The Structure of a Long Island Fire Tower Found

New York once had a number of fire towers erected and staffed on Long Island. The Conservation closed the towers in 1959 and by the end of 1962, all were gone. A couple years back, I stumbled across a portion of one of these towers and it is nowhere near Long Island!

I found about the first ~50 feet of the Kings Park fire tower erected on land in the Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Area. I confirmed the towers early beginnings by reading the black stamped information on the steel beams. This tower is on the west side of the road that runs on the west
side of Upper Stafford Marsh, near the southern end of the marsh. It is being used as an observation tower for bird watching and is in need of some new wood.

Recently, in an older book I acquired which features hikes in the Management Area, it mentions another "lookout tower" about a mile west from the first tower, along a trail near another marsh/pool. I'm hopeful to go out there this Fall and hike to it to see if it is the other half of that tower or another one from another Long Island site.

Kings Park tower stood in Sunken Meadows State Park in Suffolk County. It was used from 1948 until 1959 I believe. Larry Paul, from Long Island, used to work with the crew there and has many excellent pictures of the tower.

Frederick Knauf
Past Director, NY State FFLA
Spencerport, NY