Overlook Mountain is the southernmost peak of the

Catskill Escarpment The Catskill Escarpment, often referred to locally as just the Escarpment or the Great Wall of Manitou, and known as the Catskill Front to geologists, is the mountain range, range forming the northeastern corner of the Catskill Mountains in Greene ...

in the central

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

near

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...

. The centerpiece of the Overlook Mountain Wild Forest area of

Catskill Park The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. It consists of of land inside a Blue Line in four counties: Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster. As of 2005, or 41 percent of the land within, is owned by ...

, the mountain is the site of one of the remaining five Catskill Mountain fire towers and the Overlook Mountain House, a hotel which was built at a higher elevation than any other in the range.

Natural history

Overlook Mountain is the southernmost peak of the

, which was formed of limestone bedrock by a period of

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

.. It is one of the

timber rattlesnake The timber rattlesnake (''Crotalus horridus''), also known Common name, commonly as the canebrake rattlesnake and the banded rattlesnake,Albert Hazen WWright AH, species:Anna Allen WWright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States a ...

habitats in the Catskills. The summit is covered with

red oak ''Quercus'' subgenus ''Quercus'' is one of the two subgenera into which the genus ''Quercus'' was divided in a 2017 classification (the other being subgenus ''Cerris''). It contains about 190 species divided among five sections. It may be calle ...

red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to wester ...

, and

balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

trees.

Cultural history

Overlook Mountain was the site of one of the "mountain houses" which were constructed in the Catskills during the 1800s. In 1902 its southern slopes became home to the

Byrdcliffe Colony The Byrdcliffe Colony, also called the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony or Byrdcliffe Historic District, was founded in 1902 near Woodstock, New York by Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead, Jane Byrd McCall and Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and colleagues, Bolton Brow ...

, a

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

n settlement with an arts focus.

Fire tower

The Overlook fire tower was originally constructed in 1927 on Gallis Hill, west of

Kingston, New York Kingston is the only Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grou ...

, and was moved to its present location in 1950. The tower was used by fire stewards to more easily locate

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

s. The tower, along with the others in the Catskills, were closed for safety reasons in 1988. Overlook's tower was the first to reopen after renovations were completed, on June 5, 1999.

Mountain House

The first hotel built on the mountain was designed and built by 1833 as interest in tourism in the area increased. The structure was built with the intention to expand it, but was unable to compete effectively with the

Catskill Mountain House The Catskill Mountain House, which opened in 1824, was a famous hotel near Palenville, New York, and in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley. In its prime, from the 1850s to the turn of the century, it was visited by th ...

. The Overlook Mountain House, owned by

Robert Livingston Pell Robert Livingston Pell (May 8, 1818 – February 11, 1880) was an American landowner and descendant of several prominent colonial families of New York. Early life Pell was born at the old Pell mansion in Pelham on May 8, 1818. He was a son of Al ...

and designed by Lewis B. Wagonen, opened in 1871. At , it was at a higher elevation than the nearby Catskill Mountain House or other hotels in the area. The hotel had capacity for 300 guests, and was destroyed by fire in 1875. The hotel was rebuilt by the Kiersted Brothers in 1875, and faced increasing competition from the Grand Hotel, Hotel Kaaterskill, and Laurel House. In 1921 was the site of a secret organizational meeting of what was to become the

Communist Labor Party of America The Communist Labor Party of America (CLPA) was one of the organizational predecessors of the Communist Party USA. The group was established at the end of August 1919 following a three-way split of the Socialist Party of America. Although a leg ...

. The hotel again burned down in 1923, and architect Frank P. Amato was hired by owner Morris Newgold to redesign and rebuild it. This design was never completely built, as the hotel's elevation and lack of rail transportation made it difficult for customers to reach the site, compounding owner Newgold's financial difficulties. The

State of New York New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

acquired much of the land, and the hotel was boarded up in 1940. Further fire damage in the mid-1960s brought down a rooftop tower which had remained standing until that point. The ruins of the hotel are accessible from the main trail.

References

* Overlook Mountain Wild Forest: New York State - Department of Environmental Conservation
Overlook Mountain Hiking Guide & Map of Trailhead
{{Fire lookout towers in New York Mountains of Ulster County, New York Woodstock, New York Mountains of New York (state)