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Fire lookout · Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania

Elk Hill Tower Site

Susquehanna County steel fire tower of 1921, 60 feet tall, removed before 1989; a 2008 survey visit found concrete supports and a step still in place.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed before 1989 per the register; in 2008 several concrete supports and a concrete step remained.

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel Aermotor tower, 60 feet tallThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1921
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
2,678 ft (816 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.71508, −75.56074
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-elk-hill

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 3.8 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

  1. 1921 BuiltErected by the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry; November 1921 newspaper item and register both give 1921Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1921 and 2008
  3. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  4. 2008 EventSurvey mark recovery on October 12, 2008 recorded concrete supports and the concrete step still in placeSource: thesurveystation.com
  5. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

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 Pennsylvania Department of Forestry put up a steel fire tower on Elk Hill, in Susquehanna County, in 1921.1,2 A Montrose newspaper item from November 1921, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, said the tower stood 60 feet high.2 It gave a view wide enough to spot woodland fires early.2 The item noted that the tower could not cover the whole county.2

The Former Fire Lookout Sites Register describes it as a steel Aermotor tower, built in 1921 and removed before 1989.1 The register dates its entry to September 16, 2008.1

The survey page says the benchmark at the tower site was recovered on October 12, 2008, in a destroyed state. It says several concrete supports and a concrete step still remained.3 The page says the concrete slab holding the mark formed the footing of the stairway up the lookout.3 The survey page lists the setting as a fire lookout tower.3

The survey mark carries the name Elk Mountain.3 The sources we read do not say whether visitors may reach the site.3

  1. Elk Hill Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/elk-hill-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Elk Hill, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/elk-hill1.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Elk Mountain Lot 1959 (LY2787), Zhanna's SurveyStation, https://thesurveystation.com/surveymarks/ly2787/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: type, height, 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. 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.