Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1919.

From the record

“The Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station is a historic fire observation station located on Azure Mountain at Waverly in Franklin County, New York. The station and contributing resources include a 40-foot-tall (12 m), steel-frame lookout tower erected in 1918, a jeep trail now used as a hiking trail, which extends from the base of the mountain to two former observers' cabins, and a foot trail from the cabins to the summit.”
Wikipedia article Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 86 National Register listings published here for Franklin County · listed in 2001 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 4 sitess, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Azure Mountain, Waverly, 12980
When was it listed? September 2001
Category. structure
Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
Town. Waverly town
National Register reference number. 01001036 - 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.

Then and now

1919 to 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 75 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1919

Fires near this property

13 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station between 1999 and 2018, burning about 61 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 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
Debris and open burning	3
Arson/incendiarism	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Natural	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
3 September 2009	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
25 September 2014	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
15 August 2001	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
6 May 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	KNAPP FIRE
10 May 2002	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
8 April 2008	Debris and open burning	1.5 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named
24 April 1999	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
19 April 2002	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Azure Mountain Fire Observation Station: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Alice Prospect	Iron	Occurrence	Replacement

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Maps showing this location

9 surveys

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.

1919 USGS Nicholville quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1921 USGS Nicholville quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1948 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1951 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
1961 USGS Ogdensburg quadrangle1:250000
1964 USGS Lake Ozonia quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1985 USGS Massena quadrangle1:100000
1994 USGS Massena quadrangle1:100000

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 01001036 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Franklin County	All 86 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

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.