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Fire lookout · Warren County, New York

Swede Mountain Fire Tower

1918 47-foot Aermotor tower on Swede Mountain in Hague, Warren County, NY; state closed it in 1968, county-owned, with a public trail reported open in August 2021.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. A news report dated August 13, 2021 says the tower is now open to the public; the county trail crosses private land under an agreement with a landowner.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
1.8 miles round trip with about 240 feet of elevation gain; the sources do not say whether the tower itself may be climbed
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower47-foot Aermotor tower; the register says LS-47, the 2023 FFLA grant report says LS-40The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1918
Height
47 ft (14.3 m)
Elevation
1,897 ft (578 m)
Agency
Warren County
Land
Private land
Location
Warren County, New York
Coordinates
43.73677, −73.59283
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-swede-mountain

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 3.6 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. 1912 EventConservation Commission established a lookout station at the siteSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1913 StaffedA May 1913 Post-Star notice, quoted by Forest Lookouts, names Fred Bolton of Hague as fire observer at Swede MountainSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1918 BuiltRegister: built in 1918 because the area was prone to forest fires. Forest Lookouts: a 47-foot steel tower was bought and erected that yearSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1922 EventA new cabin for the observer's living quarters was constructedSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1922 and 1968
  6. 1968 ClosedTaken out of service for fire watch by the state; the register also says it closed in 1968Sources: nhlr.org, cbs6albany.com
  7. No record between 1968 and 1995
  8. 1995 EventWarren County bought the tower and used it as a site for radio communication equipmentSource: cbs6albany.com
  9. No record between 1995 and 2017
  10. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered January 26, 2017 as US 1091, NY 36; nominated by Laurie RankinSource: nhlr.org
  11. 2021 EventA news report dated August 13, 2021 says the tower is now open to the public, with a new county trailSources: cbs6albany.com, poststar.com
  12. 2021 RestoredThe Swede Mountain tower and its new Warren County trail officially reopened to the public at a ribbon cutting on Aug 13, 2021.Sources: nysffla.org, nysffla.org
  13. 2023 EventFFLA restoration grant of $500 awarded in April for roof repairs, the only such grant nationwide that yearSources: nysffla.org, firelookout.org
  14. 2024 AlteredWarren County, with its Soil and Water Conservation District, added interpretive panels in the tower that identify the visible mountain peaks.Source: nysffla.org
  15. 2024 RestoredWarren County replaced a missing roof panel on the tower using a $500 FFLA grant; it was installed before the Aug. 31 lighting event.Sources: nysffla.org, nysffla.org
  16. 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 Swede Mountain fire tower stands in Hague, in Warren County, New York.1,2 The National Historic Lookout Register says it was built in 1918 "because the area was prone to forest fires," and describes a 47-foot Aermotor LS-47 tower.1 The Forest Lookouts history adds an earlier chapter: the Conservation Commission set up a lookout station on the site in 1912, and a 47-foot steel tower was bought and erected in 1918.3

A May 1913 Post-Star notice, quoted by the Forest Lookouts history, named Fred Bolton of Hague as fire observer at Swede Mountain.3 A new cabin for the observer's living quarters went up in 1922.3 The sources I read do not say who staffed the tower in later decades or name any fires it spotted.

The state took the tower out of fire-watch service in 1968, and the register also gives 1968 as the year it closed.1,4 Warren County bought the tower in 1995 and used it as a site for radio communication equipment.4 The register still names the state Department of Environmental Conservation as administrator, but the 2021 news report says the county owns the tower and the land around it.1,4

The register lists the tower's registration date as January 26, 2017, under the numbers US 1091, NY 36.1 In 2023 the Forest Fire Lookout Association awarded a $500 grant for roof repairs to Warren County Parks, Recreation & Railroad.5 Nationwide, it was the sole restoration grant that year.6 The grant report says a replacement roof panel had been delivered and that installation was expected in the spring of 2024.5 I could not confirm whether that work was finished. The register calls the model LS-47, and the grant report says LS-40.1,5

A news report dated August 13, 2021 says the tower is now open to the public, with a county trail to it.4,2 The county's news report puts the trail at 1.8 miles round trip and about 240 feet of climbing, and says it crosses private land under an agreement with a landowner.4 The sources do not say whether visitors may climb the tower itself, so ask Warren County before assuming you may. Most of what I read dates from 2021 to 2024, so the site may look different today.

  1. Swede Mountain Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/swede-mountain-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Warren County opens new hiking trail leading to Swede Mountain fire tower, The Post-Star (poststar.com), https://poststar.com/news/local/article_ebede6f8-1d6c-5a36-91f6-7af86f453ce2.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Swede Mountain, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/swede-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Swede Mountain Fire Tower Trail opens to the public, WRGB (cbs6albany.com), https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/swede-mountain-fire-trail-opens-to-the-public (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Forest Fire Lookout Association, 2023 Restoration Grant Annual Report, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/cr-restoration-2023.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. New York State Forest Fire Lookout Association, January 2024 report, https://www.nysffla.org/News2024/2024%20Jan%20final.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

February 2004 photo
February 2004 photo (2004)Photo: Mark Haughwout, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, status, 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, register numbers, ownership, 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: 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
  4. Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter 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
  5. 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
  6. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  7. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

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