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Fire lookout · Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Shaffers Path Tower Site

Lycoming County steel lookout built 1921 and removed 1975. Newspapers place it on three different mountains. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1975 per the register and the Forest Lookouts page; no source describes the site now.

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, per the registerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
Unknown
Elevation
1,980 ft (604 m)
Agency
Tiadaghton State Forest
Land
State land
Location
Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.20897, −76.95691
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-shaffers-path

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 3.9 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 build yearSource: firetower.org
  2. 1924 StaffedWilliam Yaney named as towerman in a November 1924 itemSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1924 and 1939
  4. 1939 FireSylvan Dell forest fire reported by a note dropped from a plane; burned over only three acres before CCC men put it outSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1939 EventKey station of the district's short-wave radio system, per an April 1939 itemSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1939 StaffedWilliam Kurtz named as towerman in a November 1939 itemSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1944 EventSite kept closed to the public at the request of Army security and prisoner-of-war officials; supervised hikes could get permitsSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1944 StaffedWilliam Loriner said to man the tower throughout the year, per an October 1944 itemSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  9. No record between 1944 and 1975
  10. 1975 RemovedRemoval year given by the register and the Forest Lookouts pageSources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  11. No record between 1975 and 2008
  12. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered on the Former Fire Lookout Sites registerSource: firetower.org
  13. 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 state register dates the Shaffers Path tower to 1921 and describes it as a steel Aermotor tower 1. The land was part of the Tiadaghton State Forest 2. Newspaper items quoted on the Forest Lookouts page place the tower on three different mountains: White Deer Mountain in 1924, Bald Eagle Mountain in 1939 and 1940, and Elmsport Mountain in 1944 2.

The towermen named in those items were William Yaney in 1924, William Kurtz in 1939, and William Loriner, whom an October 1944 item said manned the tower all year 2.

In April 1939 the district began installing a short-wave radio system, with the key station at this tower 2. That November a pilot who spotted a forest fire at Sylvan Dell dropped a note at the tower, and the towerman used the new radio to pass the warning to headquarters 2. CCC men from Elmsport put the fire out after it had burned over only three acres 2.

In December 1939 a lease with the state Department of Forests and Waters for use of the tower's facilities was signed, and it allowed a beacon light for the municipal airport to be built at the tower 2. By July 1940 the city planned to build its own beacon tower on the mountain, near the fire tower 2.

In 1944 Army security and prisoner-of-war officials asked the state department to keep people away from the site, which overlooked an ordnance reservation, and the district said supervised hikes could still get permits 2.

The register and the Forest Lookouts page both give 1975 as the year the tower was removed 1,2.

No source I found describes what remains at the site, and I could not find whether the public can reach it. A map database still lists a Shaffers Path Lookout Tower in Clinton Township, but that entry does not describe the site 3.

  1. Shaffers Path Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/shaffers-path-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Shaffers Path, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/shaffers-path.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Shaffers Path Lookout Tower, Mapcarta, https://mapcarta.com/22768880 (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: 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, status, agency, 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.