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Fire lookout · Broome County, New York

Page Pond Hill

Steel International Derrick lookout built 1935 north-northwest of Sanford, Broome County; staffed to 1988, closed 1989, on private land, FFLA-restored 2007-08. Heights and owner disagree.

Permission required

You need permission from the tribe or landowner before visiting. On private property. The state list says visits can be arranged in advance; Wikipedia says the site is not open to the public.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Permission required. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
No public visiting route found. The state list says visits can be arranged in advance with the owner.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1989)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerInternational Derrick steel fire lookout tower with an observer's cabinThe design: IDECO
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1935
Height
79 ft (24.2 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Broome County, New York
Coordinates
42.14751, −75.49573
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-page-pond-hill

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 3.5 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

  1. 1935 BuiltBuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a 79 ft 6 in International Derrick towerSources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  2. 1936 First staffedFirst operated in 1936, reporting 12 fires and 29 visitorsSources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  3. No record between 1936 and 1988
  4. 1988 Last staffedCeased fire lookout operation at the end of the 1988 seasonSource: nysffla.org
  5. 1989 ClosedOfficially closed in early 1989 by the Department of Environmental ConservationSource: nysffla.org
  6. 1992 EventTransferred to the landowner, named by the state list and Wikipedia as the Girl Scouts Indian Hills CouncilSources: en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  7. No record between 1992 and 2007
  8. 2007 EventFFLA $500 restoration grant for the tower and observer's cabinSource: firelookout.org
  9. 2007 RestoredCabin work began in fall 2007; FFLA members held a work party on October 13 and 14Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org, firelookout.org
  10. 2008 RestoredWork days continued; the report says the cabin exterior was being stained and a cabin window was repaired (photo caption)Source: firelookout.org
  11. 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.

Page Pond Hill is a mountain in the Southern Tier of New York, north-northwest of Sanford in Broome County.1 The Civilian Conservation Corps built a steel lookout tower on it in 1935.1,2 It is an International Derrick design.2 The state list gives its height as 79 feet 6 inches, but the 2008 chapter report gives 76 feet 9 inches for the same model, so the two figures disagree.2,3

The tower went into service in 1936 and reported 12 fires and 29 visitors that first year.1,2 It stopped operating as a lookout at the end of the 1988 season.2 In early 1989 the Department of Environmental Conservation closed it, having judged that towers were no longer effective.2 The 2007 chapter report names two former Page Pond observers, Fred Murphy and Tom Vroman, among the people who took part in the October work weekend.4

In 2007 the Forest Fire Lookout Association gave a $500 restoration grant for the tower and its observer's cabin.5 Cabin work began that fall, and members held a work party on October 13 and 14.3,4,5 Work continued in 2008, and the 2008 report planned to finish the project in 2009.3 The state list, however, says the chapter completed the restoration in 2007.2

In June 1992 the tower was transferred to the landowner, which both the state list and Wikipedia name as the Girl Scouts Indian Hills Council.1,2 The FFLA's 2007 grant report says instead that the Twin Rivers Girl Scout Council owns the tower and cabin, so the sources disagree about who owns the site.5

Today the site is on private land that the public may not enter.1 The state list says a visit can be set up ahead of time.2 The FFLA's New York list still shows the tower as standing.6 We found no later report on the cabin's condition, so anyone interested should ask the landowner first.

  1. Page Pond Hill, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_Pond_Hill (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Searchable list of NY Fire Towers, New York State Chapter, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://nysffla.org/alphalist.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. 2008 Annual Report, Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York Division, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-ny-2008.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. New York Division chapter report, 2007, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-ny-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  5. Restoration Grant Program Report 2007, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cr-restoration-2007.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  6. New York Fire Towers, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (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 Fire Lookout Association chapter reports Gave us: dates, links Forest Fire Lookout Association, chapter and restoration-grant reports (firelookout.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 FFLA report it comes from. Positions are copied from the NHLR, FFLOS and FFLA records. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.