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Fire lookout · Snyder County, Pennsylvania

Middleswarth Tower Site

Steel Blaw-Knox tower on Jack's Mountain in Snyder County, built 1923 and removed before 2005; no source we read describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed before 2005; no source we read 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 Blaw-Knox towerThe design: Blaw-Knox
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1923
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Forestry Department, Harrisburg office (per a 1923 newspaper)
Land
Unknown
Location
Snyder County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
40.80180, −77.30620
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-middleswarth

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. 1923 BuiltSteel tower, 60 feet tall, raised in sixteen hours by a crew of seven (April 1923 report)Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1923 StaffedTowerman Rosswell E. Erb of Troxelville named; on duty from 6:30 a.m.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1923 and 2005
  4. 2005 RemovedRemoved before 2005, per the registerSource: firetower.org
  5. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  6. 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 Middleswarth Tower went up in 1923 on the highest point of Jack's Mountain in Snyder County.1,2 A newspaper report dated April 26, 1923 describes a steel observation tower 60 feet tall, sitting 2,127 feet above sea level, and says it took a record sixteen hours to raise.2 The register of former lookouts gives the same year and calls it a steel Blaw-Knox tower.1

Men from the Harrisburg office of the Forestry Department were on the crew of seven, alongside local rangers and towermen.2 The newspaper named Rosswell E. Erb of Troxelville as towerman, who would be on duty from 6:30 in the morning. It also said a telephone line to Troxelville was almost complete, so that fires could be reported quickly.2

The register lists the tower as removed before 2005.1 A Wikipedia article on the Snyder-Middleswarth Natural Area says a fire tower built just west of the park was abandoned, with only its foundations left by 1992.3 That article does not name the tower.3 The 1923 report places the Middleswarth tower just south of the park, so the two may be the same, but no source we read confirms it.2,3

No source we read describes what, if anything, remains at the site today, or whether the ground is open to visitors.

  1. Middleswarth Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/middleswarth-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Middleswarth, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/middleswarth.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Snyder-Middleswarth Natural Area, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snyder-Middleswarth_Natural_Area (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, 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.