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Fire lookout · St. Lawrence County, New York

Tooley Pond Mountain

A 1913 Conservation Commission station on Tooley Pond Mountain; its steel tower came down in 1971 and was re-erected on Cathedral Rock.

The lookout that stood here was moved. Now at Cathedral Rock

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. No tower stands on Tooley Pond Mountain. The steel tower was taken down in 1971 and re-erected on Cathedral Rock.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
A marked trail up Tooley Mountain starts from a parking area by Tooley Pond; no tower stands there.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a tower47-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1913
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Conservation Commission
Land
Unknown
Location
St. Lawrence County, New York
Coordinates
44.27104, −74.93038
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-tooley-pond-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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 4.3 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 material for the tower, cabin and linesSources: 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: en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1919 and 1950
  5. 1950 StaffedRalph Cole of DeKalb Junction to take over the fire tower, per the Syracuse Herald JournalSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1950 and 1971
  7. 1971 RemovedTaken down from Tooley Pond Mountain by SUNY-ESF students at WanakenaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  8. 1971 Last staffedLookout operations ended at the close of the 1971 seasonSource: en.wikipedia.org
  9. 1982 MovedRanger School classes were erecting an old fire tower on Cathedral Rock by February 1982, per a Tribune-Press item quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  10. No record between 1982 and 1999
  11. 1999 RebuiltCab finished in 1999 per Wikipedia; the register dates the re-erection to the late 1990sSources: en.wikipedia.org, nhlr.org
  12. 2000 RestoredWindows and final restorations complete; dedicated July 2000 per WikipediaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  13. No record between 2000 and 2022
  14. 2022 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterCathedral Rock tower registered December 23, 2022 as US 1698, NY 50Source: nhlr.org
  15. Date unknown MovedThe lookout was moved to Cathedral Rock.Source: FFLA
  16. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. 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.

Tooley Pond Mountain, near New Bridge in St. Lawrence County, got its first lookout station in 1913.1,2 The Conservation Commission built the wooden station, and the R.W. Higbie Lumber Company paid for the material for the tower, cabin and lines.1,2 The station had no one on duty that first season.1

In 1919 a steel tower replaced the wooden one.1,2 Wikipedia describes it as a 47-foot Aermotor LS40.2,1 Wikipedia's lead, though, says the tower was first built on the mountain in 1919, which does not match its own history section or the 1913 report.2 In April 1950 a Syracuse newspaper reported that Ralph Cole of DeKalb Junction would take over the fire tower.1 Lookout work ended with the 1971 season, and that year students from SUNY-ESF at Wanakena took the tower down from the mountain.2

The tower did not stay in the woods. Ranger School classes put an old fire tower up on Cathedral Rock, in the Ranger School Forest at Wanakena.3,4 A February 1982 newspaper item, quoted by the Forest Lookouts site, already describes that work.3 The sources disagree on the dates. Wikipedia places the start of the rebuild in the 1980s, the cab in 1999 and the final restorations and dedication in 2000.2 The National Historic Lookout Register says students and staff re-erected the tower in the late 1990s.4

Tooley Pond Mountain has no tower today.5 A hike write-up says, "Well, the fire tower is still gone."5 It describes a trail up Tooley Mountain that starts from a parking area by the lake, and it says insulators from the fire tower's phone line have been reported on trees along the trail, though the writer did not see any.5 The tower that does stand is on Cathedral Rock, which the register lists as US 1698, registered on December 23, 2022.4 Visitors can follow the Latham Trail from the Ranger School to the summit, according to the register.4 Check with the school before you go.

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