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Fire lookout · Warren County, New York

Crane Mountain

Crane Mountain's 35-ft steel lookout was removed in 1987; its cab was rescued and by October 2024 had moved to a Thurman farm.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1987; only the cab survives, on a farm in Thurman.

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
Trail
The cab sits on the Martins' farm in Thurman. The trip report says the public would be able to enter it on nature walks and at two annual events.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower35-ft steel Aermotor LS40 tower with an enclosed, glass-sided cabThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1911
Height
35 ft (10.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Warren County, New York
Coordinates
43.54491, −73.96243
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-crane-mountain

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 3.5 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. 1911 BuiltConservation Commission built a wood fire lookout tower on the summit in September 1911.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, stories-from-open-space.org
  2. 1919 Replaced by a new structureA 35-foot steel Aermotor LS-40 tower, bought in 1918, was erected on the summit in March 1919, replacing the wood tower.Sources: stories-from-open-space.org, en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1929 FireObserver J.H. Adams broadcast the alarm for a fire on Spruce Mountain, also called Huckleberry Mountain.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1929 StaffedJ.H. Adams served as fire observer stationed on Crane Mountain.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1929 and 1970
  6. 1970 Last staffedWikipedia says the tower ceased fire lookout operations at the end of the 1970 season.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  7. 1971 ClosedDEC placed Crane on an inactive list but continued to maintain it, the trip report says.Source: stories-from-open-space.org
  8. 1973 EventTower reactivated during an October 1973 drought; the observer was credited with spotting two fires.Sources: stories-from-open-space.org, adirondackexplorer.org
  9. 1984 EventTower deemed surplus.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  10. 1987 RemovedDEC dismantled the tower in December 1987; a helicopter removed the parts, and the cab was set down in a field owned by Robert and Edith Baker.Sources: stories-from-open-space.org, adirondackexplorer.org, en.wikipedia.org
  11. No record between 1987 and 2024
  12. 2024 MovedCab moved to the Martins' farm in Thurman in time for the Oct. 12 Thurman Fall Farm Tour.Sources: nysffla.org, adirondackexplorer.org
  13. 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.

Crane Mountain lies northwest of Warrensburg in Warren County, and the Conservation Commission built a wood fire lookout tower on its summit in September 1911.1 A history quoted in a Stories from Open Space trip report says the first observer was James Burch of Athol.2 The commission bought a 35-foot steel Aermotor tower in 1918, and the trip report dates its erection to March 1919.1,2 A Post-Star report from April 1919, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, gives the height as 40 feet, so the sources do not fully agree.3

In 1929 the fire observer stationed on the mountain, J.H. Adams, broadcast the alarm for a fire on Spruce Mountain, which locals more often called Huckleberry Mountain.3 A bad drought in October 1973 brought the tower back into service for a short time, and it was credited with spotting two fires.2,4

Lookout use wound down around 1970.1 Wikipedia says the tower stopped at the end of the 1970 season, while the trip report says the DEC put Crane on an inactive list in 1971 but kept maintaining it.1,2 The tower was deemed surplus in 1984.1 In December 1987 a DEC crew took it apart, and a helicopter carried the cab to a field owned by Robert and Edith Baker.2

The Grangers, Dick and Perky, paid the Bakers $50 for the cab in the early 1990s.2,4 Dick built a platform for it on their wooded property on Clarence Russell Road, where it sat for about 30 years.2 The Grangers had saved it from being sold for scrap, but its supports rotted until the cab became a hazard.5,2 By October 2024 it had moved to the Martins' farm in Thurman, in time for the Oct. 12 Thurman Fall Farm Tour.5,4 It cannot go back on the summit, so the Martins can set it on a knoll on their farm, where it would have a view of the mountain.4

The tower itself is gone from the summit. The trip report says a helicopter removed its parts, and no source I read describes what, if anything, remains up there today.2 The cab is the part you can still see.4 According to the trip report, people could step inside it on nature walks and at two events a year.2 The sources give the farm's name three ways, as Martin's Lumber, Martin's Lumberyard and Martin's Tree Farm.5,4,2

  1. Crane Mountain (New York), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_Mountain_(New_York) (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Remembering the Crane Mountain Fire Tower, by Dan Forbush, Stories from Open Space, https://www.stories-from-open-space.org/trip-reports/remembering-the-crane-mountain-fire-tower (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Crane Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/crane-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Crane Mountain fire tower finds new home, Tim Rowland, Adirondack Explorer, https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/communities/history/crane-mountain-fire-tower-restoration/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter newsletter, October 2024, https://www.nysffla.org/News2024/2024%20Oct%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, staffing, 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.