FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Sullivan County, New York

Chapin Hill

Sullivan County 60-foot Aermotor LS40 tower, built 1924, closed after the 1970 season and later removed; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed; the sources do not date the removal.

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 tower60-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1924
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State Conservation Commission
Land
Unknown
Location
Sullivan County, New York
Coordinates
41.60099, −74.83717
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-chapin-hill

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 3.6 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. 1923 EventSullivan County Board of Supervisors agreed to spend $1,500 on a 60-foot tower, provided the state kept a man on duty in fire seasonSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1924 Built60-foot Aermotor LS40 steel tower completed early in the spring of 1924Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  3. 1930 EventA new cabin for the observer's living quarters was builtSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1941 FireA fire destroyed the observer's cabin and burned the first three landings and stairs of the towerSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  5. 1941 EventA 1941 wildfire destroyed the observer's cabin and burned the first three wooden landings and stairs of the tower.Source: nysffla.org
  6. No record between 1941 and 1970
  7. 1970 ClosedClosed at the end of the 1970 fire season as aerial detection increasedSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  8. 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.

In August 1923 the Sullivan County Board of Supervisors agreed to spend $1,500 on a 60-foot fire tower for Chapin Hill. The offer was conditional: the state had to keep a man on duty during the fire period and assume all expense.1 The tower was a 60-foot Aermotor LS40 steel tower.2,3,4 It was completed early in the spring of 1924, in time for the whole fire season that year.1 A state report later credited county-subscribed funds with the cost, so the sources do not agree on who paid.1

The observer's living quarters got a new cabin in 1930.1

In 1941 a fire destroyed the observer's cabin and burned the first three landings and stairs of the tower.5,3 A 2020 chapter newsletter gives this in a trivia answer, and Wikipedia gives the same account.5,3

The tower stood through the 1970 season.2 Wikipedia says it closed at the end of the 1970 fire season, as aerial detection grew, and was removed later.3 A list of New York towers compiled by Bill Starr marks it as removed, with no date.4

No source I read describes what is left on the hill today, whether any footings remain, who owns the land, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Chapin Hill - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/chapin-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. New York chapter newsletter, January 2024, New York State Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.nysffla.org/News2024/2024%20Jan%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Chapin Hill, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapin_Hill (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Fire Towers of New York list by Bill Starr, 3-14-11, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/media/2974/new_york_fire_tower_list_by_bill_starr_3-14-11.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. New York chapter newsletter, January 2020, New York State Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.nysffla.org/News2020/2020%20Jan%20final.pdf (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: height, 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, 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.