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Photograph of St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station
Photograph by John Sweeney, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station

Built in 1918. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1905.

From the record

“Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station is a historic fire observation station located on Saint Regis Mountain at Santa Clara in Franklin County, New York. The station and contributing resources include a 35-foot-tall (11 m), steel frame lookout tower erected in 1918, the site of the former observer's cabin, and 9/10 of a mile foot trail between the cabin site and summit.”

Wikipedia article St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 86 National Register listings published here for Franklin County · listed in 2005 · category: Structure · built in 1918.

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 2 sitess, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. St. Regis Mountain, Santa Clara, 12970
  • When was it listed? March 2005
  • Category. structure
  • Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
  • Town. Santa Clara town
  • When was it built? 1918
  • National Register reference number. 05000163 - 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

1905 to 1999

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 94 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1999
Topographic sheet covering St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station, surveyed 1905

Fires near this property

52 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 52 fires within 5 miles of St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 47 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 1 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 ceremony27
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Natural8
Debris and open burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Fireworks1
Arson/incendiarism1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
7 September 1996Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresNew York Forest Rangersnot named
6 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
5 September 2008Arson/incendiarism9.2 acresFire Department of New Yorknot named
5 September 1999Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresNew York Forest Rangersnot named
29 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreNew York Forest RangersCOOLER POND #2
25 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreNew York Forest RangersCOOLER POND FIRE #1
24 September 2005Naturalunder an acreNew York Forest Rangersnot 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 St. Regis Mountain Fire Observation Station: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Unnamed ProspectStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Franklin County

Storms near this property

4 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Santa Clara, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2005 and 2018: 4 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2011Thunderstorm WindSanta Clara$5,000Trees down along McMaster road.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindSanta Clara$5,000no account filed
July 2005Thunderstorm WindSanta Clara$5,000no account filed
July 2018Thunderstorm WindSanta Clara-A Tree and several large limbs downed by brief thunderstorm winds along Route 458 in Santa Clara.

Every storm recorded in Franklin County

Maps showing this location

10 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.

Listed places nearby

6 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 PropertyDistance Listed
Camp Topridge1.6 miles1986
St. Regis Presbyterian Church2.3 miles2020
Camp Wild Air2.7 miles1986
Paul Smith's Hotel Cottages4.0 miles1999
Church of the Ascension Chapel and Rectory4.4 miles2021
Lady Tree Lodge4.4 miles2018

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 05000163 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Franklin CountyAll 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.
  • 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.