Fire lookout · Venango County, Pennsylvania
Plumer Tower
A tower on State Game Lands 253 in Cornplanter Township, Venango County; the storymap is the only source for its 1935 build date and 80 ft height.
- Standing
- Access unknown
- Verified
Visit & stay
Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.
Access
Access unknown
We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.
- Can you climb it?
- Unknown
- Road to the top?
- Unknown
- Staffing
- Unknown
Facts
- Status
- Type
- Cab on a towerThe design: McClintic-Marshall
- Built of
- Not recorded
- Built
- 1935
- Height
- 80 ft (24.4 m)
- Elevation
- Unknown
- Agency
- State Game Lands No. 253
- Land
- State land
- Location
- Venango County, Pennsylvania
- Coordinates
- 41.48336, −79.63405
- Registers
- Not on a lookout register
- This entry
- VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
- Firefinder id
us-pa-plumer
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 3.2 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
- 1935 BuiltStorymap: built by McClintock-Marshall Construction Company, 80 ft. Single source for this date.Source: arcgis.com
- 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.
Plumer Tower is in Cornplanter Township, Venango County, on State Game Lands No. 253.1,2 A Pennsylvania Game Commission map describes that tract as about 665 acres.3 Mapcarta places the tower near Rouseville and Petroleum Center.1
The storymap is the only source I could read that covers its history. It gives 1935 as the build year, credits the McClintock-Marshall Construction Company as builder, and lists the height as 80 feet.2 I found no second source for those figures.
A Pastmaps page for Rouseville names the tower among the landmarks in a modern survey that covers the area from Rouseville to Seneca.4 The National Historic Lookout Register lists 35 Pennsylvania lookouts, and Plumer is not one of them.5
The storymap uses the present tense for the tower's height, which suggests it still stands.2 I found no recent inspection or visit report.
I found no staffing history. The storymap places the tower on game land.2 I could not find any access or climbing rule for it. Ask the Game Commission before you plan a visit, and do not climb the tower unless it is clearly open to the public.
- Plumer Fire Tower Map - Cornplanter Township, Pennsylvania, Mapcarta, https://mapcarta.com/22758948 (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (story map data), ArcGIS StoryMaps, https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/ed47c97ebe7246868ce8ef3e7139a0b4/data (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- State Game Land 253 Sportsmen's Recreation Map, Pennsylvania Game Commission, https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/pgc/documents/habitat-management/sgl-maps-and-routes/sgl-maps/sgl_253.pdf (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Old Maps of Rouseville, PA, Pastmaps, https://pastmaps.com/explore/us/pennsylvania/venango-county/rouseville (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
- Lookouts in Pennsylvania, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
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
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site) Gave us: name, location, county, type, height, status, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
- Firefinder research Gave us: summary, 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
- Plumer Fire Tower Map - Cornplanter Township, Pennsylvania (Mapcarta) (opens another site)
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (story map item data) (ArcGIS StoryMaps, Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site)
- State Game Land 253 Sportsmen's Recreation Map (Pennsylvania Game Commission) (opens another site)
- Old Maps of Rouseville, PA (Pastmaps) (opens another site)
- Lookouts in Pennsylvania (National Historic Lookout Register) (opens another site)
- Fire Towers of Pennsylvania StoryMap (Shawn Lesitsky) (opens another site)
Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.