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Fire lookout · Franklin County, New York

Mount Morris

Also known as Mount Morris Fire Watchtower, Harlem

Franklin County, NY fire lookout on Mount Morris near Tupper Lake: 22-ft steel tower finished 1919, lookout ended 1971; now closed, ownership disputed, condition unverified.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Remains on private property and is closed to the public, per the NYSFFLA list; Wikipedia also says closed to the public. Sources disagree on who owns it.

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
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1971)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower22-foot steel Aermotor LS40 fire lookout towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1919
Height
22 ft (6.7 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
New York State: Forest, Fish and Game Commission, later the State Conservation Department
Land
Unknown
Location
Franklin County, New York
Coordinates
44.15976, −74.47517
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-mount-morris

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. 1909 EventLookout established on the summit at a cost of $924.84; Wikipedia says no tower was needed because the view was already openSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1918 EventA 22-foot steel tower was purchasedSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1919 BuiltTower construction completed; Wikipedia gives 1919 and an Aermotor LS40 modelSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1924 AlteredA new cabin was erected at the stationSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1924 and 1944
  6. 1944 StaffedFire warden on duty at the tower; volunteers searched the mountain that June for a missing six-year-oldSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1957 EventVandals destroyed telephone and radio equipment at the summit in April; replacements had to be packed up on footSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1971 Last staffedFire lookout operations ended at the end of the 1971 season as aerial detection increasedSource: en.wikipedia.org
  9. 1976 AbandonedIn January the tower was described as abandoned and declared state surplus; the Town of Altamont board voted unanimously to submit a bid, and the town's offer was $1. Wikipedia says ownership later passed to the town of Altamont (late 1970s)Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  10. No record between 1976 and 2019
  11. 2019 RestoredThe historic fire watchtower in Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem, reopened after a completed restoration project (reported Oct 2019); not open for climbing.Source: nysffla.org
  12. 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 Mount Morris fire lookout stands on a mountain that lies south-southwest of Tupper Lake village, in New York's Franklin County.1,2 A lookout station went up on the summit in July 1909 at a cost of $924.84.2 Wikipedia says no tower was needed then, because the view from the top was already open.1 A 22-foot steel tower was bought in 1918 and finished in 1919, and Wikipedia identifies it as an Aermotor LS40 model.2,1 A new cabin was put up at the station in 1924.2

Fire wardens and observers worked from the tower.2 In June 1944 volunteers searched the mountain for a six-year-old boy who had been left at a cabin partway up, while his father, a fire warden, climbed on to the tower.2 In 1957 vandals damaged the telephone lines and radio equipment at the summit, and the replacements had to be carried up on foot.2 We did not find any source that names a fire the lookout spotted.

Lookout work ended with the 1971 season, when aerial detection had made the tower less necessary.1 In January 1976 the state declared the tower surplus, and the Town of Altamont board voted unanimously to submit a bid; the town's offer was $1.2 If the bid were accepted, the site would have joined the Big Tupper Lake Ski Center.2 Wikipedia says ownership later passed to the town of Altamont, which uses the cabin for ski center work.1 The sources do not agree on who owns the tower today.1,3

The New York state chapter's list says the tower remains on private property and is closed to the public.3 Wikipedia gives the same closed status.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association's list shows it as standing.4 We found no recent report of its condition. Please do not climb it or go onto the land without the owner's permission. A different Mount Morris watchtower, in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, had been newly reopened by November 2019. It is not this lookout.5

  1. Mount Morris (New York), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Morris_(New_York) (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Mount Morris, Forest Lookouts (eastern US), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/mount-morris.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Searchable list of NY Fire Towers, New York State Chapter, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://nysffla.org/alphalist.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. New York lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Newsletter, November 2019, New York State Chapter, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://www.nysffla.org/Newsletters/2019-11.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

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: height, agency, 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. 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
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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

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