FIELD NOTES COLORS seasonal 3-Packs are sold in limited quantities and they have a tendency to sell out almost immediately after they’re announced on our email list (sign up at the top of the left column!). With that in mind, we’ve introduced a subscription model, giving those who want first crack at each of our limited-edition releases (and who didn’t want to camp out in front of a browser, hitting refresh) a simple method to guarantee delivery of a year’s worth of new COLORS as they’re released.

Start your COLORS subscription right now with “The Northerly Edition” and you’ll be all set for Spring. And you’re going to want Spring. Oh yes you will.

We’ve pushed up the release date of the thirteenth in our series of quarterly, limited editions of our memo books in seasonal colors and styles by a couple of weeks. We were caught a bit off guard when our fall release sold out so quickly and we wanted to make sure there would be plenty of time for you to give these new ones as holiday gifts. The winter release is “The Northerly Edition” and it’s unlike any version we’ve made so far and it’s available to order right now in 3-packs and as part of a COLORS subscription.

Thanks to James White of Signalnoise for the lovely photo above. BTW: James is a bit of a collector.

Located in Oconto County, Wisconsin in the Chequamego-Nicolet National Forest, just two miles from the community of Mountain (pop. 860) and just off Forest Road 2106, the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower rises 93 feet, well above a tree line crowded with pines, oak, and maples. The Model LS-40 tower was built in Chicago in 1932 by the Aermotor Company, and was erected by the Wisconsin Conservation Commission, first several miles east-southeast in far more isolated location reachable only by foot trail, and then disassembled by the CCC and moved closer to service roads in 1935.

In use for nearly forty years, from May through September of each year a trained fire spotter would live at the site, spending every daylight hour up in the cab keeping watch for smoke, reporting possible fires via phone to a central Northern Wisconsin fire suppression station. At one time rich with thick forests, which in turn created a massive lumber industry, the area was prone to raging fires like the 1871 Great Peshtigo Fire which resulted in thousands of deaths, twelve completely decimated towns, and millions of scorched acres. Incidents such as these created a dire need for towers like the Mountain Fire Lookout.

Originally surrounded by small living quarters, a latrine, and storage sheds, the tower itself is now all that is left on the site. The last fire called occurred on April 25th, 1970, and it is one of only 2 remaining towers from the original 19 that were built in the immediate area. After its decommission, it served briefly as a radio antenna/relay for local ambulance and law enforcement services. Between 1993 and 1994 the site was rehabilitated and converted into a public site. The Mountain Fire Lookout Tower was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

Further Reading/Information:
Mountain Fire Lookout Tower, Nat’l Register of Historic Places (pdf)
Norman Maclean’s incomparable Young Men and Fire
Philip Connors’ Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout
Lookout Info from the History of Architecture of the USDA Forest Service
The Forest Service Lookout Cookbook
Collection of Former Fire Lookout Sites
Fire Tower Blueprints
General National Resource
Adopt a Lookout
How To Use of the Osborne Fire Finder

Our 12th FIELD NOTES COLORS edition was designed as a companion for the dedicated and vigilant men and women who have served as the “eyes of the forest” for the last 100 years. The FIRE SPOTTER EDITION went on sale to our mail list and 3-Packs sold out in less than 48 hours. You can still get Fire Spotters as part of a Field Notes COLORS subscription. Those are now just $97 each, reduced from the previous price of $129. Take that, inflation!

The little book began to look like something of a scrapbook, then as a kind of handbook with needed maps and itineraries. Adding it into pictures, the book resembled a passport. The working, unfinished document en route to becoming an archival document (…) Now I see my document as artifact, and through the pages I can recall the mountains, rivers, and skies that surrounded my steps.

Abraham writes about FIELD NOTES a lot in his blog, and he promises us Maine and Massachusetts writeups soon. Thanks for the field work, Abraham, we’re lucky to have great fans like you spreading the word.

Most “County Fair” state editions are in stock, including the second printing of New York. The few missing states will be back in stock next week.

Find out more about our thirteen COLORS releases here. There are still a few 3-Packs and Subscriptions starting with the latest release, The Northerly Edition available. Four more to come in 2012!

You’d also have two free 3-Packs of regular FIELD NOTES (one graph, one mixed), not to mention a ton of the extra stuff we throw in the mailings.

Subscribe now with a American Tradesman subscription so you don’t miss out on these limited-edition beauties and FIELD NOTES of the future. At the very least, join our mailing list (top of the left column) and find out first about new COLORS releases. Dum-dah-dee-dum! Thanks for your support!

Sort of like “How It’s Made,” but with much cooler music. Our new film is about about the making of the Fall COLORS edition, “Raven’s Wing.”