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Fire lookout · Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania

Scrub Oak Tower Site

Steel Aermotor fire tower on Scrub Oak Mountain in the Lackawanna State Forest, built 1921 and removed in 1989 per FFLOS; no source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1989 according to FFLOS

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 tower (FFLOS); a 1959 survey describes a four-legged steel structure with a glass-enclosed cabThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
64 ft (19.5 m)
Elevation
Unknown
Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.38150, −75.59350
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-scrub-oak

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 its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.5 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 BuiltBuilt in 1921 per FFLOS; a July 1921 item said the Pennsylvania department of forestry would erect steel towers that summer, one of them on Scrub Oak MountainSources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1921 EventA November 24, 1921 newspaper item says 813 visitors registered at the tower in the previous month, the largest count for any one towerSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1921 and 1989
  4. 1989 RemovedRemoved in 1989 per FFLOSSource: firetower.org
  5. No record between 1989 and 2008
  6. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on FFLOS September 16, 2008, nominated by Henry IsenbergSource: 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.

A steel fire tower stood on Scrub Oak Mountain, in the Lackawanna State Forest in Lackawanna County.1,2 In July 1921 the state's forestry department announced twenty-two more steel fire towers for that summer, and one of them was to go on Scrub Oak Mountain.2 The register dates the tower to 1921 and calls it a steel Aermotor tower.1

A 1959 Coast and Geodetic Survey station description, quoted on the Forest Lookouts page, calls the Scranton Scrub Oak tower a four-legged steel structure. Its cab was glass-enclosed, painted orange, and topped with a black conical roof. The survey put the overall height at about 64 feet.2

A November 1921 newspaper item said 813 people had registered at the Scrub Oak tower the previous month, more than at any other tower.2

The register says the tower was removed in 1989.1

No source we read describes what remains on the mountain today, or whether the site is open to the public.

  1. Scrub Oak Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/scrub-oak-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Scrub Oak, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/scrub-oak.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, agency, 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
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, 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

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