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Fire lookout · Hamilton County, New York

Cathead Mountain

Cathead Mountain fire lookout in Hamilton County, NY: wooden tower 1910, steel LL25 tower 1916, closed 1989; still standing, off limits to the public, reached by helicopter.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Off limits to the public for many years (per a 2020 newsletter). Summit is privately owned; state land around it bars motor vehicles; equipment is serviced by helicopter.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Summit was closed to visitors per the 2020 newsletter (current access unverified) and is privately owned; not a tower to climb
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LL25 steel tower erected 1916, with interior stairs added in 1929The design: Aermotor LL-25
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1910
Height
49 ft (15.0 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State Conservation Commission, later the Conservation Department (earlier the Forest, Fish and Game Commission)
Land
Unknown
Location
Hamilton County, New York
Coordinates
43.28340, −74.28890
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-cathead-mountain

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 4.1 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. 1910 BuiltWooden lookout tower set up by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission; 15 ft per the annual report quoted by Forest Lookouts, 18 ft per WikipediaSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1911 StaffedObserver Edward Smith of Benson named for the Cathead Mountain station in an August 1911 announcementSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1916 Replaced by a new structureSteel tower erected, replacing the wooden tower used since 1910; Wikipedia gives 50 ft (15 m) Aermotor LL25Sources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1929 AlteredInterior stairs added to the LL25 towerSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  5. No record between 1929 and 1988
  6. 1988 Last staffedTower in service through the end of the 1988 seasonSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  7. 1989 ClosedOfficially closed as a fire lookout in early 1989, after a dispute between a landowner and the stateSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  8. 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.

Cathead Mountain sits north of the hamlet of Benson in Hamilton County, in the Adirondacks.1 A lookout was set up on its summit in June 1910, a wooden tower built by the state Forest, Fish and Game Commission.2,1 The Forest Lookouts site quotes the commission's annual report, which describes a 15-foot tower.2 Wikipedia gives 18 feet for the same tower, and says a telephone line was run to the summit so the observer could report fires faster.1 The two sources disagree on the height, and we could not settle it.

The wooden tower was replaced in 1916 by a steel tower.3 Wikipedia says the Conservation Commission put up a 50-foot Aermotor LL25 tower that year.1 Interior stairs were added in 1929.3

Observers staffed the tower for decades. The Forest Lookouts site records an observer named in a 1911 announcement.2 A 1954 obituary calls Seth Jack Wadsworth the first to serve in the state's tower here, and says he served there for 20 years.2 The two accounts do not agree on who came first. We did not find a notable fire tied to the lookout in the sources we read.

The tower was in service through the 1988 season and officially closed in 1989.3,1 The 2020 newsletter of the New York lookout association says the closure followed a dispute between a landowner and the state.3 A frame was later added over the old tower to hold communications equipment.3 That equipment is reached by helicopter only.3

Today the tower is still standing.4 The 2020 newsletter says the public has been kept out for many years.3 The summit is privately owned, and state land around it does not allow motor vehicles.5 A state constitutional amendment that would have allowed a road to the top was pulled in the Assembly, and the Adirondack Explorer reports it appears back in limbo.5 The most recent access report we found is the 2020 newsletter, so current access is unconfirmed. Until that is checked, treat the tower as one to see from a distance, not one to climb.

  1. Cathead Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathead_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Cathead Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/cathead-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. New York State Chapter newsletter, July 2020, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.nysffla.org/News2020/2020%20Jul%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. New York Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Cathead Mountain constitutional amendment falls through, for now, Adirondack Explorer, https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/communities/cathead-mountain-constitutional-amendment-falls-through-for-now/ (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 LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: height, agency, 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. Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter (nysffla.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 chapter newsletter it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR and FFLA records (the chapter publishes none). · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.