Laurie Baker Rankin spent a lot of time on the mountain as a child, because her father, Larry Baker, was the last full time observer there, serving from 1958 to 1972. Other observers included Edward Avery, the legendary Mike Todd and Gus Stewart. Ken Kittle and Tim Hinkley also manned the tower before the DEC discontinued its use in 1988.

In the 1990s, the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and the DEC reached an agreement to refurbish five fire towers in the Catskills and to have volunteers man them as observers once did. A tremendous local volunteer effort was successfully accomplished in 2000.

Please join us for a look at the current state of the tower and cabin. The rich history of both, some artifacts, some delightful memories, some hiker education and we hope fabulous views await all!

More information on the towers can be found at www.catskillcenter.org/towers.

For information on HSM events and activities, please visit www.mtownhistory.org.

If you have information, photographs, documents or genealogical research sources to share with the gathering, please bring them!

The next Genealogy Lunch will be Saturday, April 16, when Bill and Ann Sanford and Gene Rosa will share information on Sanfords, Rosas, Vermilyeas, Longs, Misners, Todds and other families.

The entire 2011 HSM schedule of events can be viewed at www.mtownhistory.org, where information on the Society’s projects, and features on special topics, can also be found.

Friends of Middletown Cemeteries will hold its annual spring planning meeting Saturday, March 19 at 10 a.m. at Fairview Public Library’s Community Room, 43 Walnut St., Margaretville.

This informal group of cemetery lovers will discuss projects that might be accomplished over the coming year in the Town of Middletown and contiguous areas. They include completion of the Arkville Cemetery restoration, inventorying headstones at the Margaretville Annex Cemetery, creation of a cemetery driving tour, development of signage and other projects. There are volunteer jobs for every interest and ability!

Everyone is welcome to bring project ideas and information on cemeteries that need our attention.

Can’t come but want to help? Call 586-4973.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County, will host the first in a three-part series of Genealogy Lunches Saturday, March 5 at Fairview Public Library, 43 Walnut St., Margaretville. The event will begin at 11 a.m. in the library’s Community Room (the former garage). Participants are encouraged to bring a lunch. Beverage and dessert will be provided. Donations to cover the cost of refreshments will be welcomed. George Hendricks and Barbara Pellett will team up for this first genealogy workshop. They will share information about members of the Hendricks, Kittle, Platt, Hall, Smith and other families, some of which go back more than 200 years in this area. If you have information, photographs, documents or genealogical research sources to share with the gathering, please bring them! The next Genealogy Lunch will be Saturday, April 2, when Jean Ackerley, Karen McMurray and Barbara Moses will discuss Ackerleys, Meads and other families. On Saturday, April 16, Bill and Ann Sanford, and Gene Rosa, will share insights into their families. The entire 2011 HSM schedule of events can be viewed at www.mtownhistory.org, where information on the Society’s projects, and features on special topics, can also be found.

 “Eye on Arkville” on Thursday, July 28 will feature a slide show of historic images of the community that long rivaled Margaretville as the commercial center of Middletown. Postcard collector Lynda Stratton, and local historian Bud Barnes will share their images and knowledge in this evening program at the Arkville Fire Hall.

Autumn programs will include a photo exhibition of remaining Middletown barns and a demonstration by timber framer Wayne Ford at the Cauliflower Festival Sept. 24; a tour of several barns on October 2, and a then-and-now photographic exhibit titled “Time and Time Again” by Michael Musante, who will show and discuss the project at the HSM annual meeting October 23 at the Halcottsville Grange Hall.

Meanwhile, Friends of Middletown Cemeteries will meet Saturday, Mar. 19 at 10 a.m. at Fairview Library to discuss 2011projects, which will include completing the restoration of the Arkville Cemetery. All are welcome to bring project ideas to the meeting, and to participate in headstone inventories, signage initiatives, repair projects and a cemetery driving tour to be developed this year.

While the artists gathered as a group to paint the selected sites, each work is a distinct interpretation of the building or view. Included among the images are Victorian homes and buildings on Walnut Street in Margaretville and Wagner Avenue in Fleischmanns; views of Pakatakan Mountain and the East Branch of the Delaware River; historic homes of the former Pakatakan Artists Colony in Arkville; the pastoral Clovesville Cemetery; maple syrup making and sugar houses in New Kingston and on Hubbell Hill; and the barn on the historic VanBenschoten farm on Margaretville Mountain.

Note cards of some of the artwork created for last year’s auction, handsomely collected in gift packages of five cards with envelopes, will be available for purchase, just in time for the holidays.

For more information: 845-586-4973; history@catskill.net.