FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Otsego County, New York

Gilbert Lake (New Lisbon)

Also known as Gilbert Lake

Otsego County, NY 80-ft Aermotor LS40 tower erected in 1934 at Gilbert Lake State Park; moved in 1948 to Leonard Hill State Forest, where it stands closed to the public.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. The tower now stands on Leonard Hill State Forest and is closed to the public (NHLR). Gilbert Lake State Park, where it used to stand, has a beach, cabins and a campground (Wikipedia).

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed from Gilbert Lake State Park in 1948 and moved to Leonard Hill State Forest, Schoharie County. It was in operation there until 1988 and is now closed to the public. No tower remains at the park site.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

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

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower80-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Conservation Department (Division of State Parks; Bureau of Forest Fire Control from 1948)
Land
Unknown
Location
Otsego County, New York
Coordinates
42.58038, −75.13870
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-gilbert-lake-new-lisbon

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 3.3 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. 1931 EventNewspaper report (May 4, 1931) that an 80-foot fire tower would be bought for Gilbert Lake Park for $1000. This conflicts with the 1934 erection date.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1934 BuiltErected by the CCC for the Conservation Department's Division of State Parks (NYSFFLA). NHLR also dates original construction to 1934.Sources: nysffla.org, nhlr.org
  3. 1941 Last staffedCCC camp members staffed the tower during dry periods until its closure in 1941.Source: nysffla.org
  4. 1948 MovedTransferred to the Bureau of Forest Fire Control and moved to Leonard Hill State Forest, Schoharie County.Sources: nysffla.org, nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1948 and 1988
  6. 1988 ClosedLast year in operation at Leonard Hill; not regularly staffed since (NHLR).Source: nhlr.org
  7. 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.

A 1931 newspaper report said an 80-foot fire tower would be bought for Gilbert Lake Park at a cost of $1,000.1 The New York chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association gives a different account. It says the Civilian Conservation Corps erected an 80-foot Aermotor LS40 tower at Gilbert Lake State Park in 1934, for the Conservation Department's Division of State Parks.2 The park had a Civilian Conservation Corps camp from 1933 to 1941.3

CCC camp members staffed the tower during dry periods until it closed in 1941.2 The chapter says there is no evidence that the tower was staffed from 1941 to 1948.2

The chapter's Leonard Hill entry gives an earlier start, saying the tower stood at the park from 1932 until 1948, when it was taken apart and moved.2 In 1948 the tower was transferred to the Bureau of Forest Fire Control and moved to Leonard Hill State Forest in Schoharie County.2,4 The national register says it was in operation there until 1988.4

Today the tower stands on Leonard Hill, and the register lists it as closed to the public.4 A visit report dated April 23, 2017, found it mostly sound despite about 30 years without maintenance. It noted that the bottom two sets of stairs had been removed to prevent climbing.4 The park also has a beach, cabins and a campground.3 No source we read describes what, if anything, remains of the tower at the Gilbert Lake site.

  1. Gilbert Lake, Forest Lookouts, quoting the Press and Sun-Bulletin, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/gilbert-lake.html (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. Gilbert Lake State Park, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Lake_State_Park (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Leonard Hill Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/leonard-hill-fire-tower/ (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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.