Catskill Mountain fire towers

When the Catskill Park was created in 1885, one of the state's earliest missions was the control and suppression of forest fires which had long ravaged the land and damaged local crops and property.

Wardens were hired to patrol railroad lines, where stray ashes from steam engines often ignited surrounding brush, and investigate reports of fires started by logging or quarrying operations on state land (illegal under the legislation that created New York's Forest Preserve, now Article 14 of the state constitution).

[1] The FFGC (Forest, Fish and Game Commission, the DEC's predecessor) was understaffed and unable to focus on fire prevention.

The following year, forest rangers built the first Hunter Mountain fire tower, a 40-foot (12.2 m) structure made from three trees, on level ground near the summit.

The Catskill Center for Conservation and Development has worked in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation since the early 1990s to maintain the remaining 5 historic Catskills fire towers (Hunter, Balsam Lake, Tremper, Overlook, and Red Hill), and to interpret them seasonally for hikers and visitors.