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Fire lookout · Franklin County, New York

De Bar Mountain

DeBar Mountain's lookout began in 1912, got a 35-ft steel Aermotor tower in 1918, closed after 1970 and was removed in 1979.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower dismantled in 1979; the former tower site is reached by a state-maintained hiking route.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. A hike write-up in the Adirondack Explorer describes a state-maintained route to the former tower site inside the Debar Mountain Wild Forest.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Per the Adirondack Explorer hike write-up: 7.4 miles out and back with 1,600 feet of elevation gain, and at least a partial view from the former tower site.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower35-ft steel Aermotor LS40 tower, replacing a 1912 wood towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1912
Height
35 ft (10.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Franklin County, New York
Coordinates
44.60347, −74.22050
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-de-bar-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 4.0 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. 1912 BuiltThe Conservation Commission established a lookout at the summit; Wikipedia describes the first structure as a wood fire lookout tower.Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1918 Replaced by a new structureA 35-foot steel tower was purchased and erected; Wikipedia identifies it as an Aermotor LS40.Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  3. 1922 EventA new observer's cabin was built under the standard 12-by-16-foot plan adopted that year; DeBar was one of five stations to receive one.Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nysffla.org
  4. 1928 StaffedState Fire Observer Forest E. Winters is named in a July 1928 item about a snowstorm on the summit.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1928 and 1970
  6. 1970 Last staffedLookout operations ended at the close of the 1970 season, per Wikipedia; the Adirondack Explorer says the state closed the tower in 1970.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, adirondackexplorer.org
  7. 1979 RemovedThe tower was dismantled and removed in 1979.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, adirondackexplorer.org
  8. 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.

Debar Mountain lies north-northeast of Paul Smiths in Franklin County, and it carried a fire lookout from 1912.1,2 The Forest Lookouts history says the Conservation Commission established a lookout there that year.2 Wikipedia says the first structure was a wood tower.1 In 1918 a 35-foot steel tower was bought and erected, which Wikipedia identifies as an Aermotor LS40.2,1

A new observer's cabin went up in 1922. That was the year the state adopted a standard 12-by-16-foot cabin plan, and DeBar was one of five stations that received new cabins under it.2,3

In July 1928 a snowstorm on the summit was watched by State Fire Observer Forest E. Winters and four climbers, according to a Syracuse Herald item quoted on the Forest Lookouts page.2

The state shut the lookout in 1970 and took the tower down in 1979.4 Wikipedia says the lookout operations ended at the close of the 1970 season, as aerial detection grew.1

Today the mountain is the tallest spot in the 122,100-acre Debar Mountain Wild Forest.4 A hike write-up in the Adirondack Explorer describes a state-maintained route to the former tower site, 7.4 miles out and back with 1,600 feet of climbing, and says hikers can expect at least a partial view from the site.4 No source I read says whether the tower's footings or the 1922 cabin survive on the summit.2,1,4

  1. Debar Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debar_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Debar Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/debar-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter newsletter, February 2022, https://www.nysffla.org/News2022/2022%20Feb%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Debar Mountain hike cures cabin fever, Lisa Densmore Ballard, Adirondack Explorer, https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/recreation/stiff-hike-cures-cabin-fever/ (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, access, 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.