These structures remain partly because of a conservation effort started in the early 1990s by the Forest Fire Lookout Association and the National Historic Lookout Register, two groups interested in the preservation of fire towers. ADK joined the effort in the winter of 1993. Protesters considered it mismanagement. This was in the aftermath of the Commission on the Adirondacks in the 21st Century, whose call for tighter development controls had so outraged Park residents that they took to blocking roadways and spray-painting state buildings to express their displeasure. Restoring fire towers was a good way to mollify angry passions.
Freeman agrees that fire towers have much to offer.
He cites several reasons for restoring and preserving them. Of the great fires of 1905 and 1908 that burned one million acres between them. Those forest infernos prompted the state to build the towers. Photo by Jack Freeman Inside the Goodnow Mountain tower's cab. They came by train and horse-drawn wagon.