FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Clearfield County, Pennsylvania

Rockton Fire Tower

A 1975 95-ft Aermotor tower on Rockton Mountain in Clearfield County, replaced by an 80-ft steel tower around 2018 under a state tower replacement program.

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
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower80-ft steel replacement tower (c. 2018); original was a 95-ft Aermotor (1975, now demolished)The design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1975
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
2,390 ft (729 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Clearfield County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.07560, −78.55144
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-rockton

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 3.3 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. 1975 Built95-ft Aermotor tower built on Rockton Mountain to replace the Old Town and Boone Mountain towers; contractor Carns Brothers of Clearfield; final cost $35,285Sources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1975 and 2017
  3. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 6, 2017 as US 1254, PA 23Source: nhlr.org
  4. 2017 EventDCNR began a $4.6 million project in September 2017 to replace 16 state forest fire towers; Rockton was on the listSource: paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com
  5. 2018 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  6. 2018 Replaced by a new structureOriginal 1975 tower replaced with an 80-ft steel structure; register dates the new tower to about 2018; the 1975 tower is now demolishedSources: nhlr.org, paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com, wildfiretoday.com
  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 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Rockton Fire Tower stands atop Rockton Mountain, at about 2,390 feet, northwest of Clearfield in Pennsylvania's Moshannon State Forest.1,2 The first tower on the summit was a 95-foot Aermotor, built in 1975 to replace the older Old Town and Boone Mountain towers.1,2 The low bid for construction came from Carns Brothers, a Clearfield firm.2 The final cost came to $35,285, and a final inspection report from February 1976 survives.2

That original tower did not last. In September 2017, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources started a $4.6 million project to replace 16 forest fire lookout towers, many of them dating from the 1920s through 1940.3 Rockton was on that list.3 The National Historic Lookout Register added the tower on December 6, 2017, as US 1254, PA 23.1

The replacement is an 80-foot steel tower that the register dates to about 2018, and it lists the 1975 tower as demolished.1 A May 2019 article, quoting NPR, reported that the 16 new towers had been built the year before, and that spring marked their first fire season.4 An August 2022 photo on the register shows the new tower standing.1

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry administers the site.1 Staffing and public access did not appear in the sources I checked, so treat the tower as off-limits to climbing until the Bureau confirms it is open.1

  1. Rockton Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/rockton-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Rockton, Forest Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/rockton.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. DCNR Initiative To Replace, Renovate Fire Towers Across The State, PA Environment Digest Blog, https://paenvironmentdaily.blogspot.com/2018/02/dcnr-initiative-to-replace-renovate.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Pennsylvania builds 16 new fire lookout towers, Wildfire Today, https://wildfiretoday.com/pennsylvania-builds-16-new-fire-lookout-towers/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

August 2022 photo of new tower
August 2022 photo of new tower (2022)Photo: Jeff Ruckle, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
1975 tower, now demolished
1975 tower, now demolished (1975)Photo: Ron Stafford, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
August 2022 photo
August 2022 photo (2022)Photo: Jeff Ruckle, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Rockton Tower
Rockton TowerPhoto: 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.

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: height, dates, 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: ownership, 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, 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.