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Fire lookout · Ulster County, New York

High Point Mountain

Also known as High Point

High Point's 1912 wood lookout gave way to a steel Aermotor tower in 1919; it closed in 1971, was removed in 1988, and footings remained in 2017.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed in 1988; footings and some telephone poles were still there on a 2017 visit.

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 towerSteel Aermotor LS40 tower erected in 1919, replacing a 1912 wood towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1912
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Ulster County, New York
Coordinates
41.70823, −74.34474
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-high-point-mountain

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.5 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. 1912 BuiltThe Conservation Commission established a lookout station at High Point and built a wood tower; the FFLA newsletter says the first tower was made of trees.Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1914 StaffedThe commission announced an appointment for District No. 5, High Point Mountain: William Bradford of Ellenville.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1919 Replaced by a new structureA steel Aermotor LS40 tower was erected on the site, replacing the 1912 wood tower.Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1924 EventA new observer's cabin was erected at High Point, per the commission's annual report as quoted on the Forest Lookouts page.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1924 and 1971
  6. 1971 ClosedThe tower was decommissioned; it ceased fire lookout operation at the end of the 1971 season.Sources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  7. No record between 1971 and 1988
  8. 1988 RemovedThe steel tower was removed in 1988.Source: nysffla.org
  9. No record between 1988 and 2015
  10. 2015 FireSpring 2015 fire on the ridge burned over 2,000 acres; the newsletter counts three major fires along the Ridge in ten years.Source: nysffla.org
  11. 2017 EventAn FFLA group visiting in fall 2017 found the footings and some old telephone poles at the site.Source: nysffla.org
  12. 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.

High Point lies on the Shawangunk Ridge east of Ellenville, in Ulster County.1,2 The Conservation Commission built a wood lookout tower there in 1912, and an FFLA newsletter says the first tower was made of trees.1,3 In 1919 the commission replaced it with a steel Aermotor LS40 tower.1,2

In April 1914 the commission announced an appointment for District No. 5, High Point Mountain, naming William Bradford of Ellenville.2 A new cabin was erected at High Point in 1924, according to the commission's annual report as quoted on the Forest Lookouts page.2

The ridge has burned more than once. The FFLA newsletter counts three major fires there in ten years, and the latest, in spring 2015, burned over 2,000 acres.3 The writers note that a standing tower would have given a bird's-eye view as that fire came close.3

The tower was taken out of service in 1971 and removed in 1988.3,1

When an FFLA group visited in fall 2017, the footings and some old telephone poles were still there.3 I found no later report describing the site. A mapping site lists the High Point Fire Tower Site as ruins.4 In a note on a book about the families who once lived near the tower, the same newsletter says the park has left some of the shacks and has kiosks along the trail to tell that history.3

  1. Shawangunk Ridge, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawangunk_Ridge (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. High Point, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/high-point1.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter newsletter, January 2018, https://www.nysffla.org/Newsletters/2018-01.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. High Point Fire Tower Site, Mapcarta, https://mapcarta.com/N2393922215 (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. 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, staffing, 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.