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Fire lookout · Luzerne County, Pennsylvania

Harveys Tower Site

Luzerne County, PA steel Aermotor tower built 1921 near Dallas, on Irem Temple Country Club grounds; newspaper-documented staffing 1930-1962; removed before 2005.

Private land

No public access. Please do not trespass; view it only from public land. Stood on the Irem Temple Country Club grounds per a 1955 newspaper item; the club is now described as a private club. No source says whether the old tower site is part of the course or open to visitors.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed before 2005 per FFLOS; the Forest Lookouts page marks it removed; no source describes what remains at the site

Visit & stay

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

Access

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

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1921
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters (its district office announced in 1948 that it would operate eight towers; the Harvey's listing does not say it was one of them)
Land
Unknown
Location
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.36210, −75.97780
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-harveys

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.6 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 BuiltBuilt 1921 as a steel Aermotor tower (FFLOS)Source: firetower.org
  2. 1930 FireLargest fire that spring, about a week before the April 2, 1930 item, burned roughly 200 acres on Luzerne Mountain for ten hoursSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1930 StaffedTowerman Erwin Wispell reported 43 forest-fire calls from the tower by April 1930Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1930 and 1948
  5. 1948 StaffedAug 30, 1948 item: district office said it would operate eight towers from October 1; the same item lists Harvey's Tower, Dallas Township, among Luzerne County towers, without saying it was one of the eightSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1954 AlteredReconditioned with a new roof and improved telephone facilitiesSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1962 StaffedManned round the clock during a July 1962 dry spellSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  8. No record between 1962 and 2005
  9. 2005 RemovedFFLOS says removed before 2005; the exact year is not givenSource: firetower.org
  10. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 16, 2008Source: FFLOS register entry
  11. 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.

The Harveys tower stood near Dallas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register describes it as a steel Aermotor tower built in 1921.1 Newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts page place it north of the Irem Temple Country Club in 1953 and on the club's grounds in 1955.2

In April 1930 Erwin Wispell reported forty-three fire calls from the tower so far that year.2 The largest of those fires, about a week earlier, burned roughly 200 acres on Luzerne Mountain and took ten hours for a large crew to bring under control.2 An August 1948 report said the district office of the Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters would operate eight towers from October 1, and it listed Harvey's Tower in Dallas Township among the Luzerne County towers.2 In 1953 Bill Harlos was in charge of the tower, and by 1955 William Harlos was named its operator.2

A 1954 item said the tower was getting a new roof and improved telephone facilities.2 In July 1962, during a dry spell, the tower was manned around the clock.2

The register says the tower was removed before 2005.1 A listing quoted on the Forest Lookouts page marks it as removed.2 The club's listing on Discover NEPA describes Irem Country Club as a private club.3 We found no source that describes what, if anything, remains at the tower site today or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Harveys Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/harveys-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Harvey's, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/harveys.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Irem Country Club, Discover NEPA, https://discovernepa.com/listing/irem-country-club/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

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