NEW YORK LOOKOUTS
T LAKE MOUNTAIN
Hamilton County
1916: "One new mountain station, on 'T Lake Mountain' near Piseco Lake, in Hamilton County, has been established and was in operation a part of the season." (State of New York Conservation Commission, 6th Annual Report)
September 17, 1924: "A.A. Poucher has returned from a vacation of ten days at Lake Piseco in the heart of the Adirondacks. Lake Piseco is forty miles from the nearest railroad and five miles from a post office. Mr. Poucher says there were plenty of rain, hail and snow last week. One of the things most interesting, Mr. Poucher says, was the lookout tower on top of T. Lake Mountain. The tower is one hundred feet high and erected primarily for the purpose of locating forest fires when they start in order that they may be extinguished before they become dangerous. It commands a view of nineteen lakes." (The Kingston Daily Freeman)
August 25, 1928: "The weight of 78 years is too great a burden to carry up the steep steps of a forest lookout tower, Emerson Nye, veteran observer of the T Lake Mountain post, decided.
A few days ago, after 10 years of spotting and reporting forest fires, the aged observer forwarded his resignation to the New York State Conservation Department and descended from his tower for the last time.
Nye assumed his duties as lookout when the state established the T Lake Mountain post a decade ago. He labored in the deep snow of mid-winter to aid in hauling materials for the tower to the top of the mountain.
When the structure was completed and he climbed to the tower for his first official observation of the vast area of forest land under his keeping, he found the instruments and maps placed in the tower served as scarcely more than an auxiliary unit, so well did he know 'the lay of the land.' For half a century he had lived and worked in the country within range of the tower." (The Kingston Daily Freeman)