anyone know this answer and its a weird one!!!!!Fire Towers (Newark: living in, moving)

[stevemorse]

I know only morse would ask this nutty question I can hear alex and wiley right now!!!
I have been in many non active fire towers hiking mostly in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Most of them ofcourse are now wrecks and non active. Yesterday I went to call my neighbor and sometimes I reverse the numbers and call the wrong one. I have done this many times and no one ever picks up the phone or an answering machine does not come on, so I know I called the wrong number. My neighbor has a answering machine so if I reverse it and dont get it right , I think you get the point. Well yesterday I call that wrong number and to my suprise someone picked up. So at first I said hey Charlie thinking I got the right number, he said no not charlie and I said are you sure , and then for some strange reason I asked him wow no one ever picked this number up where am I calling????? He said your calling a FIRE TOWER in the woods.!! Well I narrowed down all the active fire towers with 973 697 that brings me to NewFOundland, and possible Bearfort FIre Tower which I dont know if its active?? Well I was shocked NOW HERE IS MY QUESTION, DO ACTIVE FIRETOWERS HAVE PHONES IN THEM!! THis is not a cell phone its a regular phone???? Anyone know?????????????????

Well now I am calling this number and today noone picked up!! No machine nada, I guess I got to wait for a few sunny days in the spring because I looked up ant spring is the most active time for fires due to no canapy of tree leave, do you think this guy was bullcrapping me????

Also am I the only nut who cares about this?? I guess do to all my hiking and climbing the ruins of wreck fire towers I found this call very odd!! Made me want to go hiking and be in the woods again!!!! Maybe its time for a trip back to the ADKS!!!!!

[stevemorse]

well I guess I am the only idiot who spent all morning finding this answer so if anyone else is as sick as me here it is. Yes some do have phones!! They used phones, carrier pigeons andor had a heliograph, which is worked by the sun and sends morse code. Thanks for reading this if your interested. Now I am going to hike bearfort in West Milford and see for myself.

[joe moving]

This is cool... i am surprised they have fire towers still. who mans them? park rangers? We have climbed a few scary old fire towers up in the catskills with some nice views.

[RUNYYfan]

Cool thread. I knew some were still around in the Pine Barrens and the parks up in North Jersey. I'm surprised to hear there are phones in them. I would have thought OTA radios would have been the communications gear of choice.

joe moving, I believe the staffing is done by park rangers but also by people who are volunteer "fire police."

[Older&Wiser]

The fire towers that I've seen are too far into the woods to run wire; maybe the guy you got had a cell.

[stevemorse]

Originally Posted by joe moving

This is cool... i am surprised they have fire towers still. who mans them? park rangers? We have climbed a few scary old fire towers up in the catskills with some nice views.

balsum lake mountain in the catskills!!!And the radio tower will all the deer dong on Balsum MOuntain in the catskills nice old rickety rickty and windy!!


Now who mans these there are 74 active in use man fire towns in NJ!! Yes I was shocked too!! I also found out that the one who watches the one I called is active and watched by Newark watershed property. Newark Pequannack water shed company. This one that I called Bearfont is for looking for fires in Waywayonda state park and the water company property. I am going to hike it first nice day I get and then take my cell phone and call that number and see if I can here the phone ring.

I am so glad I am not the only nut who finds this interesting. I find it cool and interesting too!!

[stevemorse]

Originally Posted by Older&Wiser

The fire towers that I've seen are too far into the woods to run wire; maybe the guy you got had a cell.

no I do not think this is the case with this one. Because I called it alot when I make the mistake and he would have answered over the year that I have called. It just so happened he was up there and answered yesterday, dry weather, fire conditions up and I hit the right time. Now either that or he was BS ing me but I dont think so. I think there is a phone.

[stevemorse]

Originally Posted by RUNYYfan

Cool thread. I knew some were still around in the Pine Barrens and the parks up in North Jersey. I'm surprised to hear there are phones in them. I would have thought OTA radios would have been the communications gear of choice.

joe moving, I believe the staffing is done by park rangers but also by people who are volunteer "fire police."

maybe in some but I looked up and did find on that encyclopedia wiki what it is that there were phones. ANd I do believe this is the case with this one but not most??

[stevemorse]

Originally Posted by RUNYYfan

Cool thread. I knew some were still around in the Pine Barrens and the parks up in North Jersey. I'm surprised to hear there are phones in them. I would have thought OTA radios would have been the communications gear of choice.

joe moving, I believe the staffing is done by park rangers but also by people who are volunteer "fire police."

It is cool!!! I am so glad someone else see how cool this is. Its like God was telling me its time to go back to the woods now. As the people who know me i used to love the woods until I actually moved to the ADirondacks. Then I could not wait to get out of the woods. I was so hell bent on romantic notions of living in bliss , sitting by the warm fire, chopping wood, hiking. Instead I crack up. I swore no way . And now I am being called to go back. not to live but to enjoy I am free of that bad mistake!!! I am heading back to the FIRE TOWERS!!!!