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Fire lookout · Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

Pack Monadnock Fire Tower

Also known as Pack Monadnock (Miller Park)

1939 International Derrick fire tower in Miller State Park, NH. Cab lost in 1960 and removed in 1981; replacement cab 2004. Staffed on high fire-danger days.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. In Miller State Park. A paved auto road runs to the summit, and visitors use the observation deck.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower41-foot International Derrick steel tower, 1939; replacement cab installed 2004The design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1939
Height
41 ft (12.5 m)
Elevation
2,280 ft (695 m)
Agency
New Hampshire Division of Forests & Lands
Land
Unknown
Location
Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
Coordinates
42.86342, −71.87917
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-nh-pack-monadnock

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 3.6 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. 1939 Built41-foot International Derrick tower built by the state; NHLR and Historic Structures agreeSources: nhlr.org, historic-structures.com
  2. 1940 AlteredOriginal 7 by 7 foot cab replaced with a 10 by 10 foot wooden cab; a ground cabin for the watchman was builtSources: nhlr.org, historic-structures.com
  3. 1941 StaffedA watchman had been operating the station since 1941Source: historic-structures.com
  4. No record between 1941 and 1960
  5. 1960 DestroyedLightning destroyed the cab in February 1960. NHLR says it was burned and repaired.Sources: nhlr.org, historic-structures.com
  6. 1960 RebuiltNew cab built and installed by the end of the seasonSource: historic-structures.com
  7. No record between 1960 and 1981
  8. 1981 ClosedTaken out of serviceSource: historic-structures.com
  9. 1981 RemovedCab removed; steel frame retainedSource: historic-structures.com
  10. No record between 1981 and 2004
  11. 2004 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  12. 2004 RebuiltReplacement cab fabricated at a state facility and airlifted to the summit, installed fall 2004Source: historic-structures.com
  13. 2005 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 31, 2005 as US 646, NH 19Source: nhlr.org
  14. 2005 EventNHLR says the new cab was placed in service in 2005Source: nhlr.org
  15. 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.

The Pack Monadnock Fire Tower stands in Miller State Park in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.1,2 The Register describes it as a 41-foot International Derrick tower built in 1939.1 After the 1938 hurricane caused extensive damage to forests across the state, the state built five more lookouts, including one in Miller Park.2

The first cab was 7 feet square and made of metal, the Register says.1 In 1940 a 10-by-10-foot wooden cab replaced it, and a ground cabin for the watchman was built that year.2 In February 1960 lightning destroyed the cab.2 The Register says the cab was burned and then repaired, while Historic Structures says it was destroyed and a new one was built that season.1,2 Historic Structures adds that the new cab had no steel above the tower, and that watchmen were to clear out of the station during electrical storms.2 The watchman at the time had been operating the station since 1941.2

The state took the tower out of service in 1981 and removed the cab, leaving the steel frame in place.2 In 2002 the Department of Environmental Services offered funds to rebuild the cab in return for permission to put an air quality monitoring facility on the site.2 A cab built at a state facility and airlifted to the summit went up in the fall of 2004.2 The Register says it was placed in service in 2005.1

Today the tower is an active state fire lookout.2 The Register says the state staffs it on class 3 fire-danger days and higher, while Wikipedia describes it as staffed seasonally. Those two descriptions are not quite the same.1,3 The Register also notes that the observation deck can get cramped with hikers, and Wikipedia says a paved road runs to the top.1,3

Visitors do climb it. A state parks history says visitors can still climb the tower, though the same document gives a 27-foot height for the 1939 tower and says its original cabin no longer exists.4 I have used the 41-foot height and the 2004 cab, because the Register and Historic Structures both describe those.1,2

  1. Pack Monadnock Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/nh/pack-monadnock-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Pack Monadnock Fire Tower, Historic Structures, https://www.historic-structures.com/nh/peterborough/pack-monadnock-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Miller State Park, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_State_Park (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Miller State Park History, NH State Parks, https://www.nhstateparks.org/getmedia/d07e4a8b-c748-49f0-887d-36d5e5b63f8e/Miller-State-Park-History.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

September 2016 photo
September 2016 photo (2016)Photo: Jack Kelley, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.