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Fire lookout · Essex County, New York

Kempshall Mountain Lookout (now at the Adirondack History Museum)

Also known as Adirondack History Museum Fire Tower

The 1918 Kempshall Mountain fire tower was dismantled; the Adirondack History Museum rebuilt one tower from its parts and West Mountain parts, NHLR-registered 2022.

Original site: Kempshall Mountain

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Climb is inside the museum; museum open Wednesday to Saturday 10 AM to 4 PM and Sundays 12 PM to 4 PM, from Memorial Day weekend to Columbus Day weekend

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Visitors enter the Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown to climb the tower
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerSingle tower rebuilt from portions of the Kempshall Mountain tower (35-foot Aermotor LS40, 1918) and the West Mountain towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1911
Height
Unknown
Elevation
594 ft (181 m)
Agency
Adirondack History Museum
Land
Unknown
Location
Essex County, New York
Coordinates
44.21517, −73.59125
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-kempshall-mountain-at-adirondack-history-museum

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 3.8 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. 1911 BuiltFirst structure on the mountain: a wooden tower built by the Conservation CommissionSource: en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1918 Replaced by a new structureWooden tower replaced by a 35-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerSources: en.wikipedia.org, adirondackexplorer.org
  3. No record between 1918 and 1971
  4. 1971 ClosedFire lookout operations ended at the end of the 1971 season as aerial detection took overSources: en.wikipedia.org, adirondackexplorer.org
  5. 1977 RemovedThe Explorer says the steel tower was dismantled in June 1977; the NHLR entry says the Kempshall and West towers were removed in the 1980sSources: adirondackexplorer.org, nhlr.org
  6. 1990 RebuiltNHLR says the museum bought the tower parts and built a single tower in the 1990s; 1990 is the start of that decade, not a confirmed dateSource: nhlr.org
  7. No record between 1990 and 2022
  8. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered May 22, 2022 as US 1596, NY 48; nominated by Laurie RankinSource: nhlr.org
  9. Date unknown MovedMoved from Kempshall/West to the Adirondack History Museum.Source: FFLA
  10. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Kempshall Mountain rises 3,350 feet near the hamlet of Long Lake in Hamilton County, New York, and it once carried a fire lookout.1 The first structure on the mountain was a wooden tower the Conservation Commission put up in May 1911.1 In 1918 a 35-foot Aermotor LS40 steel tower replaced it.1,2 Aerial detection made the lookout unnecessary, and the tower closed after the 1971 season.1,2

Sources disagree on when the steel tower came down. The Adirondack Explorer says it was dismantled in June 1977, after being closed in 1971.2 The National Historic Lookout Register entry for the museum tower says the Kempshall and West towers were removed in the 1980s.3 Wikipedia gives no date for the removal.1

Parts of the Kempshall and West Mountain towers were later combined into a single exhibit tower at the Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown.1,3,4 Wikipedia calls the building the Essex County Historical Museum, while the museum's own events page uses the Adirondack History Museum name.1,5 The register says the museum bought the tower parts in the 1990s and built the exhibit tower. The register recorded that tower on May 22, 2022, as US 1596, NY 48.3

The museum's homepage lists these hours from Memorial Day weekend to Columbus Day weekend: Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays, 12 to 4 p.m.6 To climb the tower, visitors must go through the museum, and its events page invites people to come for an easy climb.3,5 After the tower came down, little upkeep went into the old trail from Long Lake.2 The original mountain site is listed as gone.4

  1. Kempshall Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempshall_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Historical profile: The person behind Kempshall Mountain, Adirondack Explorer, https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/communities/history/kempshall-mountain/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Adirondack History Museum Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/adirondack-history-museum-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. New York, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Special Events, Adirondack History Museum, https://www.adkhistorymuseum.org/events-1 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. Adirondack History Museum home page, https://www.adkhistorymuseum.org/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

1992 photo
1992 photo (1992)Photo: Mark Haughwout, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: 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: name, type, status, register numbers, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, 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.