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Fire lookout · Tioga County, Pennsylvania

Goodall Tower Site

Tioga County, PA tree observation post (1910) replaced by a steel Aermotor tower in 1920; removed 1983; trail listing says the cabin still stands; height sources disagree.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Register and Forest Lookouts timeline say the steel tower was removed in 1983; onX says it was demolished in 1983 and reports the cabin still stands

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 (1920) that replaced a 1910 tree observation postThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1910
Height
90 ft (27.4 m)
Elevation
2,325 ft (709 m)
Agency
Forestry department, as a 1919 notice calls it; a state forest tower per a 1968 survey description
Land
Unknown
Location
Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.76785, −77.45359
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-goodall

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 3.7 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. 1910 BuiltTree observation post about 50 feet above the ground (1910-11)Sources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org
  2. 1919 EventSeptember 1919 notice of plans for a sixty-foot steel tower at the head of Goodall hollowSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1920 Replaced by a new structureTree post replaced by a steel Aermotor towerSource: firetower.org
  4. No record between 1920 and 1936
  5. 1936 EventRoad of 10,200 feet under construction to the tower by enrollees of Darling Run CampSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1949 EventNovember 1949: lost bear hunter reached the search party after being guided by a spotlight on the towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1949 StaffedRex Sherman named towerman on the Goodall tower (Wellsboro Gazette, April 14, 1949)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1949 and 1983
  9. 1983 RemovedSteel tower removed per register and Forest Lookouts timeline; onX says demolishedSources: easternuslookouts.weebly.com, firetower.org, onxmaps.com
  10. No record between 1983 and 2008
  11. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008; nominated by Henry IsenbergSource: firetower.org
  12. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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.

A tree observation post about 50 feet above the ground went up at Goodall, in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, in 1910 or 1911.1,2

According to the register, the first lookout was built in a tree in 1910, and a steel Aermotor tower took its place in 1920.2 A September 1919 notice set out plans for a 60-foot steel tower, with stairs and a closed top, above Asaph Run at the head of Goodall hollow.1 Sources disagree on its height. The 1919 plan says sixty feet, while a 1968 survey station description calls the tower about 90 feet high and places it 8 miles west-northwest of Wellsboro.1

The same notice planned a direct phone link to the Forestry department's Asaph office and to the homes of nearby fire wardens.1 In 1936 enrollees from Darling Run Camp were building a 10,200-foot road to the tower, and the Wellsboro Agitator expected the finished road to make access easier.1 In April 1949 the Wellsboro Gazette named Rex Sherman as towerman on the Goodall tower.1

In November 1949 a bear hunter from Harrisburg went missing after his party returned to the cars.1 Wellsboro firemen set a 500-watt spotlight on top of the tower. The hunter headed toward the light, came out a short distance from the tower at about 6:30 the next morning, and found members of the search party.1

The register records the steel tower's removal in 1983,2 and the Forest Lookouts timeline gives the same year.1

A trail-mapping listing for Goodall Road says the road climbs steeply, with switchbacks, to the site of a former lookout tower, and that the tower's cabin still stands in good condition.3 That listing dates the tower and cabin to between 1910 and 1920 and says the tower was demolished in 1983.3 No source we read says whether the site is open to the public. The listing says the road gets no winter maintenance, so check conditions before going.3

  1. Goodall, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/goodall.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Goodall Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/goodall-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Goodall Road, onX Offroad, https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/pennsylvania/goodall-road-ndzdr82dv6kv (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

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