Fire Lookout Website.

[Trailhead00]

Not sure if this was ever brought up in here before but I found it pretty cool. The website is www.firelookout.net and just click on New Jersey and it will show a picture and a small story about each fire tower in New Jersey. It shows construction date, height and manufacturer. The big question I had was that it said the Apple Pie Hill lookout was originally at "Great Hill" or "Big Hill", something like that, where is that?

When you get to the website click on "lookout" on the left and then click on New Jersey. Plus click on active and it will show you a bunch of old towers that no longer exist in New Jersey.

 

[Teegate]

Big Hill is located in the Leisuretown Senior Citizen development on Route 70 between the 206 circle and the Four Mile circle. You can see it here.

http://topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4415879.00011537&e=525472.000000001&datum=nad83

It is an interesting place to visit because there is a large cement foundation for the fire tower that was there and it is inscribed. The tower is not there obviously since it is now at Apple Pie. If you go there drive into the entrance to Leisuretown and stop at the guard house and tell them you are visiting Lookout Nature Park. They should let you pass as they did me.


Here is the GPS coordinates in D/M/S for the Geodetic Markers there, which is also the towers former location.

39 53 13.5(N) 074 44 28.7(W)

Here is a photo of the inscribed cement. Notice where the tower bolted to in the past.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/teegate/main.php/download/552-1/BigHill.JPG

Here are my photo's of the Geodetic Markers there on the NGS website.

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/get_image.prl?PROCESSING=list&PID=JU2989

The actual entrance to the place is located across from 72 Gramercy Place.

I have a Word document with all of the info on all of the past and present towers, including the old wooden ones from the very early 1900's. I am even mentioned in it for my Cedar Bridge tower research If anyone is interested I could try to get all of the info and pass it along. I am not sure I have permission to pass on the document, but I could ask and see if anyone wants it.

Guy

 

[JerseyJim]

Guy, try to obtain that info, and I see a side trip to check out were the tower used to be plus some benchmarks to boot.

 

[Teegate]

Jim,

I noticed that there is a geocacher who is updating the Datasheets on the USGS site. He just visited the Big Hill Tower this years. That is the first time I have noticed the word geocache mentioned in a datasheet.

Notice my initials in 2002, and his this year.

Guy

STATION RECOVERY (2002)

'RECOVERY NOTE BY INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS 2002 (GJT)
RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION.

STATION RECOVERY (2005)

'RECOVERY NOTE BY GEOCACHING 2005 (WD)
'FOUND THE STATION, REFERENCE MARK NO. 1 AND REFERENCE MARK NO. 3, ALL
IN GOOD CONDITION AND AS PREVIOUSLY DESCRIBED. THE 1990 TO REACH IS
ADEQUATE.