A clear view from Black Mountain

Fire towers were built to provide visibility, to give lookouts a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding forest so they could pinpoint smoke and prevent bigger fires. Before towers, open summits on some mountains provided opportunities for scouts keeping an eye on enemy movements. Black Mountain’s summit, which offers a long view of the length of Lake George, has been used for both military monitoring during the French and Indian War and for fire-spotting, with the first wooden tower built in 1911 and later steel versions staffed until 1988.

But when we pulled into the lot of Black Mountain early last