Neil Wilson would hike up Streaked Mountain in Buckfield five days a week to sit in a fire tower and scan 5 million acres for smoke.
He sat in the 34-foot tower for nine hours a day, working seven days on and two days off, more if there was an active fire. His stint lasted more than two fire seasons beginning in 1978.
It was his favorite job ever, Wilson says.
“You couldn’t ask for an office with a better view,” he said in a recent phone interview from his home in Laconia, N.H.
The Streaked tower is one of 55 still standing, from among the 144 once scattered throughout the state, from the town of York to northern Aroostook County. The first was built in 1905 on Squaw Mountain (now called Big Moose Mountain) at the southern end of Moosehead Lake, according to Bill Cobb, director of the Forest Fire Lookout Association Maine chapter.