The Adirondacks are home a lot of cool things, from history museums to remote freshwater lakes. One thing that links it all together is a network of fire towers. These towers once housed observers during the fire season. Their job was to scan the landscape looking for smoke and forest fires, and direct fire fighting efforts. In the early 1900s, huge forest fires swept through the Adirondacks, altering vast tracts of land. The observers were the watchdogs of the Adirondack forest, protecting natural habitats and the people who lived here. At the end of the 1990 fire season, the Department of Environmental Conservation closed the fire tower observation program. However, the steel towers remained. Today, many are restored and offer visitors a chance to get above the trees and see the landscape that was so carefully protected.