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Fire lookout · Cattaraugus County, New York

Hartzfelt Hill

Cattaraugus County tower built in 1924 by the state Conservation Commission on Hartzfelt Hill south of Olean; removed in 1973; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1973; no source describes what, if anything, remains at the site

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 towerAermotor LS-40 steel lookout tower with observer cabinThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1924
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State Conservation Commission, later the Conservation Department
Land
Unknown
Location
Cattaraugus County, New York
Coordinates
42.02369, −78.45743
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-hartzfelt-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 3.8 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. 1924 BuiltConservation Commission station with a 60-foot steel tower and observer cabin, funded by local landowners and townsSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nysffla.org, nhlr.org
  2. No record between 1924 and 1967
  3. 1967 EventState purchased land around the tower to establish a radio repeater station for law enforcement (per Wikipedia)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1970 Last staffedLookout operations ended at the end of the 1970 fire season as aerial detection came into use (per Wikipedia)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  5. 1973 RemovedTower dismantled and removed in 1973; NYSDEC photo taken that yearSources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  6. 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.

Hartzfelt Hill sits in the hills south of Olean, in Cattaraugus County.1,2 In 1924 the state Conservation Commission set up a lookout station there, with a 60-foot steel tower and an observer's cabin.2,1 Local landowners and towns paid for it.3 The tower was an Aermotor LS-40 model.4 A 1923 newspaper said the aim was to keep forest fires from causing serious damage.2

The sources disagree on a few details. A September 1923 plan called for a tower 70 feet high, to be built at Flatiron Rock.2 A March 1924 paper described a 70-foot steel tower with a cabin on top, to go on the Forrest Curtis lease near the Rocky Crest sanitarium.2 The Commission's report and the 2024 newsletter both give 60 feet, and the newspapers do not clearly say whether they describe the same station.2,3

The 1923 plans had the state maintaining and staffing the tower for seven months a year during the fire season.2 In May 1926 the Democrat and Chronicle reported that the district had thirty small fires that spring.2 It credited the Flatiron Rock tower with spotting small fires that were put out quickly.2

The state bought the land around the tower in 1967 for a radio repeater used by law enforcement.1 Wikipedia says the tower stopped lookout work at the end of the 1970 season, as aerial detection came into wider use.1 The tower was taken down in 1973.3,1 Starr's list marks it removed and gives the local name as Birdsall Hill.4

No source we read describes what, if anything, is left on the hilltop today, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Hartzfelt Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartzfelt_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hartzfelt Mountain, Forest Lookouts (Eastern US), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/hartzfelt-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. A Century Ago, New York State Chapter newsletter, Forest Fire Lookout Association, January 2024, https://www.nysffla.org/News2024/2024%20Jan%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. New York Fire Towers list, Bill Starr, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/media/2974/new_york_fire_tower_list_by_bill_starr_3-14-11.pdf (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 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
  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.