Fire lookout · Clinton County, Pennsylvania
Coffin Rock Fire Lookout
Coffin Rock: a 60-ft Aermotor from 1921, raised to 86 ft in 1939, felled by a 1985 tornado; the 93-ft Aermotor of 1987 appears to still stand.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
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.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- sources disagree
- Type
- Cab on a towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1921
- Height
- 93 ft (28.3 m)
- Elevation
- 2,329 ft (710 m)
- Agency
- Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
- Land
- Unknown
- Location
- Clinton County, Pennsylvania
- Coordinates
- 41.23729, −77.75054
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-pa-coffin-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 3.8 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 Built60-foot steel Aermotor tower, with a cabin at its base for a local forestry manSources: lockhaven.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1921 First staffedJ.M. Hall of Renovo was selected to live at the tower and man it around the clockSource: lockhaven.com
- 1926 EventExpress piece promoted the view as one of the best in the stateSource: lockhaven.com
- 1939 AlteredRaised from 60 feet to 86 feetSources: lockhaven.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1939 and 1985
- 1985 DestroyedDestroyed by a tornadoSources: lockhaven.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
- 1987 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
- 1987 Replaced by a new structure93-foot Aermotor steel tower with a full catwalk, constructed by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry; NHLR lists the build year as 1987Sources: lockhaven.com, easternuslookouts.weebly.com, nhlr.org
- No record between 1987 and 2008
- 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register as the site of the 1921 towerSource: firetower.org
- 2013 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered on the National Historic Lookout RegisterSource: nhlr.org
- 2018 Replaced by a new structureSource: Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky)
- 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.
Coffin Rock sits in the remote woods of Noyes Township, Clinton County, and the name comes from a big rock nearby that looks roughly like a coffin.1 A 60-foot steel tower went up there in 1921.1,2 At its base was a cabin where a local forestry man lived and kept watch over the woods around the clock, and the Express named J.M. Hall of Renovo as the man picked for that job.1
A 1926 Express piece repeated the claim that the view was among the finest in the state.1 In 1939 the tower was raised from 60 to 86 feet, which improved the Department of Forestry's outlook.1,2 The sources do not fully agree on heights. A Coast and Geodetic Survey description from 1958 puts the tower at about 80 feet overall.2 I did not find a record of any particular fire tied to this tower in the sources I checked.
A tornado destroyed that tower in 1985.1,2,3 Two years later a new one went up, a 93-foot Aermotor with an unusual full catwalk around its 7-foot-square cab. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry built it.1,2,3 The National Historic Lookout Register calls it the newest lookout in Pennsylvania and registered it in September 2013.3 A separate register, the Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, lists the 1921 tower's site as no longer standing and registered it in September 2008.4
An Express article from April 2024 still describes a fire tower on the rock, which suggests the 1987 tower is standing.1 Shoemaker Ridge Road lies just south of the rock, and Route 144 lies to the west.1 I did not find a current statement on whether the public may climb the tower or drive up to it, so check with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry before you go.
- Coffin rock, Lou Bernard, The Express (Lock Haven), https://www.lockhaven.com/news/health-and-home/2024/04/coffin-rock/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Coffin Rock - FOREST LOOKOUTS, Eastern US Lookouts (Weebly), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/coffin-rock.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Coffin Rock Fire Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/coffin-rock-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Coffin Rocks Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/coffin-rocks-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
Photos keep their own rights and are shown with credit. Is one of these yours? You can ask for a different credit or for removal.
Where sources disagree
We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.
Sources disagree on whether it still stands.
- NHLR: Standing
- FFLOS: Gone
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): Standing
NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.
Sources
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) 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
- Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) (opens another site) Gave us: 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
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site) Gave us: type, height, dates, 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: 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
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, 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 972 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- FFLOS register entry US 248 (firetower.org) (opens another site)
- NHLR register entry (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- Coffin rock (The Express (Lock Haven)) (opens another site)
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania StoryMap (Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site)
- Coffin Rocks (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.