FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Pump Station Fire Tower

A 1919 steel Aermotor tower in Tiadaghton State Forest, replacing a 1914 wood-and-tree lookout, found intact but decaying and unstaffed in a 2017 inspection.

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. No NHLR sign or directional markers; unmarked and easy to miss. A nearby former observer's cabin is privately leased -- treat it as private, not public forest land.

Can you climb it?
Yes
Road to the top?
Unknown
Staffing
Not staffed (as of 2017)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
2,148 ft (655 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.46583, −77.57157
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-pump

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 3.7 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. 1914 BuiltOriginal wood-and-tree lookout on this site, later replacedSources: nhlr.org, arcgis.com
  2. 1919 BuiltCurrent 60-ft steel Aermotor tower erected for $939, replacing the 1914 wood-and-tree towerSources: nhlr.org, arcgis.com
  3. No record between 1919 and 1935
  4. 1935 RebuiltObserver's cabin atop the tower replacedSource: nhlr.org
  5. No record between 1935 and 2016
  6. 2016 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered July 24, 2016, nominated by Henry IsenbergSource: nhlr.org
  7. 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 (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 4 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Pump Station Fire Tower stands in Tiadaghton State Forest in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, at roughly 655 meters elevation.1,2 The tower now on the site is not the first: a wood-and-tree lookout went up here in 1914, and in 1919 the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry replaced it with the 60-foot (18-meter) steel tower that still stands today, built by the Aermotor Windmill Company at a cost of $939.1,2 The observer's cabin atop the tower was rebuilt in 1935.1

For years the tower would have been staffed through fire seasons by state lookout observers watching for smoke, though no source here records who held the post or when staffing ended. By the time Jack Kelley climbed up to inspect it for the National Historic Lookout Register in April 2017, the tower had gone unstaffed for at least a decade.1 Kelley described it as "intact but decayed": broken glass scattered across a shaky cab floor, a map table reduced to a few boards, and faint inscriptions from the 1920s still visible on the cab walls under fallen debris.1 Tree growth has closed in around the cab, blocking most of the views the tower was built for.1

The site carries no sign identifying it and nothing marks the way in, so a visitor unfamiliar with the location would likely walk past it.1 A former observer's cabin near the tower is part of a leasing program and may be occupied; it is private, not open forest land, and should be treated as such.1 The tower itself was added to the National Historic Lookout Register, nominated by Henry Isenberg, in July 2016.1 As of the most recent inspection on file it remains standing but deteriorating.1

  1. Pump Station Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/pump-station-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩
  2. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (StoryMap), Shawn Lesitsky, Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps, https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=ed47c97ebe7246868ce8ef3e7139a0b4 (accessed 2026-10-04). ↩

Photos

Photo of Pump Station Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Pump Station Fire Tower
Photo: Jack Kelley, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Pump Station Fire Tower
Photo: National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Pump Station
Pump StationPhoto: Shawn Lesitsky -- PA Fire Towers StoryMap (Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps) · 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 the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1919
    • Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): 1914

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, 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
  2. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) Gave us: design, height, ownership, 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: 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. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, staffing, 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

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.