Friday, January 8, 1965 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

January 8, 1965
Friday, rainy and warm, 30's and 40's.  I finished my green dress in early am.  Clifton had a bad cold.  Laura here at night for supper came home on bus with Wayne.  Carol went home with Deanna Fancher.  Roberta called in pm and said their church started at 10:30.
Comment: Comings and goings....btw, this map is wrong...'nard' in the upper left hand corner is really Hubbard Hill and the hill called Hubbard is really Leonard Mountain.....The following is excerpted from “Fire Towers Of The Catskills, Their History And Lore”, Martin Podskoeh, Purple Mountain Press, 2000.

In 1947, the state took down the 80-foot tower that stood on Gilbert Lake State Park and rebuilt it on Hubbard Hill. The mountain is named after the Hubbard family who have owned land and farmed there since the 1800’s.

However, the state misnamed it Leonard Hill Fire Tower, after a lower hill owned by Dr. Duncan Leonard next to Hubbard Hill. 

“It wasn't supposed to be Leonard Hill,” says Frances Hubbard. “Somebody got the maps mixed up. It always bothered me.”

Fred VanAken was the first observer at the tower. He started working April 8, 1949. He and the other rangers parked at the Hubbard farm and followed a rugged trail along the telephone lines to the tower.

“About 15 years after the tower was built, the state purchased 75 acres from my parents,” said Doug Hubbard, son of Clifton and Frances Hubbard. “The state built another road to the tower on the north side of the mountain, and we hardly saw the observers after that.”

One day during the 80’s, observer Judy Merwin gazed out the tower window at the beautiful valleys and woods of Schoharie. A young couple standing next to her had hiked to the tower and were learning about the area. Judy pointed out the Majestic Catskill Mountains to the south and the fertile Schoharie Valley to the north.

In the distant they could see a single-engine plane approaching the tower. As the plane got closer, they saw that it was pulling something. The young man said to his girlfriend, “Look! It has a sign.”

The words were now visible: “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” The young woman’s eyes filled with tears. She embraced the young man with a heartfelt, “Yes.