For the year 2004

The move of the Pinewood Fire Tower to the Beltrami County Fairgrounds was a great success for keeping the history of the fire tower era alive in Northern Minnesota. The tower, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, (DNR) was to be torn down with in the next few years, thus the need to save it. And that we did.

The Pinewood tower was ready for climbing two hours after the fair opened and at 2pm the next day we had the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the tower for fair week. This ceremony was performed by Linda Zeller, wife of the late Mark Zeller and dedicated to Mark, a fire tower preservationist and Rosalia Koppang, age 90, who worked the tower
for 20 years.

After the ribbon cutting, we had lines all day, up until dark to climb the fire tower, we only allowed four persons to climb at once, as per the fire tower inspectors report.

The Zeller family contributed greatly to move and preservation of the Pinewood Fire Tower, to which we owe a debt of gratitude.

For more information see the Pinewood Fire Tower web site, on the FFLA web site.

David Quam