Poko Lighting 9/2/2023

 10th Annual Fire Tower Lighting Event

The NYS Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association is pleased to announce the 10th Annual Lighting of the Fire Tower Event! Saturday, September 2nd at 9:00 pm we hope to have a light begin to shine in the cab of many towers across NYS! Last year we had so many wonderful volunteers that we

were able to light 33 towers! 

In the event of rain, the event will be held on Sunday, September 3rd at 9:00pm.

The event is done to honor the men and women who worked in these historic towers; protecting homes, businesses, communities and surrounding forests. The plan is to place a light in fire towers around the state from 9 to 9:30pm. We invite people to go to locations around the community (listed on our website: www.nysffla.org) where they can look up, see the light on the horizon and remember that there was a fire tower there watching over them. Thank you to Doug Hamilton for this wonderful idea to honor the past!

Because this is the 10th anniversary year of this special event we are going to ask that all Illuminators also read aloud the names of those who served in the towers.

The Poke-o-moonshine fire tower will be lit from 9-9:30 pm.  The Poko fire tower was in use from 1912 thru 1988.   Those who served over the years during the fire season (some for many seasons, some for parts of the season) are: 

Emmett Fuller - 1912

Harvey P. Mussen - 1913 - 1918

Frank Mussen - 1915 

Earl Conger - 1918 - 1925 

John B. Mussen - 1926

Andrew Hoag - 1927 

Henry Thompson - 1928 

Wallace H. Finney - 1929 - 1935 

Russell Smith - 1935 - 1952

George A. Stranhan - 1952 

George DeLorme - 1953 - 1954 

James L. Hammond - 1955 - 1956 

Robert E. Baldwin - 1957

John E. Singleton - 1957 

Wilfred P. Duclos - 1957

Joseph H. Test - 1958 

Harold Benedict - 1959 

John Daniel Mussen - 1959 - 1964 

George A. Stranhan - 1964 - 1966 

Harvey R. LaMere - 1967 - 1987 

Kathy Blaise - 1988

If you have any questions, please reach out to lauriejrankin@gmail.com

Additional information can be found at the website: www.nysffla.org