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Fire lookout · Schoharie County, New York

Petersburg Mountain

Schoharie County, NY tower built 1940, closed 1971, then county radio use; moved 1999-2002 and rebuilt as the Knightower in West Hurley, Ulster County.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Wikipedia says the original tower site is closed to the public; the Knightower is privately owned and its owner shows it with permission

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Mountain tower taken down; the relocated tower stands as the Knightower in West Hurley, Ulster County

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Knightower: contact the owner; coordinates are unlisted at the owner's request (NHLR)

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower67-foot-6-inch steel International Derrick tower (Wikipedia); a 1939 newspaper had announced a 65-foot towerThe design: IDECO
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1940
Height
68 ft (20.6 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (Wikipedia); later Schoharie County; now privately owned as the Knightower
Land
Unknown
Location
Schoharie County, New York
Coordinates
42.63173, −74.44910
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-petersburg-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 3.5 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. 1939 EventPress and Sun-Bulletin reported a planned 65-foot tower on Petersburg MountainSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1940 BuiltCivilian Conservation Corps built a 67-foot-6-inch International Derrick tower (Wikipedia); NHLR gives Built 1940Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nhlr.org
  3. 1941 First staffedFirst staffed in 1941; 7 fires and 223 visitors reported that yearSource: en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1953 EventSix-year-old boy died in a fall from the tower in August; state police said he apparently slipped from the platformSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1953 StaffedIn April, observers agreed to scan the skies and report to the Albany Filter Center after a meeting with Air Force defense officialsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1962 StaffedLorna Borst named as forest fire observer at the Petersburg Mountain towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1971 Last staffedTower closed at the end of the 1971 season as aerial detection came into wider use for fire watchingSource: en.wikipedia.org
  8. 1973 EventSchoharie County bought the tower for $10 for communications useSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1974 EventSix juveniles arrested for allegedly breaking into the communications center at the towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1974 and 1999
  11. 1999 MovedAl Moulin had the tower trucked to his property in Esperance, NY (NHLR)Source: nhlr.org
  12. 2002 MovedBarry Knight took possession of the steel and moved it to West Hurley (NHLR); the firelookout list places it in Ulster County; Wikipedia says the tower was sold to Knight and relocatedSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, firelookout.org
  13. 2004 RebuiltFour piers poured in September 2004; Knight reassembled the tower on Ashokan RidgeSource: nhlr.org
  14. 2006 EventKnightower opened to visitors in July 2006; 43 feet to the top railingSource: nhlr.org
  15. 2014 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 14, 2014 as US 988, NY 33Source: nhlr.org
  16. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built a steel fire lookout on Petersburg Mountain, southeast of Cobleskill in Schoharie County, in 1940.1,2 The finished tower stood 67 feet 6 inches tall, taller than the 65-foot tower a 1939 newspaper had announced for the spot.1,3

Observers first staffed the tower in 1941, when they logged 7 fires and 223 visitors that year.1 In April 1953, after talks with Air Force defense officials, observers agreed to watch the sky and report to the Albany Filter Center.3 That August a six-year-old boy died in a fall from the tower; state police said he had likely slipped off the platform.3

The tower closed at the end of the 1971 season, as aerial detection came into wider use for fire watching.1 Schoharie County bought it in 1973 for $10 for communications use, and later removed the cab and added 30 feet of height for more antennas.3,1 In 1974 police arrested six juveniles from the Cobleskill area over an alleged break-in at the tower's communications center.3 Later the tower was dismantled, and an antenna support structure took its place.1

The tower's story did not end on the mountain. In 1999 Al Moulin had it trucked to his property in Esperance, NY, to keep it from going to scrap.2 In 2002 Barry Knight took possession of the steel and moved it to West Hurley in Ulster County.2,4 Wikipedia reports the sale to Knight and the move but does not mention Esperance.1 Knight poured four piers in September 2004 and opened the rebuilt tower, the Knightower, in July 2006.2 The register gives its height as 43 feet to the top railing.2

Wikipedia says visitors cannot go to the original site today.1 No source read says what the replacement antenna structure looks like now.1 The Knightower is privately owned and stands on Ashokan Ridge.2 Visits need the owner's permission, and the register withholds its coordinates at the owner's request.2 The state's lookout list marks the mountain tower as gone.4

  1. Petersburg Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersburg_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Knightower, National Historic Lookout Register, https://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/knightower/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Petersburg Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/petersburg-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. New York fire lookout list, firelookout.org, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/ny/ (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 LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: height, 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. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.