FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lewis County, New York

Number Four Fire Tower

Lewis County, NY tower built in 1928 near Number Four, closed in the early 1980s and removed in 1987; its upper section now stands at the DEC Lowville demonstration area.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Lowville Demonstration Forest

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. Only the upper section stands, at the DEC Lowville Forestry Demonstration Area; only the tower footers remain at the original Number Four 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.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1982)

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LX25 steel tower with ladders between the landings at first, later stairs; glass-enclosed observatoryThe design: Aermotor LX-24 / LX-25
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1928
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Fisher Forestry and Realty Company (built 1928); NYS Conservation Department (operated from 1945)
Land
Unknown
Location
Lewis County, New York
Coordinates
43.85434, −75.19867
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-number-four

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1928 BuiltFisher Forestry and Realty Company erected the steel tower with Conservation Department co-operation; sources give 75, 80 and 90 feet for its heightSources: en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com, dec.ny.gov
  2. No record between 1928 and 1945
  3. 1945 AlteredObserver's cabin and standard stairs added, per a 2019 post quoted in the 2023 newsletter; Wikipedia dates the ladder-to-stair change to about 1960Source: nysffla.org
  4. 1945 StaffedConservation Department took over operation from the landowner; the duties of the Beaver Lake Mountain lookout moved to Number FourSources: en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1958 EventLand with the cabin and tower transferred from the landowner to New York StateSource: en.wikipedia.org
  6. 1960 AlteredLadders replaced with stairs, around 1960 (Wikipedia)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  7. No record between 1960 and 1982
  8. 1982 ClosedFinal year of operation; operations discontinuedSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  9. 1984 MovedObserver's cabin moved to Nicks Lake Campground, around 1984Source: en.wikipedia.org
  10. 1987 RemovedTower removed from the original site; the chief reason cited was extensive vandalismSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  11. Date unknown AlteredA 2018 visit account by Bill Hill, quoted in the 2023 newsletter, says the tower was shortened to 25 feet; no other source read mentions thisSource: nysffla.org
  12. Date unknown MovedUpper section moved to and displayed at the DEC Lowville Forestry Demonstration Area; date not givenSources: dec.ny.gov, en.wikipedia.org
  13. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from.

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.

A fire observation station called the Number Four Fire Tower once stood in Lewis County, New York, southwest of the Number Four area.1 The Fisher Forestry and Realty Company erected it in 1928 with help from the state Conservation Department.2 It was an Aermotor LX25 whose landings were linked by ladders instead of stairs, and it had a glass-enclosed observatory.1,2

The sources do not agree on its height. Newspapers from July 1928 said about 80 feet, Wikipedia says 75 feet, and the DEC says the original was 90 feet tall.2,1,3

The landowner owned and ran the tower until 1945. That year the Conservation Department took charge of it.1 The Forest Lookouts history adds that the duties of the Beaver Lake Mountain lookout moved to Number Four that year.2 Accounts differ on the stairs. A 2019 Facebook post quoted in a 2023 newsletter dates the switch to 1945, while Wikipedia says it came around 1960.4,1

The land with the cabin and tower passed from the landowner to the state in 1958.1 Operations ended in 1982.2 Wikipedia says the tower shut down in the early 1980s and was afterward taken apart and removed.1 The observer's cabin went to Nicks Lake Campground around 1984.1 In 1987 the tower was removed, mainly because of extensive vandalism.2

The upper section now stands at the DEC's Lowville Forestry Demonstration Area, where visitors may climb to the observation cabin at the top.3 The DEC says the section was displayed near the area's entrance, while Wikipedia says it was used to build a demonstration tower beside the DEC office in Lowville.3,1 A 2018 visit account quoted in the newsletter says the tower was originally 75 feet tall and has since been cut to 25 feet.4

Wikipedia says nothing is left at the former site apart from the tower's footings.1 A visit reported in the newsletter found a marked primitive campsite just off the Number 4 road, where the writers suspect the old observer's cabin may have stood.4

  1. Number Four Fire Tower, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Four_Fire_Tower (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Number Four, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/number-four.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Lowville Forestry Demonstration Area, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, https://dec.ny.gov/places/lowville-forestry-demonstration-area (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter newsletter, June 2023, https://www.nysffla.org/News2023/2023%20Jun%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. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, 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.