[0:00] for decades neighbors who live here on
mccomb street in plattsburgh knew about
[0:03] george barber's project the 40-foot fire
tower that sat on its side here in his
[0:09] backyard
george who was a land surveyor had
[0:12] dreams of reassembling the tower on a
hill just north of plattsburgh where
[0:16] visitors would be able to see across
lake champlain to the mountains in
[0:20] vermont and north across the border to
see the skyline of montreal
[0:25] george barber sadly though passed away
three years ago before that had ever
[0:30] happened
so the family was quite pleasantly
[0:33] surprised when they were invited to the
village of speculator in the adirondacks
[0:37] this past week to see their father's
tower standing tall once again at a new
[0:42] home with a new purpose
[0:47] the mayor jeannette barrett has spent
the past couple of weeks capturing it
[0:51] all on her phone as the historic mccomas
fire tower that had sat in george
[0:56] barbour's backyard for more than 40
years was being reassembled piece by
[1:02] piece just across route 30 from lake
pleasant in the village of speculator
[1:06] when i became mayor one of my goals was
to help improve the economy we are a
[1:11] tourist-based economy and we got in
touch with laurie rankin from the new
[1:16] york state uh forest fire lookout
association she put me in touch with
[1:20] mike valegi and he says i've got a tower
full of adirondack history and the rest
[1:26] is history and
there it is the mccomas tower first
[1:30] steel tower set in the adirondacks in
1916 and now here
[1:36] and so with the help of a hundred
thousand dollar grant through new york's
[1:39] department of environmental conservation
10 000 from the adirondack foundation
[1:43] and a fun drive to raise another 50 000
the village bought the tower laid the
[1:49] foundation and hired the former dec
ranger who remembered seeing the tower
[1:54] in george barbour's backyard
mike valegi tracked it down to some
[1:59] woods in redford and went to work
reassembling it here near the ball field
[2:03] in speculator
and george was so passionate about this
[2:09] i became obsessed with this tower what
happened to it and so we
[2:14] picked it up and we restored it and uh
lori rankin put us in touch with the
[2:18] mayor of speculator and
uh three years later here it is we're
[2:23] lucky that this one is local and we're
able to keep it local that was very
[2:27] important because of the history of this
tower it could have
[2:30] you know it could have wound up in a
private estate somewhere and it's just
[2:34] in part of george barber's legacy he
wanted everybody to enjoy this so and
[2:39] open to the public so it's kind of
flattering to uh in a way to be able to
[2:44] uh you know honor his legacy
i think the the most gratifying thing is
[2:50] for me is honoring george barber
that that is
[2:56] that's probably the most important thing
to me
[2:58] and gratifying to lori rankin who heads
up the forest fire lookout association
[3:04] in new york state
so this must do your heart good to see
[3:07] you
this fire tower going up this is
[3:10] fabulous
not only are we preserving the history
[3:13] of the mccomas fire tower but it's going
back into an adirondack community so on
[3:19] on all counts i think it's fabulous
you love it because
[3:25] people will be able to come see this and
learn about the history of the fire
[3:28] absolutely yes and the mission of the
forest fire lookout association is to
[3:33] preserve not just the structures
themselves but also to preserve the
[3:37] history and this tower has significant
history
[3:42] the mccomas fire tower was the first of
ten steel towers that went up in 1916 at
[3:48] the underwood club in north hudson the
towers and fire watchers worked to
[3:52] protect the adirondacks for more than
half a century until they were
[3:56] decommissioned in the 1970s
it was very important to the adirondack
[4:02] communities that that they had somebody
up there protecting them and watching
[4:06] them by 1970 with a telephone you could
pick up and make a call and say hey i
[4:11] have a problem
it wasn't as necessary anymore so they
[4:16] were decommissioned
so they were decommissioned but i know
[4:19] through the years
many folks have felt that
[4:23] they should remain in the adirondacks
that they are landmarks that should stay
[4:26] where they were yes so from the period
of the early 70s when decommissioning
[4:32] happened until the late 90s there did
begin to be a lot of local small
[4:37] grassroots organizations
that said what can we do to save this
[4:42] fire tower we see a restoration as not
only saving a historical item but we
[4:48] also see it as a great opportunity to
provide education to the hiking public
[4:54] people happy to have this yes
they are very happy to have it here how
[4:59] has it gone reassembling this it's been
amazing uh it's been just such a fun
[5:04] process you know because it's been in
pieces for 44 years were you lucky were
[5:08] most all the pieces still together
everything that tower is all original
[5:12] you know there's just a couple tiny
pieces that had to be refabricated but
[5:17] the rest of it is is is fully
[5:23] oh this is original
so wonderful and this past week george
[5:27] barbour's family his kids made a trip to
speculator to see their father's tower
[5:33] standing tall
well thanks to him and your family for
[5:37] preserving it so that we can have it
here it's just so wonderful it is
[5:40] exciting
[Music]
[5:44] that was something special to him and he
always wanted to put it up and the idea
[5:48] of a fire tower in our backyard in
plattsburgh was kind of cool
[5:52] but seeing it here it's it's in a proper
setting this is where it belongs so
[5:57] we're really excited about that he would
be so pleased
[6:00] so pleased with this so many more people
will enjoy it here and that's what dad
[6:05] wanted he wanted it to be accessible to
everybody yes and he realized how rare
[6:09] fire tarots are and many of them were
just being scrapped and he felt this
[6:13] needs to be something that the public
has access to so this couldn't be a
[6:17] better spot for it it's just the most
perfect thing that could happen with
[6:22] this fire tower
it's
[6:25] it's a gift
to be able to see it up here
[6:28] it's like george barbour's dream come
true it's our hope that this will be a
[6:32] draw year round
for speculator for lake pleasant for
[6:36] hamilton county
[6:40] there will be a ribbon cutting for the
new historic fire tower next month
[6:44] the mccomas tower is in the community
park near the entrance to the sagandaga
[6:48] pathways trail the village of speculator
is getting help getting the word out
[6:52] about the new fire tower with the help
of the folks at roost in lake placid we
[6:57] try to ensure that local communities
have access to
[7:01] grant materials funding letters of
support that type of thing to make
[7:05] projects like this happen the
adirondacks has a ton of history
[7:09] fire towers are just the tip of the
iceberg but the more that we can share
[7:11] information about things like that and
about the history and the lore of the
[7:15] adirondacks
it just encourages more people to come