Fire Tower

I would really like to own this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORESTRY-FIRE-TOWER-115-FT-AERMOTOR-OBSERVATION-TOWER/200931430806?_trksid=p2047675.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555003%26algo%3DPW.CAT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D142%26meid%3D817477478072958682%26pid%3D100010%26prg%3D1076%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D181200494329%26

Total weight for trucking is 16,920 lbs. The buyer is responsible for transporting the tower and reassembly. This tower would make a great wildlife observation point for your property. It would be great for star gazing, wildlife watching, cabin retreat, meditation point, Deer stand or personal hideout. Build a Private or personal Zipline course.

That's quite the deer stand

When I was a kid some neighbors had one of those in their back yard, they leased a piece of their property to the SC Forestry Commission and the mom did fire watch from it. I remember it was a LONG climb to the top and once up there the thing swayed a good bit even on a calm day. I can't imagine how bad it would be in a thunderstorm.

I wonder how hard they are to take down/put up. I have a place I'd love to put it but I can't get any heavy equipment in there.

One of those was just restored and reopened to the public around here; it's been in place since the 1930s. It's only 60ft, but then it's on top of a 1650ft ridge. It moves around more than I would like.

http://www.beaconfiretower.org/

It's not the taking down/putting up that's the problem, it's the foundation/structure you need below the ground to keep it up.

A guy I work with bought one X years ago from a county auction as an erector-set, thought it'd be sweet to put up on his "compound". Long story short, after finding out that it was going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $25k to get a deep enough/strong enough foundation, he ended up just assembling the top 2 levels/flights of stairs and putting it up for his kids to have a bitchin tree house.

Oh, and I :heart: fire towers. Whenever we're out camping/gallivanting around we always try to find one to hike to/climb.

Saw a guy climbing onto the top of a water tower on my way home from a motocross event. Almost pulled over to puke. I don't do heights.

There's an 80 footer near me that I love to climb. Like Curmudgeon said, it does take longer than you would think. At the top, there's one spot on the diamond plate floor that must have warped from welding. It buckles when you step on it and makes a loud bang that will terrify any first timer.

Used to climb when we were kids. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

I was hiking on Mt. Adams in New Hampshire a few years ago and we climbed a tower up there. As I recall, it wasn't all that high but the last section was a steel ladder that was a straight vertical climb, which isn't so bad on the way up, but not so much fun on the way down.

Wonder if this would meet the average HOA's by laws?

I saw an article in the paper recently about a state park somewhere that has several old fire towers that aren't used anymore, so they rent them out to campers. I think it would be a great place to stay, at least until a lightning storm came along.

The last few I've come across, the bottom flights of stairs have been removed to keep you off on them.

Mitchell wrote: Wonder if this would meet the average HOA's by laws?

Just don't put a flag on it.

Tempting, but my backyard isn't that big.

Woody wrote: I was hiking on Mt. Adams in New Hampshire a few years ago and we climbed a tower up there. As I recall, it wasn't all that high but the last section was a steel ladder that was a straight vertical climb, which isn't so bad on the way up, but not so much fun on the way down.

Needs a rig like this to make the trip down more fun:

I have this memory of a King of the Hill episode when Dale builds a similar structure in his back yard... with predictable results due to lack of a proper foundation.

I'm guessing the opening bid is based on the scrap value of the steel.

There is a 100 footer in Temagami, ON (an hour north of me) and another 100 footer in Dorset, ON (about 1 1/2 hours south). Both are on the edge of 300 plus foot escarpments so the views from them are incredible.