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Fire lookout · Hampden County, Massachusetts

Granville (Sweetman Mountain) Tower Site

Sweetman Mountain tower in Granville MA: 65-ft wooden tripod first operated 1931, staffed to 1962, sold on eBay 2003, footings only per 2005 survey.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Only footings remain, per a 2005 survey reported by the Forest Fire site; no later report found

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower65-foot wooden tripod tower with 10'x10' cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1931
Height
65 ft (19.8 m)
Elevation
1,455 ft (444 m)
Agency
Springfield and Westfield Water Company (landowner who paid for the tower, per the Forest Fire site)
Land
Unknown
Location
Hampden County, Massachusetts
Coordinates
42.10600, −72.88817
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ma-granville-sweetman-mountain

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.7 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1915 EventForest Fire site describes a 40-foot Aermotor built in 1915 that had been the Becket Mountain tower; its link to this site is unclearSource: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1915 and 1931
  3. 1931 BuiltFirst operated May 30, 1931 (Granville Fire Department); Forest Fire site says first operated in 1931Sources: firetower.org, granvillefire.net
  4. 1934 BuiltForest Fire site describes a 60-foot Aermotor built by a CCC crew from camp 64 in Chester; unclear whether it replaced the 1931 towerSource: firetower.org
  5. No record between 1934 and 1958
  6. 1958 AlteredNew road and power line builtSource: firetower.org
  7. 1961 AlteredTwo-way radios installedSource: firetower.org
  8. 1962 Last staffedStaffed until 1962Sources: firetower.org, granvillefire.net
  9. No record between 1962 and 2003
  10. 2003 EventForest Fire site says 'This tower' was sold on eBay in 2003; the page does not name which structure that isSource: firetower.org
  11. 2005 Condition assessmentSurvey by New England FFLA members confirmed only footings remainSource: firetower.org
  12. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 3, 2008Source: FFLOS register entry
  13. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Sweetman Mountain lookout was in Granville, Hampden County, Massachusetts.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout site describes a 65-foot wooden tripod tower with a 10-by-10-foot cab, first operated in 1931.1 The Granville Fire Department's history gives the same height and cab size, and a first day of operation of May 30, 1931.2

The Springfield and Westfield Water Company owned the land the tower stood on and paid for the tower.1

Both sources put the end of staffing at 1962.1,2 The site also records road and power-line construction in 1958 and two-way radios added in 1961.1

The site also describes a 40-foot Aermotor built in 1915 that had been the Becket Mountain tower, and a 60-foot Aermotor built in 1934 by a CCC crew from camp 64 in Chester.1 It does not say how those Aermotors relate to the 65-foot tower.1

The site also says one tower was sold on eBay in 2003, without naming which structure it was.1 A 2005 survey by New England members of the Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) found that only footings remained of that tower.1

That survey is the latest report we found. No source describes what the site looks like now, who owns it, or whether visitors can reach it, so ask locally before going there.

  1. Granville (Sweetman Mountain) Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ma/granville-sweetman-mountain-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. History of the Department, Granville Fire Department, https://granvillefire.net/p/23/History (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Photos

Photo of Granville (Sweetman Mountain) Tower Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Completed Tower Photo from the Westfield, MA Engineering Department.
Completed Tower Photo from the Westfield, MA Engineering DepartmentPhoto: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.