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New book includes Yellow Mountain’s tower
A program planned next Friday, May 9, at City Lights Bookstore is likely to appeal to many area hiking enthusiasts.
Peter Barr of Concord will be in town to promote his new book, “Hiking North Carolina’s Lookout Towers,” which is just out from John F. Blair Publisher of Winston-Salem. Barr, an avid hiker who is believed to be one of only three people to have climbed all 100 of North Carolina’s highest peaks, will show slides and sign copies of his book at 7:30 p.m.
Born in Erie, Pa., Barr moved with his family to Charlotte when he was 7. His parents scheduled a number of weekend trips to the mountains, and it was on one such excursion that he learned of the Appalachian Trail that stretches some 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine. Intrigued by the idea of the AT, Barr went home and checked out every book in his local library on hiking and camping. He even constructed a hiking trail in his family’s backyard.
His interest in the outdoors intensified during his years as a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was an assistant leader for Carolina Adventures, the campus outdoor club.
Currently the director of North Carolina’s chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, he is working to initiate multiple restoration projects for Western North Carolina lookout towers and to maintain and improve their access for hikers.
One such tower is the Shuckstack Lookout in Swain County, which provided a spectacular view of Fontana Dam construction and the filling of the lake from 1942-44. Since then the tower has been a landmark on the AT, giving hikers their first (or last, if they’re traveling north to south) view of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These days the Shuckstack tower has fallen into disrepair. Several loose steps and a missing railing make the 60-foot climb a little frightening, and those who reach its top find holes and a partially rotted floor.
“Fire lookouts in North Carolina are a dying breed,” says Barr. “About a third of the lookouts that once stood in the state are gone. Others are so badly deteriorated that they face removal. Most people assume that the towers on public lands are still maintained; sadly, this is far from true.”
Barr, who has visited every fire tower in the Tar Heel State, is trying to do something about the Shuckstack Lookout. With the encouragement of Park officials, he’s working on a detailed plan to rescue the historic structure in hopes that the National Park Service will match the funds and man-hours of labor donated by private organizations and individuals.
According to Barr’s book, the Yellow Mountain tower between Cashiers and Highlands is one such success story. Located atop 5,127-foot Yellow Mountain on the Jackson/Macon county line, it was built by the U.S. Forest Service and Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934 and was staffed by the Forest Service until 1969. Pratt McClure, who had been an Army private during World War II, was the tower operator from 1960 until 1969. McClure and those who preceded him had to hike to the tower from Buck Creek Road until a jeep road that approached from the east was built in the late 1960s. The tower was listed on the National Historic Lookout Register in 1992.
Barr terms Yellow Mountain “one of WNC’s biggest lookout restoration success stories.” The effort to save the tower, which was rapidly deteriorating by the 1980s, was led by Ron Carnes, an employee of the Forest Service’s Highlands Ranger District. Carnes was active in a peregrine falcon reintroduction program that included Yellow Mountain’s summit. After noticing the tower’s sad condition, Carnes and fellow Forest Service employee Grant Keener started an effort to restore it.
Community fund-raising efforts included a footrace up the old jeep road, and a helicopter ferried materials to the site. Several volunteer groups donated time and labor to restore the tower to what it once had been, and the tower became a popular hiking destination, Barr writes.
As is more and more the case locally, development is encroaching on the Yellow Mountain trail.
“Unfortunately, a housing development encroached on the west side of the mountain in 2007,” Barr writes. “The former jeep trail to the lookout now serves as the road for a high-end mountainside community. Several large homes are soon to be constructed within 50 yards of the Yellow Mountain trail, including one just beneath the summit and tower.”
While Yellow Mountain is the only local site listed in Barr’s book, he describes a total of seven lookouts in the Nantahala National Forest – Wayah Bald, Panther Top, Joanna Bald, Albert Mountain, Wesser, Cowee Bald are the others – and six in the Smokies Park – Shuckstack, Clingman’s Dome, Mount Cammerer, Mount Sterling, Mount Noble and Barnett Knob.
Barr’s book is easy to use, with concise descriptions of each tower and summit as well as hiking directions along with an estimate of trail difficulty.
“Hiking North Carolina’s Lookout Towers” is Barr’s first book. He’s currently at work on a volume describing the state’s highest peaks, which is due this winter.
For more information on Barr’s book and planned City Lights appearance, call the bookstore at 586-9499.
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