Photograph by Rosie De Lise from Eugene, OR, USA. Cropped and color-corrected by Daniel Case prior to upload, CC BY 2.0. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain Fire Observation Station
Built in 1917. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1895.
From the record
“The Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain Fire Observation Station is a historic fire lookout tower on Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain at Chesterfield in Essex County, New York. The station and contributing resources include a 40-foot-tall (12 m), steel-frame lookout tower erected in 1917, a jeep trail that extends from the base of the mountain to a point below its summit, the remains of an observer's cabin possibly built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936, and a spring house.”
Wikipedia article Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain Fire Observation Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 114 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 2001 · category: Structure · built in 1917.
Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
Town. Chesterfield town
When was it built? 1917
National Register reference number.01001034- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
61 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 61 fires within 5 miles of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain Fire Observation Station
between 1992 and 2019, burning about 188 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
27
Natural
9
Arson/incendiarism
6
Debris and open burning
5
Equipment and vehicle use
4
Railroad operations and maintenance
3
Recreation and ceremony
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Smoking
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
9 workings within 5 miles of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain Fire Observation Station: 5 past producers, 2 occurrences, 1 producer, 1 prospect.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Graphite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Garnet, Wollastonite, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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