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Fire lookout · Delaware County, New York

Twadell Point Mountain

Also known as Twadell Point

Delaware County, NY lookout: a 45-foot windmill tower from 1910, replaced in 1919 by a 47-foot steel tower; lookout work ended in 1972 and the tower is closed on private land.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Stands on private land, closed to the public; sold to the landowner after the 1972 season per Wikipedia

Visit & stay

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

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 1972)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower47-foot Aermotor LS40 steel lookout tower (1919), replacing a 45-foot modified windmill tower of 1910The design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
Not recorded
Built
1910
Height
47 ft (14.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Forest, Fish and Game Commission built the first tower in 1910; the Conservation Commission appointed observers from 1914
Land
Unknown
Location
Delaware County, New York
Coordinates
42.00326, −75.11731
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-twadell-point-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. 1910 BuiltMay 1910 45-foot modified windmill tower, bought for $307.70 and erected by the Forest, Fish and Game CommissionSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  2. 1914 StaffedAlfred Waterman of East Branch appointed observer for District No. 5 (Twadell Point)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1916 BuiltObserver's cabin; Wikipedia says a cabin was on the mountain by 1916, while the Forest Lookouts page quotes a 1917 report of seven new cabins, one at Twadell Point, and a 1924 report of a new cabin thereSources: en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1919 Replaced by a new structureWindmill tower replaced by a 47-foot Aermotor LS40 steel towerSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, en.wikipedia.org, nysffla.org
  5. 1924 FireObserver Alfred Waterman reported 12 fires so far that season, per a July 1924 Kingston Daily Freeman item quoted by Forest LookoutsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1924 and 1953
  7. 1953 StaffedFire observers agreed to scan the skies and report to the Albany Filter Center after a meeting with Air Force defense officials; Merton Williams of East Branch at Twadell PointSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1953 and 1972
  9. 1972 AbandonedFire lookout operations ended at the end of the 1972 season; the tower was then sold to the landownerSource: en.wikipedia.org
  10. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Twadell Point fire tower stands on the summit of Twadell Mountain, about a mile and a half north of the hamlet of East Branch, in Delaware County.1,2

The first tower on the site was a 45-foot modified windmill.3,2 The Forest, Fish and Game Commission bought it for $307.70 and put it up in May 1910.1,3,2

Sources disagree on when the observer's cabin went up. Wikipedia says a cabin stood on the mountain by 1916.3 The Forest Lookouts page instead quotes a 1917 annual report, which says seven observer cabins went up on mountain stations, one of them at Twadell Point.1 It also quotes a 1924 report of a new cabin there.1

In 1919 the windmill gave way to a 47-foot Aermotor LS40 steel tower.3,2 Wikipedia's account implies that steel tower is the one still standing.3

The earliest observer named on the Forest Lookouts page is Alfred Waterman of East Branch, appointed in April 1914.1 In July 1924 a newspaper item quoted on the page said he had registered 182 visitors that season and had reported 12 fires so far.1 In April 1953, after a meeting with Air Force defense officials, the fire observers agreed to watch the sky and send reports to the Albany Filter Center.1 Merton Williams of East Branch was then posted at Twadell Point.1

Lookout work stopped after the 1972 season, and the tower was then sold to the owner of the land.3 It is still standing on private land, and visitors are not admitted.3,2,4

The sources give different elevations: 2,296 feet on the NYSFFLA list and 2,293 feet on Wikipedia. We have not picked one.3,2

Please do not try to reach or climb this tower. It is on private land and closed to visitors.

  1. Twadell Point, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/twadell-point.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Catskill & Hudson Valley Fire Towers, Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter, https://nysffla.org/towers4.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Twadell Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twadell_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Fire Towers of the Catskills, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, https://extapps.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/catskillsfiretower.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

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, staffing, 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.