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Fire lookout · Essex County, New York

Vandewhacker Fire Tower

Also known as Vanderwacker Mountain

A 35-ft steel Aermotor lookout placed in 1918 on Vanderwhacker Mountain in Essex County; fire watch ended in 1971 or 1988, and a 2005 article describes it as restored.

Visit & stay

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

Access

Open to the public. Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest is open for recreation year-round and the Tower Trail reaches the summit. No current source confirms the cab is open to visitors, and Wikipedia reports an official closure in 1989.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
2.5-mile Tower Trail, about 1,650 ft of climbing from the Tower Trailhead; the road to the trailhead is often rough for low-clearance vehicles, and the NHLR suggests an extra 2.6-mile walk along it
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower35-ft steel Aermotor LS40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
36 ft (11.0 m)
Elevation
3,325 ft (1,014 m)
Agency
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Land
State land
Location
Essex County, New York
Coordinates
43.89825, −74.09597
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-ny-vandewhacker

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 4.0 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. 1911 BuiltConservation Commission built a wooden fire observation tower on the mountain in May 1911 (Wikipedia)Source: en.wikipedia.org
  2. 1918 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  3. 1918 Replaced by a new structureReplaced by a 35-foot steel Aermotor LS40 tower; a new observer's cabin was built the same yearSources: nhlr.org, en.wikipedia.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1918 and 1971
  5. 1971 Last staffedNHLR says the tower was staffed for fire spotting through 1971; this conflicts with the Wikipedia 1988 dateSource: nhlr.org
  6. No record between 1971 and 1988
  7. 1988 Last staffedWikipedia says fire watching stopped at the end of the 1988 seasonSource: en.wikipedia.org
  8. 1989 ClosedWikipedia says the NYS DEC officially closed the tower in early 1989Source: en.wikipedia.org
  9. 2003 RestoredA local group working with the state painted the Vanderwacker Mountain tower in summer 2003, with AmeriCorps students doing much of the work.Sources: firelookout.org, firelookout.org
  10. 2004 RestoredA local group began restoring the tower in 2000 and it was officially reopened in 2004; the observer's cabin has since fallen into disrepair.Source: nysffla.org
  11. 2005 RestoredA September 2005 Lake Placid News article describes the tower as restored with a state Environmental Protection Fund grant; the year the work was done is not statedSource: aarch.org
  12. 2018 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered June 12, 2018 per the NHLR recordSource: 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 Vandewhacker Fire Tower stands on the summit of Vanderwhacker Mountain in Essex County, New York.1,2 The state gives the summit as 3,386 feet, while Wikipedia gives 3,389.2,1 The name is spelled both ways in the record. The NHLR uses "Vandewhacker," while the state and Wikipedia use "Vanderwhacker."3,1,2

The Conservation Commission put up a wooden observation tower on the mountain in May 1911.1 In 1918 a 35-foot steel Aermotor tower replaced it, and a new cabin was built for the observer.3,1,4 Hikers on the trail today pass two cabins that were used by the fire observer.5

Sources disagree on when fire watching ended. The NHLR says the tower was staffed for fire spotting through 1971.3 Wikipedia says fire watching stopped at the end of the 1988 season, and that the state officially closed the tower in early 1989.1

A 2005 Lake Placid News article calls the tower a restored Adirondack fire tower, and says a state Environmental Protection Fund grant helped pay for the restoration.6 The NHLR registered the tower on June 12, 2018.3

The Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest is open for recreation year-round.2 The state describes a 2.5-mile Tower Trail that climbs 1,650 feet from the Tower Trailhead to the summit.2 Trees cover the summit, so the cab is the only vantage point.2 The NHLR warns that the road to the trailhead is often rough for low-clearance vehicles, and suggests walking the extra 2.6 miles along it.3

One hiking guide describes climbing the tower.5 We found no current statement that the cab is open to visitors, and Wikipedia reports an official closure in 1989.1 Check with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation before you climb.

  1. Vanderwhacker Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanderwhacker_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, https://dec.ny.gov/places/vanderwhacker-mountain-wild-forest (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Vandewhacker Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/ny/vandewhacker-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Vanderwacker Mountain, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/vanderwacker-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Vanderwhacker Mountain, CNY Hiking, https://www.cnyhiking.com/VanderwhackerMountain.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  6. Vanderwhacker Great trail climbs to glorious view from restored Adirondack fire tower, Lee Manchester, Lake Placid News, 2005, https://www.aarch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/050916VLPVanderwhackertower1.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Vandewhacker Fire Tower
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.

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 year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1918
    • Forest Fire Lookout Association, New York State Chapter: 1911

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

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. Map and Coordinates List for NYS DEC Firetowers (Andy Arthur) Gave us: ownership, links Andy Arthur, andyarthur.org (CC BY 3.0) · CC BY 3.0, credit: Andy Arthur, andyarthur.org. Facts + short description text reused under that licence. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  8. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.