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Fire lookout · Genesee County, New York

Kings Park Lookout Site (now at Oak Orchard WMA)

Also known as Oak Orchard WMA

Suffolk County, NY tower (built 1948 per the register) closed in 1959 and removed in 1960; the FFLA lists its platform tower as relocated to Oak Orchard WMA and standing.

Original site: Kings Park Lookout Site

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go. Oak Orchard WMA is a public state wildlife area, but the tower's own access is unconfirmed; we found no statement that the tower can be climbed

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Open platform towerAermotor LS-40 steel structure with wood steps and landing platforms, on 80-foot concrete footings (as built at Kings Park)The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1948
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State Conservation Department (Kings Park); NYS DEC manages Oak Orchard WMA
Land
Unknown
Location
Genesee County, New York
Coordinates
43.11562, −78.28520
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-kings-park-lookout-site-at-oak-orchard-wma

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 3.7 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. 1947 First staffedA ranger stationed at the Kings Park tower from 1947, per the 1959 Long Islander article quoted on the Forest Lookouts page; the register gives 1948 as the build yearSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1948 BuiltBuilt in 1948 per the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  3. 1959 AbandonedOctober 1959: the state abandoned lookout services on Long Island, per the Forest Lookouts pageSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1959 ClosedClosed in 1959 per the registerSource: firetower.org
  5. 1959 EventTitle transferred to Suffolk County for future operations, per the Forest Lookouts pageSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1960 RemovedRemoved by the NY State Conservation Commission (Bureau of Forest Fire Control), per the registerSource: firetower.org
  7. No record between 1960 and 2009
  8. 2009 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered January 18, 2009 on the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  9. Date unknown MovedFFLA lists the Oak Orchard WMA platform tower as relocated from Kings Park; no date or method givenSource: firelookout.org
  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.

The lookout that may now stand at Oak Orchard began at Kings Park on Long Island, off the Sunken Meadow State Parkway in Suffolk County.1,2,3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes an Aermotor LS-40 tower with a steel structure, wood steps and landing platforms, and gives 1948 as the year it was built.1

A 1959 article from the Long Islander, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, says a ranger named Thomas Nugent had been stationed at the Kings Park tower since 1947.2 That is earlier than the register's build date, and we could not reconcile the two.1,2

The same article said the Conservation Department might hand its towers over to county administration.2 In October 1959, according to the Forest Lookouts page, the state abandoned its lookout services and the title passed to Suffolk County.2

The register says the tower was closed in 1959 and removed in 1960 by the state Conservation Commission, and that the land is now privately held.1 The two accounts do not agree on who controlled the tower after 1959.1,2

The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists a platform tower at Oak Orchard WMA as standing, and says it was relocated from Kings Park.3 The sources we read do not say when or how it moved, or how much of the original tower went with it. The wildlife area's Wikipedia article mentions an observation tower on Albion Road, but it does not say where that tower came from.4

Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Area lies about 3½ miles north of Oakfield, in Genesee County.5 The state says the area's main purposes are wildlife habitat and wildlife-dependent recreation.5 Wikipedia lists hiking, nature study and bird watching among its permitted activities.4 We found no statement about whether the tower can be climbed, so do not assume it is open to visitors.

  1. Kings Park Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/ny/kings-park-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Kings Park, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/kings-park.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. New York Lookouts, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Area, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Orchard_Wildlife_Management_Area (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Oak Orchard and Tonawanda Wildlife Management Areas, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, https://dec.ny.gov/places/oak-orchard-and-tonawanda-wildlife-management-areas (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Sources

  1. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: name, location, county, type, status, dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  2. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, agency, access, 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.