Mount Washington, N.H., June 2002

When WMTW-TV completed construction on its new tall tower in Baldwin, Maine, overlooking Sebago Lake last February, your editors gained additional incentive to make a return trip to Mount Washington, N.H. to get some pictures of Channel 8's old transmitter site. In point of fact, we had been up there twice before -- once by the auto road and once by the cog -- and both times, the summit of the mountain was socked in with clouds, making it impossible to photograph. (This is not an unusual occurrence: Mt. Washington is in the clouds an amazing 70% of the time.)

When the story first broke in February, there was still some controversy over who would take over the power generation on top of the mountain -- previously provided by WMTW -- which powered not just Channel 8's transmitter, but also the State Park visitor center, two radio stations, and numerous public-safety microwave relays on the northeast's highest peak. We were particularly concerned to get pictures in case the radio stations made plans to move off the mountain, should the power question remained unsolved.

A couple of days before my visit, WMTW and the State of New Hampshire reached an agreement for the state to take over WMTW's lease and continue to operate the generator. I did not yet know this when I decided to make the drive up, but I did know one thing, and that was that the weather forecast promised a stable high pressure system over northern New England, and thus an improved chance of sunlight on the summit.

Not wanting to put additional stress on my six-month-old car (not to mention my blood pressure!), I decided to take the “Stage” up instead of driving. For only a few dollars more than driving it yourself, the stage provides a professionally-driven ten-passenger van ride both up and down, with half an hour on the summit to look around. Our driver cum tour-guide was very friendly and happy to answer all my questions, including what was going to become of the generator! (It was he who told me about the agreement between WMTW and the state.)

Once at the top, I looked around for the best pictures I could take, and these were the result. I took a few shots down in Conway as well.

On Sunday, 9 February 2003, the WMTW building burned to the ground, destroying the electrical generator and WHOM's transmitter. Public-safety transmitters, located in the adjacent Yankee Power House, and WPKQ's transmitter in the Yankee Building, were undamaged but are inoperable until power is restored on the summit.