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Fire lookout · Saratoga County, New York

Hadley Mountain Fire Tower

A 1917 Aermotor LL-25 steel tower on Hadley Mountain in Saratoga County, NY, one of the state's first standard lookouts, still standing on a marked public trail.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Tower stands in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest on public land; a well-marked trail leads to the summit, maintained by the Hadley Mountain Fire Tower Committee. Most recent first-hand description is from 2017; current access not verified.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Well-marked trail to the summit; town plows road and trailhead parking in winter (2017 visit report)
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower40-ft Aermotor LL-25 steel tower with 7x7-ft metal cabThe design: Aermotor LL-25
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1917
Height
40 ft (12.2 m)
Elevation
2,680 ft (817 m)
Agency
NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (cooperator: Hadley Mountain Fire Tower Committee)
Land
State land
Location
Saratoga County, New York
Coordinates
43.37671, −73.97090
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-hadley-mountain

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.

Downloads about 3.4 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. 1916 EventTenth of ten Aermotor LL-25 towers ordered by the state; first intended for Ohmer Mountain; construction began late in 1916Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1917 BuiltCompleted early in 1917 as a 40-ft Aermotor LL-25 steel tower with 7x7-ft cab; Wikipedia gives 1917 as the build yearSources: nhlr.org, nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  3. No record between 1917 and 1995
  4. 1995 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 6, 1995 as US 110, NY 9Source: nhlr.org
  5. 1995 EventHadley Mountain Fire Tower Committee organized under Jack Freeman of ADKSource: adirondackexplorer.org
  6. 2000 RestoredThe observer's cabin at the summit received a new roof in 2000.Source: nysffla.org
  7. 2001 Listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesAdded to the National Register of Historic Places September 23, 2001Source: en.wikipedia.org
  8. No record between 2001 and 2017
  9. 2017 StaffedSummit steward hired for summer 2017; a 2017 visit report says staffed only sometimesSources: adirondackexplorer.org, nhlr.org
  10. 2018 RestoredVolunteers hiked up in early-season snow to repair the cab and observer's cabin after a late-November break-in.Sources: nysffla.org, nysffla.org
  11. 2021 RestoredHadley tower volunteers found missing and loose bolts under the stair treads and replaced them (reported July 2021).Source: nysffla.org
  12. 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.

Hadley Mountain Fire Tower stands on Hadley Mountain in Saratoga County, New York, west of the Lake George tourist area.1 It is a 40-foot Aermotor LL-25 steel tower with a 7-by-7-foot metal cab, one of ten such towers the state ordered as its first standard steel lookouts.1,2 The register gives the elevation as 2,680 feet, while the Adirondack Explorer gives the ridgeline as 2,653 feet.1,3

All ten towers were delivered by rail in early 1916, and nine went up on other peaks.1 The tenth was meant for Ohmer Mountain, but the state could not reach an agreement with that landowner, so Hadley was chosen instead.1 Work began late in 1916 and was finished in early 1917.1,2 The tower went up on a 12,000-acre site that had seen repeated fires in the decade before.1

Sources disagree about the dates.1,4 Wikipedia lists 1917 as the build year, but reports a plaque at the base of the trail that dates the original wood tower to 1916 and the current steel tower to 1920.4 The register and Bill Starr's account describe a steel LL-25 finished in early 1917, and this story follows them.1,2

A 2017 visit report marks the tower as staffed only sometimes, and says the state and a local committee hire a summit steward each season.1 The Adirondack Explorer described a steward hired for summer 2017, the tower's centennial year.3 Wikipedia says the tower may be staffed in summer months.4

The tower was registered with the National Historic Lookout Register on March 6, 1995, the same year the Hadley Mountain Fire Tower Committee was organized under Jack Freeman of ADK.1,3 Wikipedia reports that it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 2001.4 A New York listing from the Forest Fire Lookout Association, on firelookout.org, also shows it as standing.5

The tower sits in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest, on public land.3 A 2017 visit report calls it in good condition and says the committee and the state look after it.1 That report also describes a clearly marked trail to the summit, and says the town plows the road and trailhead lot in winter.1 A 2017 centennial visitor climbed the tower after lunch, and a steward welcomed hikers at the rocky summit.3

  1. Hadley Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/hadley-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Bill Starr, The Five Various Steel Fire Tower Models Utilized in New York State, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/media/2973/new_york_steel_fire_tower_models_by_bill_starr.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Hadley Mountain Firetower Marking 100 Years, Adirondack Explorer (Adirondack Almanack), https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/environment/hadley-firetower-centennial/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_Mountain_Fire_Observation_Station (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. New York Fire Towers, Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org), https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Hadley Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hadley Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: Albert Brooks collection (courtesy Bill Starr), via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Hadley Mtn. Observatory Sept. 2003
Hadley Mtn. Observatory Sept. 2003 (2003)Photo: Bill Starr, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
5/6/04
5/6/04Photo: Bob Eckler (courtesy Bill Starr), via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Hadley Mountain Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

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. Map and Coordinates List for NYS DEC Firetowers (Andy Arthur) Gave us: ownership, links Andy Arthur, andyarthur.org (CC BY 3.0) · CC BY 3.0, credit: Andy Arthur, andyarthur.org. Facts + short description text reused under that licence. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages Gave us: links FFLA chapters and Friends groups (each link names the group) · Links to the groups' own pages; facts only from the California-South chapter's tower table (register page, operator, condition). No text or photos reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  8. 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.