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Fire lookout · Dutchess County, New York

Stissing Fire Tower

Also known as Stissing Mountain

Dutchess County, NY International Derrick fire tower near the Stissing Mountain summit; restored by Friends of Stissing Landmarks and open to the public.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Wikipedia says the restored tower is open to the public via hiking trails (as of 2023); the register says the Friends maintain it for public use year round, free of charge

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
reached by hiking trails near the summit, per Wikipedia
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerInternational Derrick steel fire tower (register: Model 1933, 86 ft high; Wikipedia: E-4898, 79 ft 6 in)The design: IDECO
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1933
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,370 ft (418 m)
Agency
Friends of Stissing Landmarks
Land
Unknown
Location
Dutchess County, New York
Coordinates
41.96416, −73.68777 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-stissing

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 3.4 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. 1933 BuiltWikipedia: built in late 1933 by the Boston Corners CCC Camp; the register instead gives 1934Source: en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1934 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  3. 1934 Eventregister gives 1934 as the build year and says the tower opened that yearSource: nhlr.org
  4. 1935 First staffedin service as a fire observation tower from March 1935 (register); first staffed in 1935, reporting 91 fires and 610 visitors (Wikipedia)Sources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  5. No record between 1935 and 1971
  6. 1971 Last staffedregister: in service through April 1971. Wikipedia says lookout operations ceased between 1979 and 1982, so the end date is unresolvedSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  7. No record between 1971 and 1989
  8. 1989 EventFriends of Stissing Landmarks incorporated in 1989; ownership transferred from New York State in May 1989Source: nhlr.org
  9. 1993 Restoredrestored for the first time; one acre beneath the tower transferred from the Nature Conservancy to the Friends in May 1993Source: nhlr.org
  10. No record between 1993 and 2017
  11. 2017 Restoredsubsequent restoration began in 2017 and was expected to be completed in 2018Source: nhlr.org
  12. 2018 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterNHLR registration date April 5, 2018Source: nhlr.org
  13. 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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Stissing Mountain fire tower stands near the summit in Pine Plains, Dutchess County, New York.1,2 Wikipedia says the Boston Corners CCC camp built the steel International Derrick tower in late 1933, and that the U.S. Forest Service had provided it to the state.2 The National Historic Lookout Register says the tower opened in 1934 and gives 1934 as its build year.1 The register lists the height as 86 feet, while Wikipedia gives 79 feet, six inches. I could not settle either the date or the height from these sources.1,2

The register says the tower served as a fire observation tower from March 1935 through April 1971.1 Wikipedia says it was first staffed in 1935, reporting 91 fires and 610 visitors.2

The register says the tower eventually came under threat of dismantling.1 Wikipedia instead says it ceased fire lookout operations sometime between 1979 and 1982.2 The two accounts do not agree on when the tower stopped working as a lookout.

The Friends of Stissing Landmarks was incorporated in 1989, and the state transferred ownership of the tower to the group that May.1 The Nature Conservancy transferred one acre beneath the tower to the group in May 1993, the same year the tower was restored for the first time.1 A later restoration started in 2017, with completion expected in 2018.1 Wikipedia says the restored tower is open to the public.2

According to the register, the Friends look after the tower and make it available to the public year-round at no charge.1 Wikipedia says the restored tower is reached by hiking trails and was open to the public as of 2023.2 Check the Friends' current hours before you go.

  1. Stissing Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/stissing-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Stissing Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stissing_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Stissing Fire Tower
Photo: Jim Mara, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Stissing Fire Tower
Photo: Laurie Rankin, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Stissing Fire Tower
Photo: easternuslookouts.weebly.com · source
Photo of Stissing Fire Tower
Photo: Daniel Case, via Wikimedia Commons · GFDL · source

Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the location by 960 m.

    • NHLR: 41.96416, −73.68777
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com): 41.95648, −73.69310

    The map uses the position from NHLR.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: photos, 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
  4. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. FFLA chapters, affiliates and Friends groups: lookout pages Gave us: links FFLA chapters and Friends groups (each link names the group) · Links to the groups' own pages; facts only from the California-South chapter's tower table (register page, operator, condition). No text or photos reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.