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Fire lookout · Sullivan County, New Hampshire

Croydon Peak

State-owned steel fire tower on Croydon Peak inside the private Corbin Park; rebuilt after the 1938 hurricane, recabbed in 2009, not open to the public.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Inside Corbin Park, a private game preserve. Not open to the public. The state uses one acre on the summit under a 1950 lease from the Blue Mountain Forest Association.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Inside a private preserve. Wikipedia says the mountain is not accessible to hikers, and the tower is not open to the public.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towertwo-tier steel-frame tower with a square hip-roof wood-frame cab
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1910
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
NH Division of Forests & Lands
Land
Unknown
Location
Sullivan County, New Hampshire
Coordinates
43.48189, −72.21942
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nh-croydon-peak

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

Downloads about 3.4 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. 1903 EventCorbin Park began a fire protection programSource: historic-structures.com
  2. 1907 EventA.L. Lurvey built a watchman's cabin on the peakSource: historic-structures.com
  3. 1909 EventForestry commissioner's report mentions a station on the mountain kept by the Draper Company and the Blue Mountain Park AssociationSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1910 BuiltBlue Mountain Forest Association installed a fire tower with the support of the Draper Company (first-station year differs from the 1909 report; see resolved_conflicts)Source: historic-structures.com
  5. 1920 AlteredTower upgraded to a 17-foot steel frame with a 10-by-10-foot cabSource: historic-structures.com
  6. No record between 1920 and 1938
  7. 1938 BuiltSteel replacement built as a fire tower; Historic Structures gives its height as 24 feet in one section and 34 feet in anotherSource: historic-structures.com
  8. 1938 DestroyedLookout destroyed in the Great New England Hurricane, September 21, 1938 (Forest Lookouts date)Sources: historic-structures.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1950 EventBlue Mountain Forest Association leased one acre on the summit to the state for one dollar (lease dated March 13, 1950)Source: historic-structures.com
  10. No record between 1950 and 1967
  11. 1967 AlteredTower cab replacedSource: historic-structures.com
  12. 1974 EventTaken out of service to finance a five-year trial of fire detection by air patrolSource: historic-structures.com
  13. 1976 RestoredReopened after the air patrol program was not continuedSource: historic-structures.com
  14. 1984 EventMost recent renewal of the state's agreement with the Blue Mountain Forest AssociationSource: historic-structures.com
  15. 1989 AlteredTower cab replaced againSource: historic-structures.com
  16. No record between 1989 and 2009
  17. 2009 AlteredCab substantially rebuilt, with materials helicoptered onto the summit; monitoring equipment not installed in the new cabSources: historic-structures.com, firelookout.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  18. 2009 Replaced by a new structureNew Hampshire's Forests and Lands replaced the tower cab on Croydon Peak in 2009 despite budget cuts.Source: firelookout.org
  19. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Croydon Peak is the highest summit in Corbin Park, a private game preserve in Sullivan County, New Hampshire.1,2 The park's fire tower is the only one in the county, and the state owns and runs it.3,1

Corbin Park began a fire protection program in 1903, and a watchman's cabin went up on the peak in 1907.1 In 1910 the Blue Mountain Forest Association put up a fire tower with help from the Draper Company, which owned timberland nearby.1 A 1909 forestry commissioner's report, quoted by a lookout history site, already mentions a station kept on the mountain by the Draper Company and the park association.4 The sources do not agree on the year of the first station.1,4

The 1920 upgrade gave the tower a 17-foot steel frame and a 10-by-10-foot cab.1 The Great New England Hurricane destroyed the lookout on September 21, 1938.4 The replacement that followed was a steel tower, though Historic Structures gives its height as 24 feet in one place and 34 feet in another.1

The tower got new cabs in 1967 and again in 1989.1 In 1974 the state pulled the tower from service to fund a five-year air-patrol trial. Air patrols did not last, and the tower returned to service in 1976.1

A 2008 chapter report had planned a new cab for 2009.5 The 2009 report says the state replaced the tower cab that year.6 Historic Structures says the cab was substantially rebuilt, with materials flown onto the summit by helicopter.1,4

Historic Structures counts the tower as one of 15 active fire towers the state owns and runs.1

The summit sits inside the private park. Wikipedia says the mountain is not open to hikers, so the tower is not open to the public either.3

The state's use of the summit rests on a 1950 lease. The Blue Mountain Forest Association rented one acre there to the state for a dollar, and the most recent renewal was in 1984.1 Visitors should keep away from the tower.

  1. Croydon Peak Fire Tower, Newport New Hampshire, Historic Structures, https://www.historic-structures.com/nh/newport/croydon-peak-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. New Hampshire Fire Towers, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/nh/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Corbin Park, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbin_Park (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Croydon Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/croydon-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. New Hampshire Chapter Report 2008, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nh-2008.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. New Hampshire Chapter Report 2009, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-nh-2009.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts only (dates, names, the kind of work done). Every note is our own wording and every event links to the FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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.