Portal:Hudson Valley/Selected article/39

The Red Hill Fire Observation Station consists of a fire lookout tower, cabin and pit privy located on the summit of Red Hill, a 2990 ft Catskill Mountain peak in Denning, New York, United States. It is the southernmost fire tower in the Catskill Park.

One of the last state towers built, in 1920, it filled a missing link in the Catskills' forest fire detection network. Except for a few brief periods of closure, observers working for the state conservation agencies manned the tower through 1990, making it the last fire tower closed in the Catskills. The abandoned tower and its views of the region remained a popular destination for local hikers, and it was slated to be torn down in accordance with state policy prohibiting nonessential structures on Forest Preserve land. Preservationists and forest historians campaigned to save and restore it and four other Catskill fire towers, and in the early 21st century they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Red Hill's observer's cabin, included as part of the listing, is one of the oldest such buildings in New York. Archives • Read more...