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Fire lookout · Suffolk County, New York

Camp Upton

Steel state fire tower on headquarters hill at Camp Upton, Suffolk County, completed January 1932; closed 1953, removed 1955 or 1956; site now Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1955 or 1956; the Long Island list says concrete footers still remain at the north site

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 rooftopSteel fire observation tower; the register names an Aermotor LS-40 with wood steps and landing platformsThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1932
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State Conservation Department
Land
Unknown
Location
Suffolk County, New York
Coordinates
40.87049, −72.87596
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-camp-upton

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1931 EventA June 1931 item said the tower would be erected east of Yaphank; a State Ranger found the Selden and Flanders towers inadequateSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1932 BuiltCompleted January 1932 on headquarters hill; 70 feet per the 1932 report, 60 feet per the Long Island list for the north siteSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, nysffla.org
  3. 1932 StaffedThe 1932 report said a man would be kept on duty March 15 to November 15 (planned)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1932 and 1953
  5. 1953 ClosedClosed in 1953 (register and Long Island list)Sources: firetower.org, nysffla.org
  6. 1955 RemovedRegister says the state removed it in 1955; the Long Island list says Brookhaven National Laboratory removed the towers in 1955 or 1956Sources: firetower.org, nysffla.org
  7. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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.

A May 1931 newspaper item reported that a steel fire tower, 70 feet high, was to be located on the heights at Camp Upton the next spring.1 A June 1931 item placed it east of Yaphank.1 Two towers already stood on the Island, at Selden and Flanders, but a state ranger found them inadequate for the scrub oak and woodland between them, where on many days clouds obscured fires.1

The state Conservation Department finished the tower in January 1932 on headquarters hill, where the army cantonment offices had stood during the war.1 It was the fifth in a series of towers built in Suffolk County, and the report gave its height as 70 feet.1 The Long Island list gives 60 feet for the tower at the north site, so the sources do not agree on height.1,2 A man was to be kept on duty in the tower from March 15 to November 15.1

The Forest Fire Lookout Association's register of former lookout sites says the tower was built in 1932, closed in 1953, and removed in 1955 by the state Conservation Department.3 The Long Island list agrees on the closing year but says Brookhaven National Laboratory, the new landowner, took the towers down in 1955 or 1956.2 The two accounts disagree on who removed the tower and when.3,2

The site is now on Brookhaven National Laboratory property.3,2 The Long Island list reports that concrete footings are still in place at the northerly site.2 No source we read says whether the site is open to the public.3

  1. Camp Upton, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/camp-upton.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Long Island Fire Towers, nysffla.org, http://www.nysffla.org/towers1.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Camp Upton North Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, https://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ny/camp-upton-north-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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 LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: links easternuslookouts.weebly.com · No licence stated; facts only (county, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, status, height, design hints, register links). The site's own historical quotes, newspaper citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.