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 (NRHP).

It has a mortared rubblestone foundation and a covered porch on the south elevation, originally decked in wood but since replaced with concrete.

Built in 1931, it is one of the oldest remaining observer's cabins in New York, a rare intact example of the earlier style used by the then-state Conservation Commission.

[4] In 1889 members of the Balsam Lake Club built the Catskills' first fire tower on the summit of Balsam Lake Mountain; twenty years later, after the fires two drought-plagued summers had taken a heavy toll on the forests, the state's Forest, Fish and Game Commission (FFGC) took it over as part of a new strategy, proven successful in Maine.

[5] of putting trained observers in strategically placed towers to spot the first traces of fire and report its location via dedicated telephone lines.

The state built its first tower on Greene County's highest peak, Hunter Mountain later in 1909, and within a decade there were several others throughout the range and in the nearby Shawangunks.

In 1919, the Conservation Commission, which the FFGC had become, found that there was still a large area of the southern Catskills, in Sullivan and Ulster counties, poorly served by the existing towers.

They drew their water from a spring at the base of a small cliff on the mountain's west slope, about 0.3 miles (0.48 km) from the tower via a short path.

[1][2] George Profous, a forester for what had by then become the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wrote in an early 1990s planning document that the aged, deteriorating tower should be dismantled and removed, not only due to its age but because, out of use, it was no longer permitted on state-owned Forest Preserve land, which New York's constitution requires be kept forever wild.

[11] Along the way are 10 numbered wooden signs corresponding to listings in an interpretive brochure created by the Red Hill Fire Tower Committee, available at the trail register.

At the summit, volunteer guides man the tower on weekends with good weather between late June and early October every year.

The cab is equipped with paper cutouts identifying the mountains and other landmarks visible within the 50-mile (80 km) area of the tower on clear days.