Fire lookout · Rensselaer County, New York
Number Seven Hill
Rensselaer County, NY 60-ft Aermotor LS40 erected 1922, in service 1923, closed after 1970 and removed; an FFLA-NY post says almost nothing is left at the site.
- Gone
- Access unknown
- Verified
Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Closed after the 1970 season and later removed; no source describes what remains on the hill
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
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower60-foot Aermotor LS40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1922
- Height
- 60 ft (18.3 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- Conservation Commission
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Rensselaer County, New York
- Coordinates
- 42.60720, −73.44867
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-ny-number-seven-hill
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 3.5 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
- 1922 BuiltNYSFFLA: erected by the Conservation Commission in 1922; Starr's list and the January 2023 newsletter use 1923Source: nysffla.org
- 1923 EventNew observer's cabin built on the hill in 1923Source: nysffla.org
- 1923 First staffedBecame operational in 1923; the January 2023 newsletter calls 1923 its first year of operationSources: nysffla.org, nysffla.org
- No record between 1923 and 1970
- 1970 ClosedClosed at the end of the 1970 season, as aerial detection came inSources: nysffla.org, nysffla.org
- TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.
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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The Conservation Commission erected a 60-foot Aermotor LS40 fire tower on Number Seven Hill in 1922, and it became operational in 1923.1 Starr's list gives 1923 as the opening year, and the chapter's January 2023 newsletter calls 1923 the tower's first year of operation.2,3 The hill sits about five miles southeast of Averill Park, in Rensselaer County.1,2
An observer's cabin went up on the hill in 1923, one of several new cabins built that year.3 The tower closed at the end of the 1970 season, as aerial detection came in.1,3 It was later removed.1,3
A New York chapter post on Facebook reports that little is left of the Seven Hill tower site near Stephentown.4 No source I read says who owns the hilltop now, or whether the public may go there.
- Searchable list of NY Fire Towers (Number Seven Fire Tower entry), NYSFFLA, https://nysffla.org/alphalist.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- 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). ↩
- FFLA New York State Chapter newsletter, January 2023, https://www.nysffla.org/News2023/2023%20Jan%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
- FFLA New York State Chapter post, Facebook group FFLANYS, https://www.facebook.com/groups/FFLANYS/posts/1841210282789728/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
Sources
- Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists (opens another site) 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
- Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter (opens another site) 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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
- Searchable list of NY Fire Towers (Number Seven Fire Tower entry) (NYSFFLA, New York State Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association) (opens another site)
- Fire Towers of New York List (Bill Starr, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org)) (opens another site)
- FFLA New York State Chapter post (Facebook group FFLANYS) (opens another site)
- FFLA New York lookout list (firelookout.org) (opens another site)
- Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter: work on Number Seven Hill (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.