FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Otsego County, New York

Hooker Hill

Otsego County tower built in 1935 by the CCC near Maryland, NY; sold in 1975 and later removed; an NGS datasheet describes concrete footings and a 50-foot mast at the site.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower sold in 1975 and later removed; NGS datasheet says concrete footings remain with a 50-foot mast on the platform

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 towerInternational Derrick (model 1933 per Starr) steel tower, 79 ft 6 inThe design: IDECO
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
79 ft (24.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State; built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and provided by the United States Forest Service
Land
Unknown
Location
Otsego County, New York
Coordinates
42.59507, −74.86446
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-hooker-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 3.5 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. 1935 BuiltCivilian Conservation Corps built a 79-foot-6-inch International Derrick tower on the hillSources: en.wikipedia.org, nhlr.org
  2. 1936 First staffedFirst used in 1936; reported three firesSource: en.wikipedia.org
  3. No record between 1936 and 1970
  4. 1970 Last staffedStaffing ended at the close of 1970 as aerial detection took over (per Wikipedia)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  5. 1975 EventTower sold for $490 and later removed (per Wikipedia)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  6. No record between 1975 and 2001
  7. 2001 EventPurchaser transferred the tower to Martin Podskoch, an author of books on New York fire towersSource: en.wikipedia.org
  8. 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.

Hooker Hill is in Otsego County, about 4.5 miles northeast of Maryland.1,2 The Civilian Conservation Corps built a 79-foot-6-inch International Derrick tower there in 1935.3 The United States Forest Service provided the tower to the state, and it was first used in 1936, when it reported three fires.3 Starr's list gives the model as an International Derrick model 1933 and calls the site Hooker Hill at 2,320 feet.4 Wikipedia calls the peak Hooker Mountain and gives its height as 2,310 feet.3

The tower ran three months a year, in April, May and October, and longer when fire danger was high.4 In September 1948 a district forester said every tower in the area except Hooker Hill was being manned.2 A 1952 state statement said Hooker Hill and 108 other towers were being manned on "virtually a 24-hour basis."2 In April 1953, after a meeting with Air Force defense officials, the fire observers agreed to scan the skies and report to the Albany Filter Center.2 Elmer Cady of Maryland was at Hooker Hill then. A 1955 item called him the tower's fire watcher for several years.2

Wikipedia says staffing ended at the close of 1970, when aerial detection made lookouts less needed.3 The tower sold for $490 in 1975 and was later taken down.3 In 2001 the buyer handed it to Martin Podskoch, who has written three books on New York's fire towers.3

The sources disagree on who holds the tower now. Starr's list says the tower is owned by the author Marty Podskoch and is on loan to civic leaders in the village of Speculator.4 Wikipedia says the Town of Speculator owns it and has not yet found a place to rebuild it.3

The site is described in a National Geodetic Survey datasheet for a survey mark there.1 The datasheet says only the concrete footings of the lookout are left.1 A 50-foot mast stands at the center of the concrete platform, beside the station mark.1 The datasheet says the azimuth mark could not be found and was probably destroyed when the road was widened.1

We found nothing on whether the public may visit the site. Check who owns the land before going onto it.

  1. NGS datasheet for mark NA2101 (Hooker 2 Reset), National Geodetic Survey, NOAA, https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=NA2101 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Hooker Hill, Forest Lookouts (Eastern US), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/hooker-hill.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Hooker Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooker_Mountain (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 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. 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.