West Greenwich Fire Station, Rhode Island

Official Minutes of the meeting

The conference kicked off on Saturday at the West Greenwich Fire Station. The Nooseneck Tower stands immediately behind the station. Saturdays weather turned hot and humid.

The meeting began around 10AM. Henry Isenberg began the meeting by introducing the West Greenwich Fire Chief.

The Chief gave a general history and some background infromation about the West Greenwich Department eventually leading up to the history of their fire tower and how it made its way to their backyard.

Bill Cobb gave a general update on the website.

Chairman Argow went around and solicited chapter updates from the east.

Iris Baird made the members aware of 2 new New Hampshire books that were available.

The chairman gave an extensive update on general tower news around all of the chapters.

The FFLA group met in the West Greenwich Fire Station Training Room. Chairman Argow and Director Isenberg chaired the meeting.

Historic Fire Lookout items on display. Some of which were - Fire Finders, Old Articles on RI Towers, Old Maps and Memoribilia.

The Presentation of the NHLR Certificate to the West Greenwich Chief. Present L-R is Henry Isenberg, Chief Hoxie, and Keith Argow. The group is standing at the base of the Nooseneck Tower.

Henry Isenberg presents an FFLA Restoration Grant Check to Chief Hoxie.

The FFLA group touring the Tower

The view from the Tower

The Pine Hill Tower in Exeter. This tower is no longer staffed, but is in fine shape. A restoration is being discussed for this tower.

The Pine Hill Tower footings. A quite interesting mounting configuration.

A broken window at Pine Hill yields some rather thick ~3/8" glass.

The Shannock Hill tower in Richmond. This tower is in excellent shape and is now used to house radio equipment.

The Shannock Hill tower closeup.

Escoheag Hill in West Greenwich. This tower has not been staffed in 10+ years and in very rough shape. If the cab is not secured soon, it may be a total loss.

The Escoheag Hill Outhouse is still in fair shape.

Escoheag Cab

Upper Left - The view up the stairs shows some of the west wall gone.

Upper Right - Almost the complete south wall is gone

Lower Left - The cab floor is rotting

The group along with some of the local public enjoy a very delicious steak fry supper!

The West Greenwich FD Staff hard at work tending to the Steak grill. In the shadows is the Nooseneck Tower.

At dusk, the group breaks up to go and rest up for Sundays tower tours.

Tunk Hill, Scituate RI
A small group proceeded to Tunk Hill. This is a 120FT tower located on private land. Through special arrangements, the landowner provided access to the land and tower. The group toured this tower before moving on to Chopmist Tower.

Chopmist Hill, Scituate RI
The group moved on to the Chopmist Tower where we met the senior ranger for northern RI. who opened the tower for us. Here we were joined by Keith argow about 1230pm.

UCONN Tower, Storrs CT
Arriving at the Storrs CT Site at around 3PM, we spent about 45 minute here on the top of the water towers, 110 ft.! A firelookout if perched on top of one of the water tanks. Everyone got to take many pictures until we had to vacate the tower sooner than we'd have liked due to a fast aproching Thunderstorm!! Photos from this trip are on the UCONN Tower Page.

Storrs Tower, Storrs CT
Now a reduced group, we went to find the first Storrs location. We did! It sits atop Wolf Rock in a conservation area. Eye bolts still there! It was a wooden tripod tower.

Sunset Hill, Hampton CT
Now 6:30, We then went to Sunset Hill in Hampton where Mark had a new location of a site about 20 miles east south east of Storrs. We confirmed there was a tower there with some older local residents and found some USGS survey signs.

Chase Hill, Pomfret CT
Now 7:30, and we make a mad dash to see the Pomfret Tower site before dark, another 20 mile jant northeast! We made it in time before darkness sets in but find the site has now been cleaned up "completely" only my having been there many times allowed us to find it.

It's now 8:45 pm and dark. The group disbands and we all head our separate ways.