WeRmudfun
New member
Seeing how we didn’t want to deal with the leaf peeping crowds last weekend, we decided to head west and revisit a fire tower. We actually revisited two sites, but that will be another report, video is not even edited on the other one yet! 
We went back to Craney Hill Fire Tower (it was #46 on the fire tower list for us when we first were there), because twice a year they open the tower to the public and this was one of those weekend. We were there in February of last year, so we figured it would be a great time to go back and update the video for the Fire Tower Map. We parked on Craney Hill Road at the gate. Parking is limited to the sides of the street. There is a big boulder there that says, LOOKOUT TOWER. There are also signs pointing you to the gated road, you really can’t miss it.
It is a short ¼ mile hike up the old access road and we were at the tower in no time. Usually it is gated and locked at the first landing, plus the cab door is also locked. The town of Henniker and its residents did an excellent job restoring and maintaining the tower. The views from the tower are really good and they even placed little cheat sheets above the windows, so we knew what we were looking at.
In 1997, there was a proposal to replace the tower with a communication tower, but the whole town voted NO on it. As a matter of fact the night of the vote Mr. Dale Clement showed up with a certificate from the National Fire Outlook Register showing that the tower was now a historical landmark, just to seal the deal.
Speaking of Mr. Clement, Cheryl and I had the honor of meeting him at the tower and he was a wealth of information. The two weekends that the tower is open local residents are at the tower to let the public in and answer any questions. If anyone is interested the tower will be open next weekend, October 17-18 weather permitting from 10AM-4PM. If you miss it, it will be another year before you can go in it again.
We went back to Craney Hill Fire Tower (it was #46 on the fire tower list for us when we first were there), because twice a year they open the tower to the public and this was one of those weekend. We were there in February of last year, so we figured it would be a great time to go back and update the video for the Fire Tower Map. We parked on Craney Hill Road at the gate. Parking is limited to the sides of the street. There is a big boulder there that says, LOOKOUT TOWER. There are also signs pointing you to the gated road, you really can’t miss it.
It is a short ¼ mile hike up the old access road and we were at the tower in no time. Usually it is gated and locked at the first landing, plus the cab door is also locked. The town of Henniker and its residents did an excellent job restoring and maintaining the tower. The views from the tower are really good and they even placed little cheat sheets above the windows, so we knew what we were looking at.
In 1997, there was a proposal to replace the tower with a communication tower, but the whole town voted NO on it. As a matter of fact the night of the vote Mr. Dale Clement showed up with a certificate from the National Fire Outlook Register showing that the tower was now a historical landmark, just to seal the deal.
Speaking of Mr. Clement, Cheryl and I had the honor of meeting him at the tower and he was a wealth of information. The two weekends that the tower is open local residents are at the tower to let the public in and answer any questions. If anyone is interested the tower will be open next weekend, October 17-18 weather permitting from 10AM-4PM. If you miss it, it will be another year before you can go in it again.
