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Fire lookout · Allegany County, Maryland

Dan's Rock Lookout

Dan's Rock lookout on Dans Mountain, Allegany County, Maryland: a 1921 station, a 15-foot tower in 1929, a 60-foot tower in 1945; NHLR (2020) says steps and cab floor and roof are gone.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go. NHLR gives the location as Dan's Rock Overlook Park and describes the tower as missing its steps and cab floor and roof; no current visit rules were found

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
Wikipedia lists drive up as the easiest route to the summit
Staffing
Unknown (as of undated)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor tower with 7 by 7 foot cab (NHLR)The design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1921
Height
70 ft (21.3 m)
Elevation
2,895 ft (882 m)
Agency
Allegany County, Maryland
Land
Unknown
Location
Allegany County, Maryland
Coordinates
39.58150, −78.89780
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-md-dans-rock

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.4 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1912 EventLookout stations said to be set up on St. John's Rock and Dan's Mountain (Evening Times, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 BuiltNew lookout station at Dan's Rock completed in spring 1921; telephone line and spring and fall watchman planned; cost shared by coal companies and the State Board of ForestrySource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1929 Built15-foot steel observation tower erected on Dan's Rock in April 1929Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 FireForest fire burned up to the base of the lookout tower in May 1939 (District Forest Warden Urner Wigfield reported)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1945 Replaced by a new structureNew 60-foot steel tower replaced the 15-foot structure; announced August 4, 1945 by District Forester William H. JohnsonSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1945 and 2020
  7. 2020 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 24, 2020 as US 1406, MD 10; nominated by Ben FunderburgSource: nhlr.org
  8. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Dan's Rock sits at the top of Dans Mountain in Allegany County, Maryland. The summit is the highest point in the county.1 The National Historic Lookout Register lists Allegany County as the tower's administrator, and it accepted the tower on March 24, 2020, nominated by Ben Funderburg.2

A 1912 newspaper item says lookout stations had been set up on St. John's Rock and Dan's Mountain.3 A new station at Dan's Rock was completed in the spring of 1921. The plan called for a telephone line to the top and a watchman on duty during the spring and fall fire seasons, and coal companies and the state forestry board shared the cost.3

In April 1929 a 15-foot steel tower went up on the rock. Before it, the watchman had no shelter from the weather and had to climb the rough sides of the peak to reach the telephone.3 In May 1939 a forest fire burned right up to the base of the lookout tower.3 In August 1945 a new 60-foot steel tower replaced the older one, and a district forester said it removed blind spots along Dan's Mountain.3

The Register describes today's tower differently. It calls it an Aermotor tower about 70 feet tall, with a 7-by-7-foot cab, and says the steps are gone and the cab has no floor or roof.2 The sources I read do not show whether that is the 1945 tower.2,3

The Register places the lookout in Dan's Rock Overlook Park.2 Wikipedia lists driving as the easiest route to the summit.1 I found no current visitor rules for the tower. Given that condition, treat the tower as unsafe, and do not climb it.

  1. Dans Mountain, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dans_Mountain (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Dan's Rock Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/md/dans-rock-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Dan's Rock, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/dans-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

April 2005 photo
April 2005 photo (2005)Photo: Brian M. Powell, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: height, links easternuslookouts.weebly.com · No licence stated; facts only (county, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, status, height, design hints, register links). The site's own historical quotes, newspaper citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.