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Fire lookout · Rutland County, Vermont

Pico Peak

Pico Peak's lookout: a 1914 wood tower, a 1925 steel replacement, then dismantled and re-erected on Killington in 1963 or 1964.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Dismantled and re-erected on Killington Peak in 1963 or 1964; no tower is described on Pico Peak today.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. The summit is reached by the 0.4-mile Pico Link Trail; the ski area is part of Killington Resort. No source describes summit restrictions.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
The summit is reached by the 0.4-mile Pico Link Trail.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel tower (1925) with Aermotor parts, replacing a wood tower condemned as unsafeThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1914
Height
20 ft (6.1 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Vermont Forest Service (from 1924)
Land
Unknown
Location
Rutland County, Vermont
Coordinates
43.63943, −72.83631
Registers
Not on a lookout register
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 10 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-vt-pico-peak

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

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. 1914 BuiltProctor paid for a tower, cabin and telephone line on the mountain; the 1914 entry calls Pico a lookout pointSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1924 EventTower turned over to the Forest Service for use as a fire lookout stationSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1925 Replaced by a new structureWood structure (20 feet) condemned and dismantled; new steel tower planned at 35 feet with Aermotor partsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1925 First staffedDana Rowe named as the look-out man for the new towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1932 EventSomeone deliberately smashed nearly all the glass in the windows at the top of the towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1939 StaffedClark Prior named as attendant at the Pico Peak fire towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. No record between 1939 and 1956
  8. 1956 StaffedCaroline Parmenter in the lookout cab, profiled in a 1956 Ogden, Utah, newspaperSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  9. 1963 MovedDismantled at Pico and re-erected on Killington summit; state report cites lease difficulty. WillhiteWeb gives 1963; Forest Lookouts covers 1963-64Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com, willhiteweb.com
  10. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. 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.

Pico Peak, in Rutland County, Vermont, was presented to Mortimer R. Proctor as a birthday present in 1910.1 In 1914 Proctor paid for a tower, a cabin and a phone line on the mountain, and the peak then counted as a lookout site.2 A state report says Proctor gave the tower to the Forest Service to operate as a fire lookout.2

In 1925 the wooden tower was condemned as unsafe.2 The Rutland Daily Herald reported a new steel tower on exactly the same site, with steel parts from the Aermotor company of Chicago.2 The paper put the old tower at 20 feet and the new one at 35.2

Dana Rowe was picked to staff the new tower as its lookout.2 A 1935 newspaper still had him on the summit, and a 1939 paper named Clark Prior as the attendant.2 In 1932 almost all of the glass in the tower's top windows was smashed on purpose.2 A 1956 Ogden, Utah, newspaper profiled Caroline Parmenter, describing her as the sole female fire lookout east of the Mississippi River.2 The same profile said she had worked for the Vermont Forest Service since 1953.2

The tower's time on Pico ended with a move.2 A state report for 1963 and 1964 says renewing the state's lease on Pico had become difficult, so the tower was moved to Killington, a state-owned summit.2 Forest Lookouts reports that the structure was taken apart on Pico and set up again on Killington.3 WillhiteWeb dates that move to 1963 and says the Killington tower was discontinued in the fall of 1984.4 The same state report says the tower had gone up on Pico around 1914.2 The 1925 newspaper, however, describes a new steel tower replacing the wooden one, so the sources do not make clear which structure went to Killington.2

The Pico ski area has been part of Killington Ski Resort since December 1997.1 A 0.4-mile path, the Pico Link Trail, leads to the summit.1 The Forest Fire Lookout Association lists the Pico tower as gone.5 No source describes what, if anything, remains of the lookout's base on the summit.

  1. Pico Peak, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_Peak (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Pico Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/pico-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Killington Peak, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/killington-peak.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Killington Peak Lookout, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/appalachian_trail/fire_lookouts/killington_peak/tower_059.htm (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Vermont lookout list, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/lookouts/us/vt/ (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: what it is built of, design, 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, status, agency, access, staffing, 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.