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Fire lookout · Pike County, Pennsylvania

High Knob Tower Site

Pike County, PA site in the Delaware State Forest; FFLOS records a bald tower replaced in 1921; a 'High Knob Fire Tower' is mapped there, but its condition is unconfirmed.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

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. No public access information found in the sources read

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1921
Height
22 ft (6.7 m)
Elevation
2,055 ft (626 m)
Agency
An Unimproved bald top observation point established prior to 1918.
Land
Unknown
Location
Pike County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.29954, −75.12490
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-high-knob

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 3.4 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 BuiltSource: Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky)
  2. 1921 Replaced by a new structureFFLOS: the bald tower on the site was replaced in 1921. The build date of the earlier tower is not given.Source: firetower.org
  3. No record between 1921 and 2008
  4. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008 as US 317, PA 146Source: firetower.org
  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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

High Knob is in Pike County, Pennsylvania, inside the Delaware State Forest.1,2 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register lists the spot as the High Knob Tower Site.1

The register says a bald tower stood there and was replaced in 1921.1 It does not say when the first tower went up, who built it, or what the replacement looked like. The site was registered on September 16, 2008, and sits at 2,055 feet, or 626 meters.1

Mapping and wiki records use a different name for the spot. OpenStreetMap and Wikidata both list a High Knob Fire Tower there, and Wikidata places it in the Delaware State Forest.3,2 Neither record gives a build date or a staffing history, so we cannot tell whether the 1921 tower is the one the map shows.3,2

We could not confirm whether a tower stands there now. The register treats the site as a former lookout, while the map and Wikidata entries still carry a tower name.1,3,2 We found no public access information, so anyone interested should check with the land manager before going.

  1. High Knob Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/high-knob-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. High Knob Fire Tower, Wikidata Q107459548, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107459548 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. High Knob Fire Tower, OpenStreetMap node 357364318, https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/357364318 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

High Knob
High KnobPhoto: Shawn Lesitsky -- PA Fire Towers StoryMap (Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps) · source
Photo of High Knob Tower Site
Photo: Nicholas A. Tonelli from Pennsylvania, USA, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · 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.

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.

    • FFLOS: Gone
    • Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): Standing

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) Gave us: type, what it is built of, design, dates, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: agency, 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
  4. Wikidata -- US fire lookout towers (Q748998 and subclasses) Gave us: photos, links Wikidata · CC0 1.0 (Wikidata). Images keep their own Commons licence/credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: height, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  6. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, 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.