NEW YORK LOOKOUTS
POCATELLO MOUNTAIN
Orange County
August 27, 1930: "The new fire tower and cabin at Sayer's Hill near Lake Pocatello are ready for public inspection. Although not entirely completed until yesterday more than 300 persons visited the tower during August and made observations from the platform, sixty feet above the ground.
The tower will be open to the public when the observer is there, usually from nine until five o'clock daily. An American flag at the top of the tower, which can be seen from the foot of the mountain, will indicate whether or not the observer is there. The Conservation department has placed red markers along the highway from the State Hospital to the foot of the mountain to guide visitors. Steps have been cut from the highway to the tower to make climbing easier.
Usual visibility from the observation platform include a forty mile radius although on a clear day one can look eighty miles in the New Jersey direction. Nine flights of steps, with guard rails on both sides, lead up to the enclosed platform.
Money for half the cost of building the cabin at the base of the tower was appropriated by Orange County Board of Supervisors, the other half was a gift of Robert M. (unreadable) of Chester. The tower is one of a proposed plan of five to cover the district. Three towers have been built thus far and one in Rockland county and one near Wurtsboro, to be built in 1932, will complete the program." (Middletown Times Herald)
1930: "With the extension of the fire permit system to include Orange County, the citizens of that county realized the necessity of increasing the fire detection organization existing in that area. From private and county funds money was provided for the purchase and erection of an observation tower. This tower was erected on Pocatello Mountain, and affords needed protection to the entire eastern and southern slopes of the Shawangunk Mountain range." (Twentieth Annual Report of the Conservation Department - 1930)
July 5, 1946: "The first postwar picnic of the Lake Pocatello Property Owner's Association was held yesterday at the home of A.E. Zoghby, association president. A basket luncheon was served after the business meeting.
Property owners voted to petition the state for improvement to the highway leading to Lake Pocatello. Association members also decided to ask Assemblyman Wilson C. Van Duzer's support for continuation of the fire tower and services of the watchman at the lake." (Middletown Times Herald)