Blue Mountain, a 3,750-foot Adirondack peak east of Blue Mountain Lake, is significant for both its panoramic summit and its long use in fire detection. A wooden fire tower built there in 1911 was replaced in 1917 by a 35-foot Aermotor tower that remained in service until 1990, making it among New York State’s last operating and longest-running fire towers. The summit also briefly served Cold War air defense when a U.S. Air Force gap-filler radar station operated there from 1959 to 1967. After severe vandalism in 1992, restoration in 2019 helped preserve the tower and its place in the Adirondacks’ fire-observation history.