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Fire lookout · Warren County, New York

Gore Fire Tower

Also known as Gore Mountain

1918 60-foot Aermotor LS40 steel fire tower on Gore Mountain, Warren County, New York; blown down 1919, rebuilt 1920; closed to visitors and now a communications site.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Closed to visitors; the tower houses communications equipment at the summit of the Gore Mountain Ski Complex.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

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

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1918
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
3,563 ft (1,086 m)
Agency
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Land
Unknown
Location
Warren County, New York
Coordinates
43.67344, −74.00397 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-gore

View from the cab

What you see from the 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.

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Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1909 EventEarliest lookout in the sources read: an 18-foot wooden tower established in August 1909Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
  2. 1918 Built60-foot steel tower; the Register says built, the Conservation Commission 8th Annual Report (listed under 1918) says purchased and erectedSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
  3. 1919 DestroyedSteel tower blown over in a hurricane in October 1919Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
  4. 1920 RebuiltReconstructed (re-erected) in 1920Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org, nysffla.org
  5. 1934 EventAcquisition of a 1,861.17-acre parcel in Johnsburg that included the summit observation station (January 11, 1934 item)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1934 and 1988
  7. 1988 ClosedRegister gives 1988 as the closing year; Wikipedia says fire lookout operations ended at the end of the 1988 seasonSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  8. 1989 ClosedOfficially closed in early 1989, per WikipediaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  9. No record between 1989 and 2022
  10. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 23, 2022 as US 1701, NY 53; nominated by Laurie RankinSource: nhlr.org
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Gore Mountain, in Warren County, New York, got a fire lookout in 1909, when an 18-foot wooden tower was established there.1,2 The tower standing there now is a 60-foot steel Aermotor LS40 tower.2 The Register calls it built in 1918. A state Conservation Commission report, quoted on a lookout history site, lists a 60-foot steel tower as purchased and erected under 1918.1,2

A hurricane blew the steel tower down in October 1919. The state's report for 1920 says it was reconstructed that year, and the Register says it was re-erected in 1920.1,2 A 2020 newsletter from the New York chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association repeats the 1920 rebuild.3

In January 1934 a parcel of 1,861 acres in the town of Johnsburg was acquired, and the purchase included the observation station on the summit.1 A newspaper item from that time ranks the station among the more significant ones in the lower Adirondacks and says many climbers come each year for the summit view.1 The sources read do not say who staffed the tower or what fires it watched.

The Register gives 1988 as the year the tower was closed. Wikipedia says it ended fire lookout work at the end of the 1988 season and was officially closed in early 1989.2,4 The Register says the tower has since been adapted to hold a large amount of communications gear near the summit of the Gore Mountain Ski Complex.2 A Warren County emergency communications document lists the Gore Mountain summit as one of the county's four transmitter and receiver sites.5

Today the tower is closed to visitors. The Register names the state Department of Environmental Conservation as administrator, with the Olympic Regional Development Authority as a cooperator.2 A June 2020 photo on the Register shows the tower, and the Forest Fire Lookout Association's New York list shows it as a standing tower.2,6 Because it is closed to visitors, it should not be climbed.2

  1. Gore Mountain, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/gore-mountain1.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Gore Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/gore-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. New York State chapter newsletter, January 2020, Forest Fire Lookout Association (nysffla.org), https://www.nysffla.org/News2020/2020%20Jan%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Gore Mountain (New York), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Mountain_(New_York) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Warren County emergency communications document, Warren County, New York (warrencountyny.gov), https://www.warrencountyny.gov/sites/default/files/emergency/docs/communications.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Lookouts in New York, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

June 26, 2020 photo
June 26, 2020 photo (2020)Photo: Laurie Rankin, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 3.6 km (2.2 mi).

    • NHLR: 43.67344, −74.00397
    • FFLA: 43.67307, −74.04878

    They share a register number.

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, access, 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.