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Fire lookout · Centre County, Pennsylvania

Eagle Field Tower

Aermotor steel lookout on Bald Eagle Ridge near State College; a tower built in the 1930s was moved here in 1985 and renamed Eagle Field.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. On a privately owned airstrip (Eagle Field, 09PA). Ask the owner before visiting; no public visiting information found.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Private land. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
Unknown
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor steel tower with 7x7 cab and rooftop catwalkThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1930
Height
90 ft (27.4 m)
Elevation
1,773 ft (540 m)
Agency
Karl H. Striedieck, Owner
Land
Unknown
Location
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
40.82717, −77.98767
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-eagle-field

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 3.5 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. 1930 BuiltSource: Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky)
  2. 1931 BuiltOriginal tower at the Elliott Tower site in Jefferson County, per the former-sites register. The storymap gives 1930 and the register says the 1930s.Sources: nhlr.org, arcgis.com, firetower.org
  3. No record between 1931 and 1985
  4. 1985 MovedMoved and renamed Eagle FieldSource: firetower.org
  5. 1993 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 30, 1993Source: nhlr.org
  6. 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Eagle Field Tower stands on Bald Eagle Ridge in Centre County, about eight miles west of State College.1 It is a 90-foot Aermotor steel tower with a 7x7 cab and a rooftop catwalk.1,2

The sources disagree about where it began. The register says the Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters built it in the 1930s near Reynoldsburg, and that it was known as Elliot Tower.1 The former lookout sites register dates a steel Aermotor tower to 1931 at the Elliott Tower site in Jefferson County, and says it was moved in 1985 and renamed Eagle Field.3 The storymap of Pennsylvania's fire towers gives 1930 as the build year and names the Aermotor Windmill Company as its builder.2 Only the former-sites register describes a move, so the first site and the exact build year remain unsettled.3

The register lists the tower's registration date as December 30, 1993.1 The storymap ties it to the small Eagle Field Airport.2 The register names Karl H. Striedieck as owner and administrator,1 and a City-Data airport listing gives the airport's ownership as privately owned and its facility use as private.4

We found no source that describes staffing or public visiting. Treat the tower as private property: ask the owner before going near it, and do not climb it.

  1. Eagle Field Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/eagle-field-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (StoryMap data, Shawn Lesitsky), Esri ArcGIS, https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/ed47c97ebe7246868ce8ef3e7139a0b4/data (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Elliott Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, https://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/elliott-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Eagle Field Airport (09PA), Port Matilda, Pennsylvania, City-Data, https://www.city-data.com/airports/Eagle-Field-Airport-Port-Matilda-Pennsylvania.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Eagle Field Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Eagle Field
Eagle FieldPhoto: Shawn Lesitsky -- PA Fire Towers StoryMap (Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps) · source

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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, what it is built of, 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: design, height, dates, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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.