FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Centre County, Pennsylvania

Snow Shoe Fire Tower

A 60-ft Aermotor erected in 1921 was replaced by a newer tower around 2018 in Centre County, Pennsylvania; current staffing and access are unconfirmed.

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 (as of 1977)

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotorThe design: Aermotor
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
1,827 ft (557 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Land
Unknown
Location
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.02659, −77.95919
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-snow-shoe

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 3.5 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 BuiltFirst tower on the site: a 60-foot Aermotor, per Eastern US Lookouts and the registerSources: nhlr.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1921 and 1977
  3. 1977 FireDebris fire burned the area around the tower; the operator had to leave the tower to avoid smoke (1977 Lock Haven Express report as quoted)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1977 StaffedTower operator on duty in 1977; last staffing record foundSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1977 and 2017
  6. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 6, 2017 as US 1255, PA 24Source: nhlr.org
  7. 2018 Built'Built' field on NHLR detail pageSource: NHLR register entry
  8. 2018 Replaced by a new structureRegister says the current tower was built circa 2018 as part of the state modernization and replaced the 1921 towerSources: nhlr.org, firelookout.org
  9. 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.

The Snow Shoe fire tower stands in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in and around the borough that shares its name.1 The first tower on the site was a 60-foot Aermotor erected in 1921.1,2 A 1926 newspaper report, quoted on the same lookout history page, put the tower at about 2,000 feet and said it sat practically within the borough limits.1

In 1977 a debris fire got out of control around the tower and forced the operator out of it to avoid the smoke.1 I found no record of who staffed the tower in other years, or for how long.

The current tower is a newer structure. The register says it was built around 2018 as part of Pennsylvania's program to modernize its fire tower fleet, and that it replaced the 60-foot Aermotor.2 A 2018 Pennsylvania chapter report from the Forest Fire Lookout Association says the Commonwealth is replacing many of its older towers with new structures, a job to be done in several phases over several years.3 The 1921 and 2018 dates do not truly conflict, since they belong to different structures on the same site.2,1

The register lists the tower as US 1255, PA 24, registered on December 6, 2017, and administered by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.2 I did not find a source that says whether the tower is staffed today or open to visitors, so check with the Bureau before planning a visit.

  1. Snow Shoe - Forest Lookouts, Eastern US Lookouts (easternuslookouts.weebly.com), https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/snow-shoe.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Snow Shoe Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org), http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/snow-shoe-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Pennsylvania chapter report, 2018, Forest Fire Lookout Association, https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-pa-2018.pdf (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
1921 tower, now demolished
1921 tower, now demolished (1921)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
August 2022 photo
August 2022 photo (2022)Photo: Jeff Ruckle, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Snowshoe Tower
Snowshoe 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.

Where sources disagree

We show disagreements between sources instead of quietly picking one. If you know which is right, please tell us.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 2018
    • Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): 1921

    Sources give different build years. Often one counts the first lookout on the site and another the structure there now.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, 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: type, what it is built of, design, 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: height, 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, 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.