Built in 1918. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1907.
From the record
“The Arab Mountain Fire Observation Station is a historic fire observation station located on Mount Arab at Piercefield in St. The station includes a 40-foot-tall (12 m), steel frame lookout tower erected in 1918, an observers cabin built about 1948, a trace of the foundation of the original cabin, a structure probably used as a root cellar in the 1940s, and the foot trail.”
Wikipedia article Arab Mountain Fire Observation Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 83 National Register listings published here for St. Lawrence County · listed in 2001 · category: Structure · built in 1918.
Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
Town. Piercefield town
When was it built? 1918
National Register reference number.01001039- 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
1907 to 1999
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
19071999
Fires near this property
33 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 33 fires within 5 miles of Arab Mountain Fire Observation Station
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 5 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
Recreation and ceremony
11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
9
Arson/incendiarism
5
Natural
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Smoking
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Debris and open burning
1
Other causes
1
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
3 workings within 5 miles of Arab Mountain Fire Observation Station: 2 producers, 1 prospect.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Piercefield, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2005 and 2016: 3 thunderstorm wind.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.
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.
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.
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