FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Tioga County, Pennsylvania

Bloss Mountain Tower Site

Also known as Bloss Lookout Tower

Aermotor tower built 1921 on Maple Hill, moved to Bloss Mountain in 1939 and removed in 1986; no source found describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The register says the tower was removed in 1986. No source I found describes what remains at the site.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
2,357 ft (718 m)
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.62035, −77.13692
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-bloss-mountain

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its 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.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.2 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. 1921 BuiltSteel Aermotor tower built on Maple Hill, per the Maple Hill register entrySource: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1921 and 1939
  3. 1939 EventStone observer's cabin being built near the tower, per the 1939 Wellsboro noticeSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1939 MovedMoved from Maple Hill to Bloss Mountain and renamedSources: firetower.org, firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1949 StaffedGlen Campbell listed as towerman at Bloss TowerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1949 and 1986
  7. 1986 RemovedRegister says the steel tower was removedSource: firetower.org
  8. No record between 1986 and 2008
  9. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  10. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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 10 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Bloss Mountain tower began on Maple Hill.1,2 The register for that earlier site dates the steel Aermotor tower to 1921 and says it was relocated to Bloss Mountain in 1939.1 The Bloss Mountain register gives 1939 as the build year and says the tower was moved from Maple Hill.3

A 1939 newspaper gave the height as 80 feet and said a stone cabin was going up nearby for the observer, who would staff the tower for four or five months each year.2 In 1949 a Wellsboro paper listed the towermen for Tioga County's five fire towers, naming Glen Campbell at Bloss Tower.2

The register says the tower was removed in 1986.3 It lists the site under former fire lookout sites.3 OpenStreetMap still has a point called Bloss Lookout Tower at the spot, but a map point does not show whether anything stands there.4 No source I found describes what, if anything, remains at the site today.

  1. Maple Hill Tower Site (Tioga County), Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/maple-hill-tower-site-tioga-county/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Bloss Mountain, Eastern US Lookouts (newspaper notices transcribed from 1921 to 1949), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/bloss-mountain.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Bloss Mountain Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/bloss-mountain-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Bloss Lookout Tower, OpenStreetMap node 357364475, https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/357364475 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, dates, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: 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
  3. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, 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.