What kinds of structures were built on the summit?
Anyone who has been to the summit knows that it is full of iron rings and cutouts and other artifacts. The summit has a long history of buildings and towers. The first was what was called a hotel in the 1820s,. but it was likely nothing more than a bunkhouse. There is very little known about it, no descriptions and no pictures. After 1860 there was a tripod tower built on the summit by the U.S. Coastal Survey, which was experimenting with sending coded messages over long distances from mountain to mountain. Later there was a tall pole, at least 20-feet tall that was set into a drilled hole at the top. In 1916 the state built a wooden fire warden station, referred to as the Tip Top House or the Pill Box on the summit, held down by cables screwed into the rocks. This was replaced with a lower profile stone structure, built into a space in the rocks in 1928. After it was abandoned as a fire tower it was operated by the state park as a refreshment stand. It was demolished in 1974. Since th
