Fire lookout · Centre County, Pennsylvania
Little Flat Fire Tower
A steel Blaw-Knox lookout in Rothrock State Forest, built 1922; no longer used for fire watch, its first steps removed so it cannot be climbed.
- Standing
- Open to the public
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Open to the public. Forest roads and trails in Rothrock State Forest lead to the tower; the tower itself is not open to climbing.
- Can you climb it?
- No
- Road to the top?
- Yes, you can drive up
- Trail
- A dirt road climbs the ridge to parking about half a mile away (State College); a 2011 account puts parking at the top. The Spruce Gap Trail is the steep hiking route.
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towersteel Blaw-Knox towerThe design: Blaw-Knox
- Built of
- SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
- Built
- 1922
- Height
- 55 ft (16.8 m)
- Elevation
- 2,416 ft (736 m)
- Agency
- Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Centre County, Pennsylvania
- Coordinates
- 40.75204, −77.75528
- Registers
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-pa-little-flat
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 3.8 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
- 1922 BuiltSteel Blaw-Knox tower put into service in the fall of 1922; the 1972 item gives a construction cost of $989.91.Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- 1922 Replaced by a new structureNHLR says the 1922 steel tower replaced an earlier 1915 wood tower. A lookout-history site instead records a 1917 tree observation post 25 feet up.Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1922 and 1972
- 1972 StaffedA November 1972 newspaper item describes someone working on the tower during the fall fire season.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
- No record between 1972 and 2023
- 2023 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 31, 2023, nominated by Marc Burns.Source: nhlr.org
- 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 (opens another site) (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).
Story
Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Little Flat stands on a ridge by Tussey Mountain, in Rothrock State Forest in Centre County.1,2 The Register gives its elevation as 2,416 feet, while a State College writer gives 2,420 feet.1,2
The Register says a steel tower was built in 1922 to replace a wooden one from 1915, and that the lookout was registered on December 31, 2023, with Marc Burns as nominator.1 A lookout-history site tells a different early story, recording a tree observation post 25 feet above the ground in 1917.3 A May 1972 Daily News item, quoted on the same site, says the tower was constructed in 1922, went into service that fall, and cost $989.91 to build.3
Later that year, a November item from the same paper says a woman was at work on the tower during the autumn fire season.3
The tower is no longer used for fire watch, according to a February 2023 State College article.2 The first few flights of steps were removed to keep out vandals, so you cannot climb the tower.2 The same writer still finds it a scenic spot worth a visit.2
You can reach it by forest road or on foot. The State College article describes driving up a dirt road and parking about half a mile away, or hiking the Spruce Gap Trail, which the writer calls one of the steepest in the area.2 An older 2011 account describes a gravel road that climbs Greenlee Mountain and ends at a parking area by the tower.4 The two accounts disagree on how far the walk is, and forest roads change, so check conditions before you go.2,4 Mountain bikers also ride the trails here, and in winter snowmobilers cut their own routes along the forest roads.2
- Little Flat Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/little-flat-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- The Little Flat Fire Tower: A Must-See, Any Time of Year, StateCollege.com, https://www.statecollege.com/articles/community/the-little-flat-fire-tower-a-must-see-any-time-of-year/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Little Flat - Forest Lookouts, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/little-flat.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
- Onward & Outward: Little Flat Fire Tower, Onward State, https://onwardstate.com/2011/04/11/onward-outward-little-flat-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
Photos
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
- National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site) Gave us: type, height, ownership, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site) Gave us: 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
- OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures (opens another site) Gave us: access, links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, 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
- NHLR register entry US 1780 (nhlr.org) (opens another site)
- The Little Flat Fire Tower: A Must-See, Any Time of Year (StateCollege.com) (opens another site)
- Onward & Outward: Little Flat Fire Tower (Onward State) (opens another site)
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania StoryMap (Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site)
- Little Flat (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) (opens another site)
- OpenStreetMap way 416601123 (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.