Wakely Mountain Fire Observation Station

Built in 1916. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1900.

From the record

“The Wakely Mountain Fire Observation Station is a historic fire observation station located on Wakely Mountain at Lake Pleasant in Hamilton County, New York. The station and contributing resources include a 70-foot-tall (21 m), steel-frame lookout tower erected in 1916 and a 3-mile (4.8 km) foot trail that leads down the mountain.”
Wikipedia article Wakely Mountain Fire Observation Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 24 National Register listings published here for Hamilton County · listed in 2003 · category: Structure · built in 1916.

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 1 site, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Wakely Mountain, Lake Pleasant, 12164
When was it listed? October 2003
Category. structure
Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
Town. Lake Pleasant town
When was it built? 1916
National Register reference number. 03000998 - 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

1900 to 1997

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 97 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Wakely Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1997

Topographic sheet covering Wakely Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1900

Fires near this property

4 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Wakely Mountain Fire Observation Station between 2002 and 2018, burning about 2 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was 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	3
Natural	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
13 September 2013	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	CEDAR LAKE FIRE
10 September 2002	Natural	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	ALUMINUM POND
16 July 2018	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	CEDAR RIVER FIRE
11 October 2016	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	CEDAR RIVER FIRE

Every fire recorded in Hamilton County

Storms near this property

12 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake Pleasant, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1993 and 2022: 12 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	$6,000	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	$5,000	no account filed
September 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	$2,000	no account filed
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	Downed trees were reported near Piseco.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	Trees were downed near Route 8 in Lake Pleasant Town Center.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	A tree was downed on Route 8.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	A tree was downed along Route 8 near Lake Pleasant.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	Three trees were reported down in Lake Pleasant due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	One tree was reported down and partially blocking County Route 11 in Lake Pleasant due to strong thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	Trees and power lines were reported down near Lake Pleasant due to strong thunderstorm winds. Some of the trees were blocking roads.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	Powerlines were blown down in Lake Pleasant.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Pleasant	-	Trees were blown down.

Every storm recorded in Hamilton County

Maps showing this location

11 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.

1900 USGS Canada Lake quadrangle1:62500
1903 USGS West Canada Lakes quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1950 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS West Canada Lakes quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1957 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1964 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1985 USGS Raquette Lake quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1990 USGS Wakely Mountain quadrangle1:25000 - 2 printings
1997 USGS Wakely Mountain quadrangle1:25000

Listed places nearby

4 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Sagamore	5.9 miles	1976
Sagamore Lodge (Boundary Increase)	6.0 miles	1986
Camp Uncas	6.7 miles	1987
Snowy Mountain Fire Observation Station	6.9 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 03000998 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Hamilton County	All 24 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.
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.