NEW BRUNSWICK LOOKOUTS

MOUNT HOPE

York County

1921:  "This lookout commands a wide range of vision and nearly one hundred fires were located from this tower during the season.  With fairly accurate maps and alidade sights, the lookout man was able to report the location quite accurately.  A fire at Loch Lomond, Kings Co., 56 miles away, and one at Annidale, Kings Co., 40 miles away, were detected and accurately located shortly after starting.  A fire on the North Branch Miramichi was observed and thus accurately located from the Plaster Rock Lookout 46 miles away, and the Mt. Hope Lookout 27 miles away.  The tower was out of commission two days in July and about four days in August, due to smoke settling over the province.  This tower has been in operation for three seasons, having been taken over from the Geodetic Survey in 1919.  The construction of a cabin on top of the tower has been authorized and will probably be completed before next season."  (Annual report of the Crown Land Department of the Province of New Brunswick)

November 1930:  An 80-foot galvanized steel tower erected.

1939:   "Considerable improvement was made to the Mount Hope Telephone line in co-operation with the Dominion Forest Service under the National Forestry Programme, this Service supplying some assistance to them on the line between Mount Hope Lookout Station and Marysville."   (103rd Annual Report of the Department of Lands and Mines)

1950:   "At Mount Hope Lookout Station a new roof was put on the living quarters and the cabin finished inside and painted.  The interior of the cabin on top of the tower was also painted, and about 2 miles of the telephone line was skirted and repaired."    (114th Annual Report of the Department of Lands and Mines)

1951:   "Mt. Hope telephone line was improved by the addition of a two mile metallic crcuit pole line from Mount Hope Lookout Station westward to the Penniac Road where it meets lines of the New Brunswick Telephone Company.  The old line from Sandyville eastward to the York-Sunbury County Line was dismantled.  The new line gives much better service to Mount Hope Lookout Station and to the Acadia Forest Experiment Station whose line connects with this line at the Lookout."    (115th Annual Report of the Department of Lands and Mines)

1964:   "Penniac Cache was moved several miles to Mt. Hope to replace the living quarters at the tower.  A new fibreglass cupola was purchased for Mt. Hope Tower and has been installed."    (128th Annual Report of the Department of Lands and Mines, year ending 3/31/1966)

1967:   "Power line constructed into Mt. Hope Tower."   (131st Annual Report of the Department of Lands and Mines, year ending 3/31/1968

August 13, 1971:   "Sixty-one-year-old Allen Russell has a job that would be considered dangerous under any circumstances.
      He climbs the New Brunswick Forest Service's 90-foot tower at Mount Hope in nearby Penniac to check for forest fires three times a day.
      What makes it unusual for Mr. Russell is that he has been wearing artificial legs for more than seven years following a train accident which severed the left foot above the ankle and the right leg above the knee.
      This will be the last summer for Mr. Russell on the forest fire tower.  It's not that he can't take the climb anymore.  He's being replaced by planes that will patrol the forest for fire."   (Medicine Hat News)