In 1916, Alfred, Limerick, Shapleigh, and Westboro each appropriated $50.00 to erect a lookout station at Ossipee Mountain, with a like amount from the federal government, but the owner of the mountain top demanded too high a price and the plan failed. A lookout station at Ossipee Hill was then erected in the fall of 1918 and connected to the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company system. It opened in early May and remained open until early October, spotting 21 fires in 1918. In October 1947, watchman Mike Ferguson of Sanford was driven from the tower when flames overran the mountain and destroyed it; he served as watchman there for 20 years. In 1948, the tower was rebuilt in wood, 30 feet high with a 13’ X 13’ wooden cabin. Monroe Bean persuaded towns to provide money for a radio in the tower and also obtained the 33.6 band for area departments to use. In 1991, when state funding ended, volunteers from the area manned the tower. Ossipee Hill Lookout Tower is sponsored by the Waterboro Fire Department, and it was accepted to the National Historical Lookout Register at the Forest Fire Lookout Association summer conference in Alfred, Maine, on August 23, 1997. Personnel employed by the Maine Forestry Service from 1918 until state funding stopped in 1991 included C.W. Fluent in 1919, Mike Ferguson from 1942 to 1962, Austin Wyman in 1962, Rick Brandt from 1962 to 1963, Wayne Foss from 1963 to 1972, Mike Carter from 1978 to 1998, and Real Lizotte from 1998 to 1991.
