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Fire lookout · Potter County, Pennsylvania

Cherry Springs Fire Tower

A 1917 steel tower near Cherry Springs, rebuilt by CCC crews in 1938; still standing but out of fire service, with climbing access unconfirmed.

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. Entrance is off PA 44 about two miles south of Cherry Springs State Park. No source says whether the steel tower may be climbed; check with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry first.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Trail
Susquehannock Trail System orange blazes run near the tower. The CCC stone cabin nearby is used by scouts and the Susquehannock Trail Club.
Staffing
Not staffed (as of undated)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerSteel frame fire tower; the 1917 tower was bought from Aermotor, and the maker of the 1938 replacement is not statedThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1917
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
2,472 ft (754 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Potter County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.64556, −77.79658
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-cherry-springs

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 3.2 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. 1917 BuiltNew steel tower near Cherry Springs, bought from the Aermotor Company and erected August-September 1917 by the State Forestry Department; height reported as 60 ftSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1918 AlteredIron steps erected on the steel tower in June 1918Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1918 EventTelephone line of about 13 miles run from Carter Camp to the towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1924 StaffedJap Knecht named as watchman at the tower in a Wellsboro Gazette item (December 1924)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 Replaced by a new structureCCC enrollees from Camp S-136 built a larger steel frame tower; the Lumber Museum gives 80 ft and says it replaced a 65 ft tower from 1917Sources: lumbermuseum.org, lumbermuseum.org
  6. No record between 1938 and 2017
  7. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered April 28, 2017 as US 1193, PA 20, nominated by Brian M. PowellSource: 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.

Cherry Springs Fire Tower stands along PA 44 in Potter County, in the Susquehannock State Forest, where it looks over the headwaters of East Fork First Fork Sinnemahoning Creek and Pine Creek.1 In August and September of 1917 the state forestry department erected a new steel tower near Cherry Springs, bought from the Aermotor Company of Chicago.2 Accounts disagree on its height. The 1917 forest warden's report gives sixty feet, while a Wellsboro paper of the same year had described a seventy-foot tower.2 Iron steps were added in June 1918, and a telephone line about thirteen miles long was run to the tower from Carter Camp.2

The tower was rebuilt in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.3 Enrollees from Camp S-136 put up a larger steel frame tower there.3,4 The Lumber Museum gives that tower a height of 80 feet and says it replaced an earlier 65-foot tower from 1917.3 Those figures do not match the 1917 report, so the height of the 1917 tower remains uncertain.

The tower had a watchman on duty in the 1920s.2 A December 1924 item in the Wellsboro Gazette names Jap Knecht as the watchman at the tower.2 The sources I could reach do not say when the watch ended, and they do not name a notable fire that the tower helped to spot.

The tower still stands, but it is no longer used to detect fires.3 The forest around it has grown tall enough to block the view.3 The stone cabin the same CCC camp built nearby is still there, and local scout troops and the Susquehannock Trail Club use it.3

You reach the tower complex from Route 44, roughly two miles south of Cherry Springs State Park.3 The National Historic Lookout Register lists the tower as administered by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.1 It was registered on April 28, 2017, as US 1193, PA 20.1 I did not find a source that says whether the steel tower can be climbed. Until the Bureau of Forestry confirms otherwise, do not climb it, and check with them before you visit.

  1. Cherry Springs Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/cherry-springs-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Cherry Springs, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/cherry-springs1.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Then & Now: A PA Lumber Museum Virtual Photography Exhibit, Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, https://lumbermuseum.org/then-now-a-pa-lumber-museum-virtual-photography-exhibit/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Hiking to History: Susquehannock Trail brochure, Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, http://lumbermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Hiking-to-History-Susquehannock-Brochure.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Cherry Springs Fire Tower
Photo: Jack Kelley, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Cherry Springs Fire Tower
Photo: Jack Kelley, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Lookout's cabin
Lookout's cabinPhoto: Jack Kelley, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Cherry Springs
Cherry SpringsPhoto: Shawn Lesitsky -- PA Fire Towers StoryMap (Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps) · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
  2. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) Gave us: type, height, ownership, dates, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: what it is built of, design, 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. 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

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