At the beginning of the each year many of us like to make resolutions for all the things we want to accomplish. Most of them have to do with practicing healthier habits, losing weight, getting in shape. All worthy, but we leave those for our friends at Healthy Monadnock to write about. At Discover Monadnock, we’re more about, well, discovering the Monadnock Region; whether you have lived here for your entire life, you’re thinking about moving here or simply planning a visit. So, how about this for a resolution this year: Hiking to all 10 fire tower sites in the area.
To be clear, we’re including all historical fire tower sites in the list of 10. At one point there were 85 fire towers throughout the granite state (8 more were proposed but never built), with fire watchers manning them at least seasonally. Now only 16 remain active, with three of them right here in our beautiful region. Many of the inactive towers remain standing or have visible remaining artifacts, which are fun to explore. All of them are wonderful destinations and in many cases the hiking required to reach them is easy or only moderately difficult.
With so many towers now gone, you might wonder how we would know where the disappeared towers were located. Luckily there are people out there who have made it their goal to document all 93 fire tower sites in NH and even record videos explaining how to get there and what the history was.
Are you ready to explore some fire tower sites and #discovermonadnock?
Enjoy the videos by Chuck & Cherryl, a couple of New Englanders who love to hike and make videos about firetowers, plus the breathtakingly beautiful timelapse video of the Pitcher Mountain fire tower by Casey Bisson.
The 10 Fire Towers of the Monadnock Region
Mount Monadnock – Eagle Nest – Jaffrey
Sam’s Hill – Charlestown
Pack Monadnock – Peterborough
Hyland Hill – Westmoreland
Crotched Mountain – Greenfield
Pitcher Mountain – Stoddard
Beech Hill – Keene
Fox Forest (Monroe Hill) – Hillsboro
Lovewell Mountain – Washington
Pillsbury State Park – Washington
Featured image: Casey Bisson
