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Fire lookout · St. Lawrence County, New York

Tooley Pond Mountain Lookout (now at Cathedral Rock)

Also known as Cathedral Rock Fire Tower

A 1913 Conservation Commission station on Tooley Pond Mountain whose steel tower was taken down in 1971 and rebuilt on Cathedral Rock by Ranger School students.

Original site: Tooley Pond Mountain

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. The register says it can be visited by the Latham Trail from the NYS Ranger School campus. No closure notice found; check with the school before going.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Latham Trail from the NYS Ranger School to the summit
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower47-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1913
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,697 ft (517 m)
Agency
SUNY-ESF NYS Ranger School
Land
Unknown
Location
St. Lawrence County, New York
Coordinates
44.15327, −74.91534
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-tooley-pond-mountain-at-cathedral-rock

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 3.9 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. 1913 BuiltWooden station built by the Conservation Commission; R.W. Higbie Lumber Company paid for the materialsSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1913 EventStation not staffed in its first seasonSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1919 Replaced by a new structureWooden station replaced by a steel 47-foot Aermotor LS40 towerSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org
  4. 1923 EventA new observer's cabin was built in 1923.Source: nysffla.org
  5. No record between 1923 and 1950
  6. 1950 StaffedRalph Cole of DeKalb Junction to take over the fire tower, per Syracuse Herald JournalSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1950 and 1971
  8. 1971 RemovedTaken down from Tooley Pond Mountain by SUNY-ESF students at WanakenaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  9. 1971 Last staffedFire lookout operations ended at the close of the 1971 seasonSource: en.wikipedia.org
  10. 1982 MovedRanger School classes were erecting the old tower on Cathedral Rock by February 1982Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1982 and 1999
  12. 1999 RebuiltCab finished in 1999 per Wikipedia; NHLR dates the re-erection to the late 1990sSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org
  13. 2000 RestoredWindows and final restorations complete; dedicated July 2000 per WikipediaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  14. No record between 2000 and 2022
  15. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 23, 2022 as US 1698, NY 50Source: nhlr.org
  16. Date unknown MovedMoved from Tooley Pond to Cathedral Rock.Source: FFLA
  17. 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 fire tower now on Cathedral Rock began life on Tooley Pond Mountain, northwest of Cranberry Lake.1 The Conservation Commission built a wooden station there in 1913, and the R.W. Higbie Lumber Company paid for the materials for the tower, cabin and lines.1,2 The station was not staffed in its first season.2 A steel tower replaced the wooden one in 1919. Wikipedia gives it as a 47-foot Aermotor LS40, and that is the tower that now stands on Cathedral Rock.1,2,3

In April 1950 a Syracuse newspaper reported that Ralph Cole of DeKalb Junction would take over the fire tower.2 Lookout work ended at the close of the 1971 season.1 That year students from the New York State College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Wanakena took the tower down from the mountain.1

A February 1982 newspaper report, quoted by the Forest Lookouts site, describes Ranger School classes erecting an old fire tower on Cathedral Rock.4 Wikipedia dates the start of the rebuild to the 1980s, the cab's completion to 1999, and the final windows and restorations to 2000, with a dedication in July 2000.1 The National Historic Lookout Register instead says students and staff re-erected the tower in the late 1990s.3 The register and the 1982 newspaper credit students with the work, but the sources disagree on when it happened.

The register lists the tower as US 1698 and says it was registered on December 23, 2022.3 It stands on Cathedral Rock in the Ranger School Forest at Wanakena.3 The register says visitors can reach the summit by the Latham Trail from the Ranger School.3 Tooley Pond Mountain itself no longer has its tower.1,5 An Adirondack Explorer hike write-up says, "Well, the fire tower is still gone."5 I found no recent notice about the tower's condition, so check with the Ranger School before you go.

  1. Cathedral Rock (New York), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Rock_(New_York) (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Tooley Pond Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/tooley-pond-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Cathedral Rock Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/cathedral-rock-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Cathedral Rock, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/cathedral-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Hikes, climbs along historic Tooley Pond Road, Adirondack Explorer, https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/?p=286634 (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Winter 2017 photo
Winter 2017 photo (2017)Photo: Laurie Rankin, 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: 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: name, type, status, register numbers, dates, 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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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.