The town of Mountain, Wisconsin sits at the southern end of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. About two and a half miles from town is a fire lookout tower that visitors can climb. The tower was built in 1935 by the Forest Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps. It stands one hundred feet tall, and on the top is a lookout cab that rangers would use to look for smoke. It was one of fourteen towers in the region and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, Oconto County Economic Development Corporation and donations from local businesses, organizations, and residents raised money to restore the historic tower.
Employees from the Lakewood-Laona Ranger District worked more than 500 hours doing the restoration work. The tower is open for visitors to climb during daylight hours from May to November. I had to climb the tower while I was there. I am not as young and energetic as I used to be, so I only climbed the stairs to the first platform. It still had an amazing view, and on the way back down I was glad I did not go up any further. I noticed on the way down how much steeper the stairs are than a typical stairway in a modern building. It would have been a long way down and challenging if I had gone all the way to the top. I have seen a lot of old fire towers, but this is one of the few that I have seen open for people to climb up it.
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