Towers and tingles

A skin-crawling experience on Elmore Mountain

Of all the jobs that require spending prolonged amounts of time in the forest, being a fire watchperson might be the most mysterious. The mountains of New England are prickled with rusting fire lookout towers of yesteryear. Most are no longer being used to detect forest fires. By the 1960s, advances in satellite and aircraft technology had begun to put fire watchpeople out of jobs. But technology has its limitations and the vastness of the backcountry has a way of testing those limits. In Idaho, as of this year, around 60 fire towers are still staffed during the increasingly arid and dangerous summer season. Meaning, there are people who have to live in those creaking towers.