Fire lookout · Cameron County, Pennsylvania
Brooks Run Fire Tower
Also known as Brooks Firetower
An 80-foot steel Aermotor tower built in 1921 at Grove Mountain and moved to Brook Mountain in 1940 or 1941; registered 2017 and still standing.
- Standing
- Restricted access
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Restricted access
Access is seasonal, gated or needs a permit. Check before you go. A gate on the service road stops vehicles. Hikers walk the gated road from Brooks Run Road. No source found on climbing the tower itself.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- No, you have to hike
- Trail
- Park at the intersection of Brooks Run Road and Ridge Road, not in front of the gate. Walk the gated service road, an easy 1.9-mile out-and-back per the trail listing.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a tower80-foot steel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1921 sources disagree
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- 2,367 ft (722 m)
- Agency
- Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Cameron County, Pennsylvania
- Coordinates
- 41.42893, −78.10847
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-pa-brooks-run
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 3.3 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
- 1921 BuiltBuilt as a steel Aermotor tower at Grove Mountain in Cameron CountySource: firetower.org
- No record between 1921 and 1940
- 1940 MovedMove announced for summer 1940. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says it moved in 1940.Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1941 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
- 1941 MovedThe National Historic Lookout Register says the tower was relocated to the Brooks Run site in 1941 and lists 1941 under Built.Source: nhlr.org
- No record between 1941 and 2017
- 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout Register, December 6, 2017Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
The tower first stood on Grove Mountain in Cameron County. The Former Fire Lookout Sites register says its steel Aermotor tower was built there in 1921 and moved in 1940.1 A June 1940 report said the tower would move that summer to a site 280 feet higher, toward the upper end of Brooks Run.2 The register for the current site gives a different year. It says the 80-foot Aermotor tower was relocated to Brooks Run in 1941, and its details list 1941 under "Built."3 So the 1941 date marks the move, not the first build, and the sources disagree on whether the move came in 1940 or 1941.
The 1940 report expected the new tower to be twenty feet taller than the 60-foot tower on Grove Mountain.2 It also said the local forestry office had maintained a temporary wooden tower on Brook Mountain during the recent fire season, with a watcher on duty at all times.2 The same report said the tower might be manned all year rather than only in fire season.2 I found no record that year-round staffing happened, and no current staffing status.
The register lists the tower as registered on December 6, 2017, and says the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry administers it.3 A trail listing says the tower is still in operation at the top of Brooks Run, beside the Bucktail Path in Elk State Forest.4 A gated service road climbs from Brooks Run Road to the top of Brook Mountain.4 Hikers park at the intersection of Brooks Run Road and Ridge Road, then walk the road on a 1.9-mile out-and-back that the listing rates as easy.4 The listing warns hikers not to park in front of the gate.4 It also says the Forest Service uses the road, which differs from the register's agency name.4
I did not find a rule on climbing the tower itself. Check with the Bureau of Forestry before you go, and stay off the tower if the site is posted closed.
- Grove Mountain Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://www.firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/grove-mountain-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Brooks, Forest Lookouts (Pennsylvania section), Eastern US Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/brooks.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Brooks Run Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/brooks-run-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Brooks Run Fire Tower Trail, MyHikes, https://myhikes.org/trails/brooks-run-fire-tower-trail (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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Where sources disagree
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Sources disagree on the year it was built.
- NHLR: 1941
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): 1921
Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, status, 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
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site) Gave us: what it is built of, design, height, ownership, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1256 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Grove Mountain Tower Site (Former Fire Lookout Sites Register) (opens another site)
- Brooks Run Fire Tower Trail (MyHikes) (opens another site)
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania StoryMap (Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site)
- Brooks Run (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap node 357349016 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.