Vanderwhacker Mountain, a 3,389-foot peak in New York's Adirondacks northeast of Indian Lake and southeast of Newcomb, is closely associated with the region's long campaign to detect and prevent forest fires. The Conservation Commission built a wooden fire tower on its summit in May 1911, and in 1918 replaced it with a 35-foot Aermotor LS40 metal tower. From the summit, this observation station served for decades as part of New York's fire lookout network. Fire watching operations ended after the 1988 season, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officially closed the tower in early 1989, but the mountain remains strongly identified with that conservation history.