Frances Boone Seaman - Memoirs of an Archer

Frances Boone Seaman manned a fire tower in the Adirondacks during the summer of 1942. It was wartime and many of the men her age were off fighting a war, so it was the era of Rosie the Riveter and help was desperately needed.

Her memoir "Nehasane Fire Observer: An Adirondack Woman’s Summer of ‘42" details what she did that summer, everything from archery, fishing parties, being chased by bears, and earning the respect of her colleagues.

Her parents were uncertain about a 23-year-old woman managing an Adirondack fire tower.

"Could you outrun a bear?" her skeptical mother asked.

"I don’t think anything will happen that I can’t handle," replied Frances. A fact that was later tested when she did indeed outrun, or at least out-bicycle, a bear that chased her.

On June 7th 1942 Frances boarded the train at Sabattis, dressed in jeans, plaid shirt and hiking boots, bicycle in the baggage car - and her bow and arrows on the seat beside her, much to the consternation of her fellow passengers, the conductor and especially Shorty, the candy vendor. They didn't know she also had a hunting knife stashed among her gear and had considered bringing her rifle.

The bicycle she brought was for covering the three-quarters of a mile trail from the small cabin she would be living in to get to the observation tower.

She had a small wood stove, a crock submerged in a nearby mountain brook to keep things cold. Groceries arrived by train from Tupper Lake, about 40 wilderness miles north. A "half moon house" stood 50 feet behind the cabin, discreetly cloaked by balsam trees, was her outhouse.

She spent eight hours a day in the 70-foot observation tower, seven days a week in dry spells, with vacation days granted only by rainy weather. She cleared trails, kept the phone lines working (because whats the point of an observation tower to warn of fires if the phones don't work) and of course kept an eye out for suspicious smoke and report its location using the map and alidade - a bar with mileage indicators that could be swung across the map that dominated the tower room.

But when she wasn't working she was - and sometimes even while working - she was reading, practicing with her bow and arrows, and painting with watercolors.

Her adventures during the book include driving off two strange men who knocked on her cabin door late one night, injuring herself nearly falling off the tower stairs, and running afoul of a she-bear and her cub between her cabin and the privacy of the half moon.

Frances describes her experiences that summer with such warmth and fondness you realize that year was a truly formative year in her young adulthood, one that changed her forever.

The lesson we can learn from Frances' book is that young women can get jobs in isolated regions which can become truly enjoyable experiences - and get lots of archery practice during that time period.