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Fire lookout · Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Sprout Point Tower Site

Lycoming County, PA steel tower built 1921 on Holmes Hill, moved in 1938 and renamed Sprout Point, removed 1985; a trail guide describes the site, not any standing structure.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1985 per the register; the trail guide does not say whether any structure remains

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent. You may still be able to visit the site.

Access

Open to the public. State forest land reached by an ungraded dirt road and a short hike, per a trail guide; no agency page for the site was found

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
The road ends at the old tower site. The tower itself cannot be reached by vehicle; an easy hike up the trail reaches the location, per the trail guide.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a towerSteel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1921
Height
Unknown
Elevation
2,263 ft (690 m)
Agency
Tiadaghton State Forest
Land
State land
Location
Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.47869, −76.80190
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-sprout-point

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 3.3 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. 1921 BuiltHolmes Hurst steel Aermotor tower built 1921 per the register; hauled by truck to its site on Holmes Hill in August 1921Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1922 StaffedTowerman M.E. McNett of Leolyn listed at the Holmes Hill tower, before the tower movedSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1922 and 1937
  4. 1937 EventGazette and Bulletin: Holmes Hurst tower to be dismantled after the fall season; a new tower being erected on Sprout PointSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. 1938 MovedMoved from Holmes Hurst and renamed Sprout Point; the register also gives 1938 as its build yearSources: firetower.org, firetower.org
  6. No record between 1938 and 1985
  7. 1985 RemovedRegister: removed in 1985Source: firetower.org
  8. No record between 1985 and 2008
  9. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: September 16, 2008Source: FFLOS register entry
  10. 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 Sprout Point tower began its working life on Holmes Hill, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.1,2 In August 1921 the Wellsboro Gazette reported that the department of forestry's new fire tower had been carried to its site by truck.2 The register's Holmes Hurst entry gives 1921 as the build year of a steel Aermotor tower, which appears to be the same structure.3

A towerman, M.E. McNett of Leolyn, was listed at the Holmes Hill tower in April 1922.2

In October 1937 the Gazette and Bulletin reported that the Holmes Hurst tower near Masten would be taken down after the fall season, and that a new tower was going up on a higher peak, Sprout Point.4 The Sprout Point register entry gives 1938 as the build year and says the tower was moved from Holmes Hurst.1,3 We read the 1937 article and the 1938 date as the same project, finished a year later, though no source says so directly.1,4

A trail guide tells the same story: the original tower near Masten was taken down, and a bigger replacement went up on a higher spot at Sprout Point.5 The register says the Sprout Point tower was removed in 1985.1

Sources differ on the forest. The Forest Lookouts page places the site in Tiadachton State Forest, but the state spells the name Tiadaghton.4,6 The trail guide places the road in Loyalsock State Forest.5

Today, the trail guide describes an ungraded dirt road, with no winter maintenance, that ends at the old tower site. The tower itself cannot be reached by vehicle, but an easy hike up the trail reaches the location.5 The guide does not say whether any part of the tower still stands, and no other source we read does either.5,1

  1. Sprout Point Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/sprout-point-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Holmes Hurst, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/holmes-hurst.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  3. Holmes Hurst Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/holmes-hurst-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  4. Sprout Point, Forest Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/sprout-point.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  5. Sprout Point Road, onX Offroad, https://www.onxmaps.com/offroad/trails/us/pennsylvania/sprout-point-road-k36n325mez9j (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  6. Tiadaghton State Forest, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/where-to-go/state-forests/find-a-forest/tiadaghton (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, access, 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

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