St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-07-21
Telephones in the Adir0ndacks.

New York is using the telephone thi
season to protect the beautiful Adiron
dack region from the forest fires which
last year proved very disastrous in tn
upper part of the state and to afforc
a greater degree of convenience to tn,
many city people who find the Adiron
dacks a pleasant place to spend theil
summer vacation. ames S. Whipple
forest, hsh, and game commissioner, has
charge OF installing the protective noun.
tain telephone system which, it is be.
lieved, will be great benefit to that
section.
The idea of using telephones as an aid
IN hghting forest fires is by no means a
new one. The United States government
already has an extensive system of
mountain telephones in the national
forests, over which it holds sway.
Already many disastrous fires have been
checked by the aid that has been brought
through the use of the telephone in the
national forests of the far west The
governments system of forest telephones
was installed by the Western Electric
Company, which is also furnishing the
telephones and line material for the
Adirondacks system.
The New York Herald in a dispatch
from Lake Placid on this subject recently
had the following to say
AS the result of a conference with
George A. Stevens, proprietor of the
Stevens House, who is familiar with
every inch of the forests about here, and
with Assemblyman James Shea, of this
village, Commissioner Whipple has now
definitely decided to install his forest
hre protective service for this portion
OF the Adirondacks on the summit of |
Mount Whiteface instead of on the |
OF Mount Saddleback, as first |
The idea is to run telephone
line to the summit, build a permanent
shelter there and install day and night
lookout for fires. At the least sign of
one, word is at once to be communicated
to the district likely to furnish the
nearest available fire fighting force.
Whiteface, which has an elevation Of
4,96S feet above the sea, and from the
summit of which on clear days Lake
Champaign, the St. Lawrence and even
the spires of Montreal and other equally
Instant points can be discerned. is the
mountain most frequently climbed by
visitors to the Adirondacks. Heretofore
there has been no means of communi-
eating with friends making the ascent
other than by the uncertain method of
flashing back from the summit the suns
rays with pocket mirrors. With a tele.
phone system extending to the summit,
a ready means of communicating with
anxious friends in the village below, the
ascent of Whiteface will become even
more popular this season than it has
oeen in the past, and in time, beneath
he stress OF increasing business the bald
Knob OF Whiteface may blossom forth
With switchboard and an up.to-date
Hello girl.
The wire, which is to be strung I'D the
ide OF the mountain upon the trees and
yer the rocks, has already arrived, and
he work of putting in the line will begin |
ext week. Final arrangements were I
ecided upon at meeting of Commits
Ioner Whipple and several of his fire {
'ardens held at the Stevens House. A
milar telephone service is to be placed
n the summit of St. Regis Mountain t
ear the St. Regis chain of lakes, and
his obviates the need of a service on g
addleback Mountain" !;