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Fire lookout · Schoharie County, New York

Leonard Hill Fire Tower

An 80-foot Aeromotor LS40 tower first erected in 1934 at Gilbert Lake, moved to Leonard Hill in 1948, out of regular use after 1988, and closed to the public since.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Closed to the public; the register says so, and Wikipedia says DEC officially closed it in early 1989

Visit & stay

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

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Closed to the public; the bottom stairs were removed to prevent climbing
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower80-foot Aeromotor LS40 steel fire lookout tower, moved from Gilbert Lake State Park in 1948The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1934
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
2,626 ft (800 m)
Agency
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Land
State land
Location
Schoharie County, New York
Coordinates
42.45103, −74.35289
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-leonard-hill

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 3.3 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. 1934 BuiltOriginal erection at Gilbert Lake State Park per NHLR; Wikipedia says the tower stood there from 1932Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1948 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  3. 1948 MovedMoved to Leonard Hill (NHLR); Wikipedia says the Conservation Commission built an 80-foot steel tower on the mountain in 1948; NHLR's Built field also gives 1948Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  4. No record between 1948 and 1988
  5. 1988 Last staffedFire watching ended at the end of the 1988 seasonSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  6. 1989 ClosedOfficially closed by NYS DEC in early 1989Source: en.wikipedia.org
  7. No record between 1989 and 2017
  8. 2017 Condition assessmentApril 23, 2017 visit: bottom stairs removed, cab floor lost to a vandal-set fire, paint and wood need workSource: nhlr.org
  9. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 9, 2017 as US 1205Source: nhlr.org
  10. 2021 Condition assessmentAn engineer visited Leonard Hill tower in April 2021 for DEC's structural evaluation; the report had still not arrived in 2022.Source: nysffla.org
  11. 2022 ClosedTower closed to the public pending an engineering inspection whose completion date was unknown; still closed in the 2023 report.Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org
  12. 2023 RestoredNYSDEC staff did minor repairs to Leonard Hill tower: new roof, some stair treads replaced and a cab floor installed; tower stays closed pending an engineer's report.Source: nysffla.org
  13. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Leonard Hill tower did not start on Leonard Hill. The National Historic Lookout Register says an 80-foot Aeromotor LS40 tower was first erected in 1934 at Gilbert Lake State Park, while Wikipedia says the tower stood there from 1932.1,2 The register dates its move to Leonard Hill to 1948, while Wikipedia says the Conservation Commission built an 80-foot steel tower on the mountain that year.1,2 The register's own Built field also gives 1948, which does not match its 1934 date.1

Its working life on the mountain ended in 1988. Wikipedia says fire watching stopped at the end of the 1988 season, and the register says the tower has not been regularly staffed since then.1,2 The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officially closed it in early 1989.2

A visit recorded in April 2017 found the bottom two sets of stairs removed to prevent climbing, and the cab floor gone after a fire set by vandals.1 The register lists the tower as closed to the public.1

A local article from Gilboa says the tower has been closed to the public for many years.3 It says progress has been at a standstill for the last few years, because the state must first certify the condition of the steel.3 It also calls the tower the tallest in New York State, a claim that could not be verified.3

Because the tower is closed and its lower stairs are gone, there is no public climb.1,2 The Gilboa article adds that the state owns both the tower and the land it stands on.3

  1. Leonard Hill Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/leonard-hill-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Leonard Hill (New York), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Hill_(New_York) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Leonard Hill Fire Tower, Linda Nowerla, gilboahome.com, http://www.gilboahome.com/ghspublications/Individual%20Articles/PDFArticles/Leonard%20Hill%20Fire%20Tower.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Leonard Hill Fire Tower
Photo: Laurie Rankin, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, 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: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Map and Coordinates List for NYS DEC Firetowers (Andy Arthur) Gave us: ownership, links Andy Arthur, andyarthur.org (CC BY 3.0) · CC BY 3.0, credit: Andy Arthur, andyarthur.org. Facts + short description text reused under that licence. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. Forest Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.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 FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.