Azure Mountain group plans talk/fund-raiser

By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist

Azure Mountain Friends, an organization devoted to restoring the firetower and other improvement projects on this Franklin County mountain, is sponsoring a talk/fundraiser at 7 p.m. on March 22 at the St. Regis Falls Central School auditorium.

The guest speaker is Marty Podskoch, who has spent more than four years tracking down older firetower employees and forest rangers to record their remembrances.

His first book, "Fire Towers of the Catskills: Their History and Lore," was published in 2000. Podskoch will give a slide/talk show on Adirondack towers.

Following Podskoch will be Albany filmmaker Michael Camoin who will show his 14-minute video from his "Adirondack Firetowers Program." The public is welcome.

Azure Mountain rises southwest of Malone. From its 2518-foot summit are great views of the northern end of the St. Regis Canoe Area. The country surrounding Azure is very wild, a mixture of softwood lowlands and ponds. Just getting to the mountain from Paul Smiths (via the Keese Mill Road) or Santa Clara (the Blue Mountain Road) can be an adventure.

The Thursday night program will officially launch the $15,000 fund raising effort by the Azure Mountain Friends, a group that formed as a non-profit organization in December 2001.

For more information bout the program, call Mike McLean at 856-9206 or Carolyn Kaczka at (315) 265-4806 or e-mail azuremountainfriends@yahoo.com