telephone pole indicates there was probably an older tower here before this one.

James City fire tower, Virginia
Tower no. 3 A "US GOVT Property" sign is prominently displayed nearby, indicating this tower is Federally owned. 18 pane windows, it is a 99' 9" Aermotor tower.
A cement block building at the base and posted signs most likely contains transmitting equipment. Missing are the bottom steps and some windows in the cab, an antenna mast is mounted aloft.

Note: With few exceptions, these fire towers were not climbed to checked to see the condition of the observation cab interiors. The presence of "No trespassing signage" stenciled on the frames and with no contact with any local forestry officials prohibited us from closer inspection. At the, Disputanna fire tower , Mr Hargrieve noted that he thought the fire finder table was still up in the observation cab. The electric power cable to the tower had been removed because it was on the same line as his house and barn and and it had often been struck by lightening and the surge followed the power cable to his place and had done damage to his electric circuits. Practically all the other towers still had power cables to them as most were still used for radio repeater systems. Most still also had their windows intact, except for three or four which had suffered breakage.

The Aermotor types varied in having 12 pane, & 18 pane windows in the observation cabs, the exception being Center Cross tower which had 15 pane windows. All were of a more as would be called "modern style of towers" built in the 1930's up into the 1950's. The later dates on some may indicate in fact they are actually of an older vintage but moved to newer locations.

On some of these towers, mainly the Aermotor types, some severe cracking on the folded ends of the frames were found with rust holes clean through. These are mostly on the bottom cross frames where they bolt to the footing plates.

Nearly all these towers are vintage 1930's, and it is believed that those with later record dates were actually at a former (earlier) location, then moved. Some of these earlier sites are unknown and would take much more time than we had available to ferret them out.

On Tuesday afternoon, on the trip north , one more tower was photographed.

Birdsnest fire tower, Virginia
on the Delmarva pennisula (eastern shore) route 13 northbound.
I could not locate an access driveway and wished not to pass over a private yard so I settled for a few photographs taken from the edge of the highway. It appears to be another 99' 9" Aermotor tower as the rest, and looks to be in fair, but abandoned shape.
The terrain here is extremely flat and fairly even from the Atlantic shore to the Chesapeak Bay and unlike the Delaware towers to the north, with their flat roofs, Birdsnest tower has the traditional peaked Aermotor roof.

The tower at Melfa I did not visit, and I passed up the Virginia tower at Harwood, having already visited there some years ago. In completing this journal, it may be noted that all the eastern shore towers have now been visited by one or more of our group and we should have a good definitive description of them .