Rock Rift Fire Observation Tower

Built in 1934. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1923.

From the record

“Rock Rift Fire Observation Tower, also known as the Rock Rift Fire Tower, is a historic fire observation station located in the Town of Tompkins, Delaware County, New York. The tower stands at the summit of Tower Mountain at an elevation of 2,376 ft (724 m) and rises above the Cannonsville Reservoir, part of New York City's extensive water supply system.”
Wikipedia article Rock Rift Fire Observation Tower, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 78 National Register listings published here for Delaware County · listed in 2018 · category: Structure · built in 1934.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 structuress, 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. Tower Ln., Tompkins, 13856
When was it listed? December 2018
Category. structure
Also known as. Fire Observation Stations of New York State Forest Preserve MPS
Town. Tompkins town
When was it built? 1934
National Register reference number. 100003231 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

31 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Rock Rift Fire Observation Tower between 1997 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. 2 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	17
Debris and open burning	8
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Natural	2
Smoking	1
Arson/incendiarism	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
5 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
14 September 2003	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 August 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
7 August 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
16 July 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 May 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 May 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.5 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named
24 May 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Delaware 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.

1923 USGS Walton quadrangle1:48000
1923 USGS Walton quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1925 USGS Walton quadrangle1:62500 - 5 printings
1948 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1950 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1965 USGS Readburn quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1985 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Second Walton Armory (Thrity-third Separate Company)	6.5 miles	2016
Walton Grange #1454-Former Armory	6.5 miles	1998
Gardiner Place Historic District	6.8 miles	1984
US Post Office-Walton	6.8 miles	1989
Christ Episcopal Church	6.8 miles	1999
First Congregational Church of Walton	6.9 miles	2015

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100003231 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Delaware County	All 78 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.