Black Hills National Forest

US Forest Service
Black Hills National Forest
1019 N. 5th Street
Custer, SD 57730
605-673-9200

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
605-673-9227

News Release

USDA Forest Service

Black Hills National Forest

Contact: Jay Kinsman or Brenda Shierts (605) 642 - 4622, or email us at r2 blackhills webinfo@fs.fed.us

Volunteers and Black Hills National Forest Restore Historic Fire Tower

Custer, SD: August 1, 2008

Custer, SD – Volunteers with the Passport in Time (PIT) program worked with the Black Hills National Forest to repair portions of the Custer Peak fire tower near Deadwood.

PIT is a volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program of the USDA Forest Service. The goal of PIT is to preserve the nation’s past with the help from the public.
Forest Service archaeologists and historians take volunteers from across the nation on projects to restore prehistoric and historic sites.

The Custer Peak PIT volunteers worked on rehabilitating the 1941 Custer Peak fire tower that was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. They hope to stop some of the deterioration on the tower that was caused by weather and aging.

“PIT gives me the opportunity to give back to an area of the country I love,” said
Tim Lundahl, a volunteer from Minn. “It is great to restore the tower back to its original luster.”

Jay Kinsman, Archeologist with the Northern Hills Ranger District, said that it is important to preserve such structures because they have been identified as heritage resources and it is a way to connect with history. He also mentioned that Custer Peak is still an active tower and that a lot of forests no longer have active towers.

“To have volunteers help us out here is immeasurable to us because we have more hands to get work done in areas we typically aren’t funded to hire people to help with,” said Brenda Shierts, Archeologist with the Northern Hills Ranger District.

For more information visit the U.S. Forest Service website at www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills or www.passportintime.com