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Fire lookout · Perry County, Pennsylvania

Big Knob Tower Site (Perry County)

Also known as Big Knob, Blue Knob Lookout Tower

Big Knob tower in Perry County, built 1921 by the state Department of Forestry and removed in 1994; 1921 notices disagree on height (60 or 70 ft). Site not described today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1994 per the register. A 2016 state forest plan still uses the Big Knob Tower site as a location name; no source describes what remains.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. The 2016 state forest plan describes a vista reached by a trail off Kansas Valley Road, just below the Big Knob Tower site.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
2,162 ft (659 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Perry County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
40.35798, −77.54666
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-blue-knob

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 tower erected on Big Knob; 60 ft per the October 19 notice, 70 ft per the October 4 noticeSources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 EventA 10-by-12-foot cabin put up at the base of the tower for the towermanSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1921 StaffedJ. E. Odell of New Germantown, named as observer in the October 19 notice, went on duty for the fall fire season on October 1Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1932 EventWeather Bureau equipment installed in the Big Knob Air Weather Station near Blain (notice of February 3, 1932)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1936 StaffedFrank Nethkin the towerman; snowbound for ten days in January, supplies dropped by army airplaneSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1936 and 1994
  7. 1994 RemovedRegister says the tower was removedSource: firetower.org
  8. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  9. 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 state put a steel fire-observation tower on Big Knob in Perry County in 1921, and by October 4 a notice described it as standing.1,2 An October 1921 notice said it stood in Jackson Township, between the Tuscarora and Conococheague mountains, and was one of fifty similar towers that the forestry department had erected statewide in about three months.2

The newspapers disagreed on its height.2 An October 4 notice gave 70 feet, and an October 19 notice gave 60 feet.2 The register gives 1921 as the build year and 1994 as the removal year for a steel Aermotor tower.1

An October 19 notice named J. E. Odell of New Germantown as the observer, and said his fall fire-season duty began on October 1.2 A cabin measuring 10 by 12 feet was set at the foot of the tower for the towerman.2

The mountain was also used for other work.2 In February 1932 the Weather Bureau set up an air weather station on Big Knob near Blain, and the notice put the mountain at 2,200 feet.2 In January 1936 the towerman, Frank Nethkin, spent ten days snowbound at his mountaintop cabin, and an army plane dropped food to him.2 A February notice said a state fish warden, who reached him on snowshoes, was the first person Nethkin had seen in 38 days.2

The register says the tower was removed in 1994.1 No source I found says what remains at the site today. A 2016 state forest plan describes a vista reached by a path from Kansas Valley Road, a short distance below the Big Knob Tower site.3 An August 2024 social media post showed a small cabin beside the old Big Knob fire tower, but it did not say whether any of the tower remains.4

An OpenStreetMap point is labelled Blue Knob Lookout Tower, while the register and the 1921 notices say Big Knob.5,1,2

  1. Big Knob Tower Site (Perry County), Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/big-knob-tower-site-perry-county/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Big Knob, Eastern US Lookouts (newspaper notices transcribed from 1921 to 1936), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/big-knob4.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Tuscarora State Forest 2016 Management Activity Plan, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, https://elibrary.dcnr.pa.gov/PDFProvider.ashx?action=PDFStream&docID=1742849&revision=0&docName=FD03_2016_update&nativeExt=pdf&PromptToSave=False&Size=827141&ViewerMode=2&overlay=0 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Instagram post by smithcreate, August 19, 2024, https://www.instagram.com/p/C-2S7iLuzkK/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Blue Knob Lookout Tower, OpenStreetMap node 357364081, https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/357364081 (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, county, 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: height, agency, ownership, 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: location, elevation, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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.