Hunter Mountain Fire Tower
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Hunter Mountain Fire Tower
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Tower prior to renovations in 1999
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| Location | Summit of Hunter Mountain, Town of Hunter, NY |
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| Nearest city | Kingston |
| Coordinates | 42°10′40″N 74°13′49″W / 42.17778°N 74.23028°WCoordinates: 42°10′40″N 74°13′49″W / 42.17778°N 74.23028°W |
| Built | 1917 |
| Architect | Aermotor |
| MPS | Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS |
| NRHP Reference # | 97000569 |
| Added to NRHP | 1997 |
 360 degree view from the Hunter Mountain Fire Tower |
The Hunter Mountain Fire Tower is located on the summit of the eponymous mountain, second highest of the Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. It was the first of 23 fire lookout towers built by the state in the region, and the next-to-last of the five still standing to be abandoned.
Today it remains a popular attraction for hikers climbing the mountain. After it fell into disrepair in the 1990s and was recommended for removal by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which had operated the tower, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Local enthusiasts were able to raise money, matched by DEC, to restore the tower and adjacent observer's cabin to serve as a museum, with volunteers in the cab on some weekends.
Panoramic views of not only the mountains but the adjacent Hudson Valley, Massachusetts, Connecticut and sometimes southwestern Vermont are available from it. Likewise, it can be seen from many of the surrounding mountains, the village of Hunter and the upper slopes of the ski area. It is the highest fire tower still standing in the state and the second-highest in the entire Northeast.
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).
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