State Forester Fred W. Besley developed Maryland's first systematic program of fighting forest fires. Beginning in 1910, Besley commissioned an elite corps of volunteers called forest wardens that numbered about 650 in 1935. Their responsibilities included coordinating crews to fight and extinguish forest fires, posting fire warning notices, enforcing forestry laws, and scheduling forest observers in fire towers. The Thayerville Forest Fire Lookout Tower on Meadow Mountain was one of 34 forest fire lookout towers in use across Maryland in 1944. The lookout towers that remain today are monuments to Maryland's early forest conservation efforts. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources memorializes that tireless accomplishments and sacrifices of the early forest wardens.