Nehasane Fire Observer
An Adirondack Woman's Summer of '42
By Frances Boone Seaman
Trade Paperback
Cover Price: $13.95
A young woman’s adventures as a fire observer at Nehasane Park in the Adirondack wilderness over eighty years ago—finding her way in life alone in a fire tower, thinking of her boyfriend at war, immersed in her beloved outdoors, and coping with the ever present danger of living in the woods.
This is a first-hand account of what it was really like to be a fire observer in the Adirondacks. In 1942, the superintendent of Nehasane Park, the vast preserve west of Long Lake owned by the wealthy Webb family, asked twenty-three-year-old Frances Boone to be the observe in the Park’s fire tower.
This memoir, simply written and full of dialogue, brings one back to the time when people used railroads to travel the Adirondacks and wealthy businessmen owned vast private Adirondack preserves and Great Camps for their families and friends to enjoy.
Through conversations with her co-workers, readers get a feel for the straightforward, congenial personality of the native Adirondacker. As the author remembers her experiences in the woods, the reader sees what it was really like to live in the Adirondack wilderness some eighty years ago.
Excerpt
As I left the tower room, I let the trap door down with a bang and started down the steps. I felt excited and wondered what news Howard’s letter might bring. Hurrying down the steps, I failed to realize the landings were still wet from the rain. As I swung around a landing halfway down, I slipped on a wet leaf. Losing my footing, I went down with a terrible thump, and skidded into a corner of the landing. My legs slid over the edge and hung out into space. Frantically, I grabbed a steel strut.
“Oh, God, help me!” I cried out when I realized what had happened. The fall had temporarily paralyzed me, and it was another minute before I could command enough strength to pull myself back from the edge. I had landed partly on my left side and back, and found myself looking up at the sky. When I tried to move, I felt pain in my hip, and I knew my leg had scraped against something when I went down. Reaching back over my head, I felt the bottom of the step above me and pulled myself farther back. Every move made me wince, and I wondered, as I began to feel faint, how badly I was hurt.
After some minutes, I was able to turn and bring my feet to rest on the step below. I knew then that my hip was not broken, only badly bruised. But I was shaken and scared. My knapsack, I saw, had dropped to the ground thirty feet below me. I would have to get back to the cabin as best I could. Pulling myself together and gingerly getting on my feet, I slowly descended to the base of the tower.
About the Author
Book Details
- Publisher: Nicholas K. Burns Publishing (August 2002)
- Trim Size: 5 ½ x 8 ½
- Paperback: 124 Pages with 26 historical photos
- ISBN: 0-9713069-6-6
- ISBN13: 978-0-971306-6-7
- Memoir, Adirondack Memoir, New York State history
Reviews
“Seaman’s conversational writing style and her attention to detail makes it an enchanting memoir.” Albany Times Union
“This is a beautifully written and highly poignant memoir evoking an earlier era of wartime hardships and challenge, of a young woman discovering her independence in the face of isolation, confrontations with bears, and strange men appearing at her doorstep.” Adirondac magazine
“I read it myself, and then I read it a second time out loud to the family. What a great book. What adventure! Written from the heart” Amazon Customer, 5 Stars.
“I discovered this book in a secondhand store. Don’t know how I missed it. It’s a beautiful story, well told, of a young, brave, resourceful woman working as a fire tower ranger on a remote Adirondack peak in 1942” Ed Kanze, Amazon, 5 Stars.
“My grandparents met at this Great Camp on Lake Lila in the mid 1930s, both employed by the Webb family. I found it an interesting live history read from the same era my grandparents were there. Beautiful descriptions of the Adirondacks and life in the woods in the early 1940s.” Amazon Customer, 5 Stars
“Both my husband and I enjoyed this book. How many women would have even considered watching a fire tower in the middle of the Adirondacks back in 1942? The book is well written, easy to read, and contains some interesting history from that time. I highly recommend it.” Amazon Customer, 5 Stars
