MA and RI Firetower Sites

[Nate]

For the sites of former towers in Mass. and RI, are there any that have decent enough views that are worth visiting? Mounts Watatic and Wachusett both come to mind, and I'm sure there's others.

 

[Tom Rankin]

For the sites of former towers in Mass. and RI, are there any that have decent enough views that are worth visiting? Mounts Watatic and Wachusett both come to mind, and I'm sure there's others.

This is not a complete answer, but it might help get you started:

http://www.firelookout.org/towers/ma/mass.htm

http://www.firelookout.org/towers/ri/ri.htm

Some of the links have pictures, so you can see if it looks like there are views.

Amazingly, RI has a total of 20 sites!

 

[WhiteMTHike]

Amazingly, RI has a total of 20 sites!

Escoheag Tower in West Greenwich is probably the only one really worth visiting though.

 

[MTNRUNR]

Fyi...

Tower on Watatic is gone and don't think you can go up one on Wachusett, but have good views from the open summit

 

[percious]

Mount Toby in Central mass has nice views of the Holyoke range. There is a tower on top that you can ascent about 90%.

http://www.percious.com/hiking/other/MA - Mount Toby - May 2005/
-percious

 

[smitty77]

Tower on Watatic is gone and don't think you can go up one on Wachusett, but have good views from the open summit

As for Wachusett, a some friends of mine were invited up in the cab for a look-see when the fire watcher was on duty. AFAIK, it is still manned during the summer months. Maybe he was agreeable since he and my friends live in the same town (though never met before)??? Might not hurt to ask if someone is there when you go.

Smitty

Edit: There's also a tower on Prospect Hill in Phillipston that can be reached from the Harvard Forest - Fisher Museum site on Rt. 32. No cab, but some nice views from what I've heard.

 

[jjmcgo]

Mt. Plantain

According to the Mass. site, the old Mt. Everett tower was purchased with the intent of being reconstructed on Mt. Plantain.
Does anyone know how those plans are progressing?
I did not know there are areas of scrub oak and pitch pine on Mt. Plantain.

 

[rocket21]

Of the ones I've been to in Massachusetts, you can climb (not enter the cab) Mt. Toby, Mt. Grace (just south of the NH border), Borden Mountain (Savoy State Forest), and Massaemett (a really unique stone tower in Shelburne). There are a few others that I have yet to visit, but it should be noted that the sites are starting to disappear (Mt. Everett, Tower Mountain, Berlin Mtn NY), so some guides may be out of date.

 

[RoySwkr]

MA has more operating towers than the rest of New England combined, usually the observer will invite you up to see the local sights. Note however due to the relatively wet weather in western MA many of those towers are gone while Cape Cod and the SE are real hotbeds of fire activity.

 

[Nate]

Thanks for all the postings. However, I'm more asking about FORMER tower sites (since obviously any summit that still has a tower will have decent views from said tower). For instance, on Mount Everett the trees are just tall enough that there isn't much of a view with the tower gone. Mount Harris in Maine is a fresh example of a spot that doesn't really have much for views now that its tower has been torn down.

However, a fair amount of towers were built on high, open areas or near ledges that have decent views, so my question is what are some of these places? Thank you to Tom Rankin for suggesting looking through the old fire tower pictures and see what kind of vegetation is in the background.

 

[Pat T]

Hi, Nate--

The firetower located in the town of Harvard (MA) is on Pinnacle Hill--not Prospect Hill which is noted in the table on the link. As far as I know, the Pinnacle Hill site does not have a view (unless you climb the tower, and I do not know if that is allowed). Prospect Hill, however, has no tower but does have an expansive view from south to west to north. You can see Wachusett, Greylock on a very clear day, Watatic, Monadnock, Temple, and the entire Wapack trail all the way to N. Pack. People go there to watch hawk migrations and I was able to see Comet McNaught from there early this past January.

Pat T

 

[Stan]

Prospect Hill in Waltham is a city park with an old tower, not accessible, and views spanning from the harbor islands to Wachusett and Monadnock. You can walk up from the base or drive part way up to a picnic area. It is an interesting mix of footpaths, bushwhack opportunities and industrialization ... a former ski slope, water tower, communications towers and a strange looking Raytheon contraption that reminds me of something out of Star Wars ... but you can quickly put all of that out of sight and mind and lapse into the fantasy of being away from it all.

 

[brianW]

The tower on Prospect Hill in Philipston has a nice view. The walk thru Harvard Forest and a visit to the Fisher Museum are all worth it in my opinion. I used to bring my environmental science classes there.

Mt. Grace in Warwick Ma has a tower. I have not been there in a long time and do not remeber what the view was like.

The tower on Watatic was removed about 10 years ago but the tower "footings" are easy to find. The view and hike of Watatic are one of my favorite little mountain hikes.

 

[--M.]

Nobscot

Although it's been deeply entrenched in suburban development for a hundred years, Nobscot Hill in Framingham/Sudbury has several features:

==Working fire tower;
==Good views to Boston, north and west (Wachusett);
==History, including a Henry David Thoreau apple orchard, Longfellow's Wayside Inn and Gristmill, and a Henry Ford dam;
==Some good woods walking and canoeing nearby,
AND, as if that weren't enough,
==Lots of new construction, right in the neighborhood!

 

[jjmcgo]

Nobscot memories

Is there still a boy-scout camp at Nobscot? We were all over those woods and the tower was always one of the big objectives. There was also an East-facing cliff with view of Boston.
That was back when the smaller John Hancock Building was the tallest building in Boston.

 

[--M.]

Is there still a boy-scout camp at Nobscot?

Yes, and from what I hear they're a touch prickly about 'trespassers': they're okay with people hiking 'their' trails, but maybe not so much about filling up the parking lot. I heard an explicit request gets you both.

What I noticed from atop the firetower is how Wachusett and Boston just stand out so clearly from the surrounding terrain. For everything else, you kind of need to know what's what.

Don't mind the cell towers and development....

 

[jjmcgo]

The cliff with the view

was northeast of the cabins. I looked on a map and I think it's called Tippling Rock.
Mapquest shows a Richard Callahan State Park on the south border of Nobscot. There used to be a working pig farm on the south side and the Scouts would go in the pens and chase and wrestle the pigs and come out in an awesome state.
It was there that I became the ace of lashings, a skill I was told would serve an outdoorsman for years and years to come.
In the past 30 years, has anyone seen someone use lashings to make a backwoods chair, table and fire ring brackets to hold a branch that you could slide through pot handles to cook over the fire?
Those were Boy Scout skills circa 1960.
Probably the best thing I learned from that was that if you had a skill you didn't have to do latrine duty.
Then we buried the beef-stew and beans cans. The pig farm probably smelled better than the cabin by morning.
The website says the cabins and lean-tos are available to qualifying groups, not just scouts.