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Fire lookout · Ulster County, New York

Gallis Hill

Ulster County, NY 60-ft Aermotor LS40 lookout built on Gallis Hill in 1927; moved in 1950 to Overlook Mountain, where it stands restored.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Taken down from Gallis Hill in 1950 and moved to Overlook Mountain, where it still stands restored. No source describes what, if anything, remains on Gallis Hill.

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-ft Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1927
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Conservation Department
Land
Unknown
Location
Ulster County, New York
Coordinates
41.95582, −74.06828
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-gallis-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. 1927 BuiltBuilt by the Conservation Department as a 60-ft Aermotor LS40 steel tower, with an observer cabin of the 1922 standard design erected at the same time.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  2. 1928 EventHunters shot out observatory windows when the tower opened for the season; the state promised a $500 fine for the culprits (quoting The Kingston Daily Freeman).Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 FireObserver M. Edison reported a fire in the Stony Hollow section; Deputy Sheriff Ray Winne gathered a crew of ten men, and the fire broke out again that night, when fire fighters stayed on duty all night.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1940 StaffedObserver G.F. Edson had served eleven years at the tower, per the Kingston paper of September 14, 1940.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1950 MovedMoved about eight miles north to a new site on Overlook Mountain, where it still stands.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org
  6. 1950 RemovedTower closed, disassembled and taken off Gallis Hill.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  7. No record between 1950 and 1988
  8. 1988 ClosedCatskill fire towers, including Overlook, were closed for safety reasons in 1988 (Wikipedia); Overlook reopened June 5, 1999.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  9. 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.

Gallis Hill is a 794-foot mountain in Ulster County, New York, a few miles from Kingston.1,2 The sources disagree about which side of the city it sits. Wikipedia puts the hill northwest of Kingston, while the New York chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association gives its location as three miles northeast.1,2

In 1927 the Conservation Department built a steel fire lookout tower on the hill.1 It was a 60-foot Aermotor LS40 tower, and its observer's cabin followed a standard design first set in 1922.1,2 Visitors reached the hill by a short train ride from Kingston.1,2

The tower's early years show up in short newspaper reports, quoted by the Forest Lookouts site.3 In March 1928 hunters had shot out the observatory windows, and the state promised a $500 fine for the culprits if they could be found.3 In July 1939 observer M. Edison reported a fire in the Stony Hollow section. Deputy Sheriff Ray Winne gathered a crew of ten men. The fire broke out again that night, and fire fighters stayed on duty all night to watch it.3 In 1940 the paper noted that observer G.F. Edson had served eleven years at the tower, and that a three-foot rattlesnake hung from it.3

In 1950 the tower was closed, taken down and moved about eight miles north to Overlook Mountain.1,2 The national register's Overlook page tells a different story, dating that tower to 1917 and saying it closed in 1971.4

The tower still stands on Overlook Mountain, and the state chapter lists it as standing and restored.2,5 After the Catskill towers were closed for safety reasons in 1988, Overlook's tower was the first to reopen, on June 5, 1999.5 The register says volunteers have staffed the tower on weekends and holidays each year since the reopening.4

No source we read describes what remains on Gallis Hill itself. We cannot say whether any part of the lookout or its cabin is still there, or whether the summit is open to visitors today.

  1. Gallis Hill, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallis_Hill (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Searchable list of NY Fire Towers, New York State Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://nysffla.org/alphalist.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Gallis Hill, Forest Lookouts, quoting The Kingston Daily Freeman, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/gallis-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Overlook Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/overlook-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Overlook Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlook_Mountain (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, 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.