FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Wyoming County, Pennsylvania

Ricketts Tower Site

Steel Aermotor tower built 1921; a 1955 newspaper names its North Mountain post and operator; register says later moved and rebuilt privately.

Moved: The structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. Register says it was later moved and rebuilt privately; the Eastern US Lookouts list says removed, with no date.

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
Staffed during fire season (as of 1955)

Facts

Status
Moved
Type
Cab on a towersteel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
Unknown
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.37650, −76.24900
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-ricketts

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.

The structure was moved. This view is from the position Firefinder shows for this record, at a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.6 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. 1921 BuiltSteel Aermotor tower built, per the FFLOS register.Source: firetower.org
  2. No record between 1921 and 1955
  3. 1955 StaffedNewspaper item dated April 13, 1955 names operator Nicholas Kravitz; the tower then covered North Mountain and southwest Wyoming County.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1955 and 2008
  5. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the FFLOS register September 16, 2008.Source: firetower.org
  6. TodayMovedThe structure was moved. The map shows where it stands now; the timeline says where it came from. When it came down is not recorded.

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 Forest Fire Lookout Association's register describes Ricketts Tower as an Aermotor-style steel tower dating to 1921.1 The register places the lookout in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania.1

A 1955 newspaper item, quoted on the Eastern US Lookouts history page, says the tower was located on North Mountain and names its operator as Nicholas Kravitz. The same item says the tower's coverage took in North Mountain and the southwestern part of Wyoming County.2

The register says the tower was afterward taken elsewhere and rebuilt privately.1 The Eastern US Lookouts history lists it as removed, with no date.2

A separate Eastern US Lookouts index puts Ricketts under Luzerne County, not Wyoming.3

No source describes what, if anything, remains at the site today. No source we found says whether the site is open to the public.

  1. Ricketts Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/ricketts-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Ricketts - Forest Lookouts, Eastern US Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/ricketts.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Pennsylvania (R-Z) - Forest Lookouts, Eastern US Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/pennsylvania-r-z.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, staffing, 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.