AZURE MOUNTAIN STORIES
| April
17, 2002 Dear Azure Mountain Friends: I recently received your brochure, forwarded here to me in Florida. We will be home in Tupper Lake in less than 2 weeks. Congratulations on launching into your fire tower effort!! I knew it was underway. It will be a long road, but with steadfast effort and persistence I feel certain you’ll make it. When we started the effort on Mt. Arab in 1997, we weren’t sure whether or not we could do it, but we did!!! And our grand rededication will probably take place this year. Yes, it was a lot of work! But you will not have an observer’s cabin to restore, and that will reduce the burden. I have been Treasurer of the Friends of Mt. Arab from the beginning. We have raised over $27,000 to date, have spent a good chunk of that, but there are always the ongoing expenses of a summit guide in the summer which everyone has liked and we want very much to continue. Maybe that isn’t on your list – probably not right now, anyways. Get as many people involved as possible and spread the workload out. Too often it is the few who do the most.  Enough. I am enclosing $25.00 for your efforts from my wife and myself. If you send me one of your patches, I’ll send you one of ours! We will be home at the address below soon. I have a lot of things going on this summer (again) besides Mt. Arab, so I can’t offer much time for advice, etc. but will answer a few questions by phone sometime if it’s helpful. You are very lucky to have AARCH take you on. They have done an outstanding job of supporting us. They are spread thin, so you want to try and do all you can, but they are your most important Friend right now! Good luck. We’ll see if it might be possible to goet over and see what you’re doing. I have Jack Freeman’s book. Please put me on your newsletter/information/update list. I’ll get you on ours. (We’re way behind in getting our next newsletter out!! That’s an important thing for several people to tackle for you!) Good luck. Am anxious to see names of those key people so far. Is Duncan Cutter related to Dave? We may know some Laurentian Chapter ADK folks helping you. Gordon Batson is on our Board and he and Katherine are two of ur strongest supporters and helpers --- great people! Most Sincerely, Peter A. Curtis |