For the first time in more than 50 years, visitors can view the northern Catskills from the cab of the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower.
Friends of the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower, the group that worked to restore the historic tower to its original site in Delhi, announced Friday that they received the required certificate from code enforcement officers to allow the fire tower to be opened to the public.
The group plans to celebrate the opening.
A news release from the organization stated, “We’re planning a very short opening of the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower … Saturday, January 4th, from noon to 1 pm (weather and frozen locks permitting!).”
“If you are up to braving the cold and significant wind, you can be among the first to experience the incredible winter views from our very own Fire Tower,” The release stated. “From the tower cab, you can see Bloomville, the surrounding forests and farmlands, Lake Delaware, the Pepacton Range, and with binoculars, a few distant fire towers and wind turbines.”
For those who would rather stay warm, the group recommended a view of the tower from state Route 10 between Bloomville and Hoag’s Crossing in Delhi.
Tower openings will depend on volunteer availability, the release stated. There will be occasional openings throughout the winter and spring, with regular weekend and holiday hours during the summer and fall.
Updates will be posted Facebook and Instagram, the release stated.
“We’re so proud to have reached this final milestone after four years of dedication, collaboration, and your incredible support,” organizers said in the release.
The fire tower was in service for 25 years before it was decommissioned in 1970. Pete Clark, of the Clark family farm on Elk Creek Road in Delhi, bought the tower five years later and had planned to put it up on his property, but later abandoned that plan, group President Ann Roberti said for an earlier Daily Star story. The tower’s parts and pieces had sat inside a barn on the property ever since, until their recent reassembly on top of Bramley Mountain.
The committee spent years trying to get the fire tower rebuilt on its original site.
“During the construction process we learned something truly unique about our tower,” Roberti said in a November email. “While other fire towers have been removed and then restored, most of them were either taken down, repaired and put right back up, or were restored to be re-erected in new locations. The Bramley Mountain Fire Tower is the only existing fire tower in the United States which was disassembled, stored for years, and then reassembled in the exact same spot, saving a piece of local history.”