End of Bramley Mountain Fire Tower’s First Season Approaching - Bramley Participated in Lighting the Tower Event

The Bramley Mountain Fire Tower. Photo by Ann Roberti

DELHI — There is about a month left in the stewarding season for Bramley Mountain and the other Catskill Mountain Towers. Stewards will have the cab open on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays from approximately 10 am to 4 pm from now through Indigenous People’s Day, as well as a special Wednesday opening as part of Catskills Lark in the Park.

The Wednesday opening is a free guided hike, led by Friends of Bramley Mountain Fire Tower – to see more information and to register, visit https://catskillslark.org/park_events/hike-to-bramley-mountain-2/

To see the other free guided outdoor events offered during Lark in the Park, visit the Lark’s website at https://catskillslark.org/park_events/2025-10/

Light the Towers Event

The Bramley Mountain Fire tower participated for the first time in the annual Forest Fire Lookout Association Light the Towers event over Labor Day Weekend. Over 30 towers in New York participated in the event, where Illuminators hiked up mountains carrying portable lights and set them up ready to be turned on from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. The names of each tower’s observers were read as part of the event. The Observers for Bramley were Ernest Jackson, Theresa “Que” Aitken (Theresa was one of the few female fire observers in New York State.) and Charles Atken.

The two Illuminators for Bramley were joined by one of the day’s stewards, who left the mountain to have dinner in town and hiked Bramley a second time to experience this special event! From Bramley they could see the lighting of Balsam Lake Mountain and Mt. Utsayantha Towers. Also visible were the synchronized flashing lights of the many wind turbines in Windsor, NY.

People from around our region looked for us from Bloomville, Delhi and Bovina and some shared their photos on social media.

About Friends of Bramley Mountain Fire Tower

The Friends is an all-volunteer 501c3 corporation, formed to restore and reconstruct the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower on the summit of Bramley Mountain and to manage the tower after reconstruction. The cab of the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower is open to visitors on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from Memorial Day Weekend through Indigenous People’s Day, from approximately 10 am until 4 pm, weather dependent.

Working with the Friends on this project is Delaware County and the New York City DEP.

About Bramley Mountain Fire Tower

In 1950, an 80-foot Aeromotor Company LS40 fire tower was erected on the summit of Bramley Mountain by the New York State DEC. For 20 years, Fire Observers and Forest Rangers monitored the local area for fires from this tower, triangulating locations in conjunction with the Mt. Utsayantha and Balsam Lake Fire Tower Observers. According to the DEC, the Bramley Mountain tower was also visible from the Hunter Mountain and Tremper Mountain towers. A vital part of protecting the surrounding region from forest fires, the tower stood prominently on the summit for 25 years. The tower was decommissioned in 1970 and in 1975 it was sold to Pete Clark, a local farmer and removed. The Clark family offered the tower to FOBMFT to return it to the summit of Bramley Mountain. It was restored and returned to Bramley Mountain in 2024. The tower was officially reopened in January of 2025.