My wife Linda and I have worked for the last seven years at Benchmark Lookout on the San Juan National Forest, a fire tower in the southwest corner of Colorado, and we love being there.

But one of the most analog among them remains relevant: the fire lookout tower. Perched atop hillsides or stilts, fire lookout towers are still effective at alerting officials of a potential blaze.

Daily, University of Colorado Boulder (THE CONVERSATION ... the newly established U.S. Forest Service built fire lookout towers around the country. The towers were topped by cabins with windows ...