Nehasane Fire Observer: An Adirondack Woman's Summer of '42

Nehasane Fire Observer is a first-hand account of what it was really like to be a fire observer in the Adirondacks of New York State. In 1942, the superintendent of Nehasane Park, the vast preserve west of Long Lake, New York owned by the wealthy Webb family, asked twenty-three-year-old Frances Boone to be the observer in the Park's fire tower. This is the story of that summer in the wilderness--a young woman 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 alone in the woods.

This memoir, simply written and full of dialogue, brings one back to a time in the Adirondacks when people used railroads to travel and wealthy businessmen owned vast private preserves for the enjoyment of their family and friends. Through conversations with the author's co-workers, readers get a feel for the straightforward, congenial personality of the native Adirondacker. As Frances Seaman remembers her experiences in the woods, the reader sees what it was really like to live in the Adirondack wilderness sixty years ago.