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Fire lookout · McKean County, Pennsylvania

Marshburg Tower Site

McKean County, PA tower built by the U.S. Forest Service in 1935, staffed in 1937 and 1939, removed before 1995; no source describes the site now.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed before 1995 per FFLOS; no source describes what, if anything, remains at the site

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 towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1935
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Unknown
Location
McKean County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.86370, −78.76450
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-marshburg

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 3.7 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. 1935 BuiltBuilt by the U.S. Forest Service, per FFLOSSource: firetower.org
  2. 1937 StaffedFrank Kiess named regular lookout (Kane Republican item dated April 24, 1937)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1939 StaffedAllegheny National Forest officials sent a man to the tower (Bradford Era item dated July 26, 1939)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1939 and 1995
  5. 1995 RemovedRegister says removed before 1995; the year is an upper bound, not a dateSource: firetower.org
  6. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008; nominated by Henry IsenbergSource: firetower.org
  7. 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 Marshburg fire tower stood in McKean County, Pennsylvania.1,2 The Forest Fire Lookout Association says the U.S. Forest Service built the steel Aermotor tower in 1935.1

By April 1937 the tower had a regular lookout. A Kane Republican item, as transcribed by Forest Lookouts, named Frank Kiess to the post.2 In July 1939 the Allegheny National Forest sent a man to the tower, a Bradford Era item reported.2 The same item said no forest fires had been reported in McKean County, though several had burned in neighboring counties.2

The register says the tower was removed before 1995.1 The site was registered in September 2008 on the nomination of Henry Isenberg, and the register lists no coordinates for it.1

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the public can reach it.1,2

  1. Marshburg Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/marshburg-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Marshburg, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/marshburg.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

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