FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Westchester County, New York

Nelson Mountain

Westchester County, NY 73-ft Aermotor LS40 on Salt Hill, built 1950, closed after 1971, cut down later; removal reported January 2023; state forest still open.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Closed after the 1971 season; cut down or pulled over at an unknown later date; remains reported removed on 29 January 2023

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. The FFLA NY newsletter says Salt Hill State Forest can still be visited; the tower itself is gone

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower73-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1950
Height
73 ft (22.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
NY Conservation Department
Land
Unknown
Location
Westchester County, New York
Coordinates
41.24765, −73.86055
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-nelson-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 3.4 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. 1950 BuiltConservation Department erected a 73-foot Aermotor LS40 tower on Salt HillSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org, nhlr.org
  2. 1951 First staffedPlaced in service in 1951, reporting 22 fires and 70 visitorsSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  3. No record between 1951 and 1971
  4. 1971 ClosedClosed at the end of the 1971 fire season, as aerial detection came into wider useSources: nysffla.org, en.wikipedia.org
  5. No record between 1971 and 2023
  6. 2023 RemovedRemains reported removed from the summit on 29 January 2023, with the site containers; reported in the February 2023 newsletterSources: nysffla.org, nysffla.org, nhlr.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.

Salt Hill, in Westchester County near Peekskill, got a state fire lookout in 1950.1,2 The Conservation Department erected a 73-foot Aermotor LS40 steel tower there.2,3 Both the NYSFFLA list and Starr's list use the name Nelson for it.2,3 Sources disagree on which way the hill lies from town. Wikipedia places it southeast of Peekskill, while the NYSFFLA entry says four miles southwest.1,2

It was brought into use in 1951, and its reports counted 22 fires and 70 visitors.1 It closed at the end of the 1971 fire season, as aerial detection came into wider use.2,1 At some later point, unknown people cut the tower down or pulled it over.1 A hiker who came up Salt Hill in January 2017 spotted the top of the tower through the woods. The post said the wreckage was still on the summit.4

On January 29, 2023, Michael Pellet climbed to the summit and reported that the remains had been removed.5 The containers on the site had also been taken away.5 The NYSFFLA's February 2023 newsletter carried his report.5

Today the tower is gone.5 The same newsletter says the state forest is still open to visitors.5 No source I read describes what, if anything, is left on the summit, so visitors should not plan around a structure there.

  1. Salt Hill (New York), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Hill_(New_York) (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Searchable list of NY Fire Towers (Nelson Fire Tower entry), NYSFFLA, https://nysffla.org/alphalist.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. 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). ↩
  4. Nelson Mountain Fire Tower at Salt Hill, Scenes from the Trail, https://scenesfromthetrail.com/2017/01/21/nelson-mountain-fire-tower-at-salt-hill/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. FFLA New York State Chapter newsletter, February 2023, https://www.nysffla.org/News2023/2023%20Feb%20final.pdf (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 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.