BUCKET LIST UPDATE No. 144: Climb a forestry service fire tower

Booker's Mill Fire Tower

I’ve lived most of my life in heavily wooded Southwest Alabama, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve known that the state forestry service once maintained an extensive network of fire towers. At one time, these towers were manned by workers who would pull shifts watching for the smoke from forest fires. These towers were generally off limits to non-forestry personnel except for the rare, brave soul who might sneak up the tower when no one was around.

Nowadays, there are a few old forestry towers still standing, but many of them are in bad condition and aren’t safe to climb. In fact, usually if you inspect one up close, you’ll see that the wooden steps have rotted away and that the floor of the “cab” on top has rotted out. Only a fool would attempt to climb such a structure, even on a dare.

However, knowing this has never dampened my desire to climb one of these towers, which is why I added it to my bucket list several years ago. The way I saw it, the keys to scratching this item off my list boiled down to two things. I had to find a tower in good shape, and I needed to get permission.

Opportunity knocked last Thursday when I found myself at Dr. Salem Saloom’s “Classroom in the Forest” event for Conecuh County fifth-graders. The event is held at Saloom’s farm at Booker’s Mill, which also features a totally restored fire service tower. He moved the tower to his farm several years ago from Baldwin County and has had it totally restored.

During the event, I moved from station to station, taking pictures for next week’s newspaper. Dr. Saloom asked if I’d be interested in climbing to the tower’s first platform for a few bird’s eye view photos. That platform is about 50 feet off the ground, and of course I said yes.

I also mentioned that I’d loved to come back some day and climb all the way to the top of the tower. 

“Why not today?” he asked.

“You serious?” I replied.

“Sure, go for it,” he answered, before heading off on more “Classroom in the Forest” business.

I didn't have to be told twice, and I immediately set off alone for the base of the tower. If I remember correctly, Saloom said the tower is 100-feet tall from the base to the bottom of the cab on top. The climb up consists of 15 flights of steps with eight steps per flight for a total of 120 steps.

One hundred feet doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is, and the tower became narrower and narrower as I neared the top. Trying to remember every firefighter and military safety briefing I’d ever received, I made sure to keep three points of contact with the stairs and to take my time. Once at the top of the stairs, I did have to maneuver around a bit to get the cab’s heavy trap door open, but I eventually made my way inside.

The view from inside the cab was awesome, but I was immediately struck by home much the top of the tower moved due to what I would call a light wind blowing outside. The cab swayed from side to side, and the sensation somewhat reminded me of standing on the deck of a boat. I took more than a few pictures and then decided to head back down. All total, I was probably up there for only about 10 minutes.

I made my way back down slowly, still keeping three points of contact with the stairs. I’m in reasonably good shape, and I didn’t consider the climb up or down to be very strenuous. However, two days later, I did have quite a bit of soreness in both legs from the climb, so apparently it was tougher that it seemed.

In the end, how many of you have ever climbed a forestry service fire tower? What did you think about it? What tower did you climb? Where was it located? How tall was it? Let us know in the comments section below.

(Special thanks to Dr. Saloom for allowing me to climb his fire tower. It was a great experience and something I’ve always wanted to do. Without his permission, I wouldn’t have climbed the tower, so I really appreciate his willingness to let me. Thanks!)