FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Cambria County, Pennsylvania

Saint Lawrence Tower Site

Cambria County steel Aermotor tower, planned in 1921 as Tower No. 3; the register says built 1921 and removed 1978; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1978, according to the register; no source describes the site today.

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 Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,207 ft (673 m)
Agency
Unknown
Land
Unknown
Location
Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
40.69840, −78.63669
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-saint-lawrence

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 a typical height for a lookout like it.

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. 1921 BuiltRegister gives 1921 as the build year. An August 1921 Forest Leaves report named Saint Lawrence among the first 18 towers to be put up that summer.Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 EventJuly 1921 item from the Indiana Evening Gazette: Tower No. 3 to be erected near St. Lawrence on land owned by Henry Loidon, covering parts of Cambria and Clearfield counties.Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1921 and 1978
  4. 1978 RemovedRegister says the tower was removed in 1978.Source: firetower.org
  5. No record between 1978 and 2008
  6. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered September 16, 2008 (FFLOS US 494, PA 323).Source: firetower.org
  7. 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 Department of Forestry planned a fire observation tower near Saint Lawrence, in Cambria County, for the summer of 1921.1 A July 1921 item from the Indiana Evening Gazette called it Tower No. 3, to stand on land owned by Henry Loidon and to cover parts of Cambria and Clearfield counties.1 An August 1921 report in Forest Leaves listed Saint Lawrence in the first batch of 18 towers to go up that summer.1

The register describes it as a steel Aermotor tower, built in 1921 and removed in 1978.2 Its entry gives an elevation of about 673 metres (2,207 feet) and was added to the register in September 2008.2 No source we read describes what remains at the site today or whether visitors can reach it.

  1. Saint Lawrence - Forest Lookouts, Eastern US Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/saint-lawrence.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Saint Lawrence Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/saint-lawrence-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: 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, 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.