Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station

Built in 1917. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

“The Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station is a historic fire observation station located on Hadley Mountain at Hadley in Saratoga County, New York. The tower is a prefabricated structure built by the Aermotor Corporation in 1917.”
Wikipedia article Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 83 National Register listings published here for Saratoga County · listed in 2001 · category: Structure · built in 1917.

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 3 structuress, 1 building, 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. Hadley Mountain, Hadley, 12835
When was it listed? September 2001
Category. structure
Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
Town. Hadley town
When was it built? 1917
National Register reference number. 01001037 - 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

1903 to 1989

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 86 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet covering Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1903

Fires near this property

73 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 73 fires within 5 miles of Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 181 acres in total. 11 started naturally. 3 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	33
Debris and open burning	12
Natural	11
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Recreation and ceremony	4
Arson/incendiarism	3
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Smoking	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
8 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
4 September 2015	Natural	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	WAITE MOUNTAIN FIRE
4 September 2007	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
25 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
25 September 2010	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
13 September 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 August 2019	Natural	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	THOMPSON MT
4 August 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A

Every fire recorded in Saratoga County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Hadley Mountain Fire Observation Station: 2 past producers, 2 occurrences, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Granite, Feldspar, Quartz, Graphite, Sulfur-Pyrite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Sacandaga Graphite Co	Graphite, Sulfur-Pyrite	Past Producer	1906, 1918, 1925
Sacandaga Graphite Co.Mine	Graphite	Past Producer
Wells Prospect	Feldspar, Quartz	Prospect
Unnamed Occurrence	Granite	Occurrence	1915, 1922
Unnamed Quarry	Granite	Occurrence	1925

Every working recorded in Saratoga County

Storms near this property

9 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hadley, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 hail, 1 flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Hadley	1 hurt	A tree fell on a home in Hadley as a result of thunderstorm winds. One person at the home was injured due to the falling tree and had to be hospitalized.
April 2008	Flood	Hadley	$225,000	The melting of a deep snowpack led to moderate or higher river flooding across portions of the upper Hudson River basin, including the Great Sacandaga Lake, and the Hudson River between Schuylerville and Mechanicville.\|\|Snow water equivalents of nearly one foot began to melt during a warm period beginning around April 10th, and led to river flooding which persisted through the end of April.\|\|On the Hudson River near Schuylerville, a sod farm suffered estimated losses of $225,000 due to prolonged submersion of sod in Hudson River flood waters. In addition, the New York State Canal Corporation was unable to open the Hudson-Champlain Canal in April due to high water levels. Furthermore, the crest of the Great Sacandaga Lake level was a new record.
August 2022	Lightning	Hadley	$200,000	A home near the Bend of the River Golf Club was struck by lightning which sparked a small electrical fire. The property owner later called the home unlivable.
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Hadley	$5,000	no account filed
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Hadley	-	About 15 to 20 trees were uprooted or snapped at the Bend of the River Golf Club in Hadley.
August 2007	Hail	Hadley	-	Nickel sized hail was reported in Hadley.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Hadley	-	Approximately 100 to 120 trees were downed as a result of strong straight line winds during a thunderstorm in Hadley, along County Route 4 and Stewart Bridge Road.
July 2006	Flash Flood	Hadley	-	Law enforcement personnel reported that a sink hole formed on Route 9N in Hadley due to flash flooding.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Hadley	-	Trees and power lines down.

Every storm recorded in Saratoga 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.

1903 USGS Luzerne quadrangle1:62500 - 8 printings
1950 USGS Glens Falls quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Lake Luzerne quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1956 USGS Glens Falls quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1959 USGS Glens Falls quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1964 USGS Glens Falls quadrangle1:250000
1968 USGS Stony Creek quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Glens Falls quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1989 USGS Glens Falls quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

2 within 8 miles

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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	David Rayfiel House	5.4 miles	2009
	Hadley Parabolic Bridge	7.7 miles	1977

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 01001037 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Saratoga County	All 83 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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.