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Fire lookout · Herkimer County, New York

Moose River Mountain

Herkimer County, NY fire tower: 1919 Aermotor LS40 on Moose River Mountain, closed after 1970, removed 1977; site lies in the Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness Area with a trail to it.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1977; no source describes what, if anything, remains on the summit

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
Trail
CNY Hiking lists an old trail to the site of the former fire tower; a 2013 blog describes the approach through hunting-club property before the wilderness gate

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor LS40 steel tower (Forest Lookouts gives 47 ft)The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1919
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Conservation Commission
Land
Unknown
Location
Herkimer County, New York
Coordinates
43.70831, −75.04576
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-moose-river-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 its recorded height.

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. 1919 BuiltConservation Commission bought a steel tower and erected it on Moose River Mountain (Wikipedia: 60 ft; Forest Lookouts: 47 ft)Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1919 MovedTower moved from the earlier Lewis County site to Moose River Mountain, Town of Webb, Herkimer CountySources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  3. 1922 EventNew cabin built for the observer's living quartersSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1922 and 1970
  5. 1970 ClosedClosed at the end of the 1970 season, per NYSFFLA and Wikipedia; Forest Lookouts says staffed into the mid-1970sSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1977 RemovedRemoved because it was deemed excess to fire detection needs; classed as a non-conforming structure in the new Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness AreaSources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  7. 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.

In 1919 the Conservation Commission bought a steel tower and set it up on Moose River Mountain, a 2,208-foot peak in the Town of Webb, Herkimer County.1,2 It replaced a wooden lookout that had run for eight years in Lyonsdale, Lewis County, about eleven miles away.1 The commission moved it for the view, and its report said the new hill offered a far better one.3,1

Sources disagree on the height: Wikipedia, the NYSFFLA entry and Starr's list all give 60 feet for the Aermotor LS40 tower, while Forest Lookouts gives 47.1,2,4,3 A cabin for the observer's living quarters was built in 1922.3 A 1963 obituary, quoted by Forest Lookouts, says one observer served there for 18 years before retiring in 1961.3

The sources also differ on when staffing ended.2,1,3 The NYSFFLA entry and Wikipedia say the lookout closed at the end of the 1970 season, when aerial detection took over.2,1 Forest Lookouts says it was staffed into the mid-1970s.3

The tower came down in 1977.1,2 It was judged excess to fire detection needs and classed as a non-conforming structure in the newly established Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness Area.1,2

Today the site lies inside the Ha-de-ron-dah Wilderness Area.2 CNY Hiking lists an old trail to the site of the former fire tower.5 A 2013 hiking blog describes the walk from a parking area off Route 28, where the first stretch runs through hunting-club property before a gate marks the wilderness.6 No source I read describes what, if anything, remains on the summit.

  1. Moose River Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_River_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Searchable list of NY Fire Towers (Moose River Mt. Fire Tower entry), NYSFFLA, https://nysffla.org/alphalist.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Moose River Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/moose-river-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Fire Towers of New York List, Bill Starr, NHLR, http://nhlr.org/media/2974/new_york_fire_tower_list_by_bill_starr_3-14-11.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Ha-De-Ron-Dah Wilderness, CNY Hiking, https://www.cnyhiking.com/Ha-De-Ron-DahWilderness.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Moose River Mountain Fire Tower, JDoubleU.net, https://www.jdoubleu.net/2013/07/21/moose-river-mountain-fire-tower/ (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: what it is built of, design, height, 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, staffing, 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.