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Fire lookout · Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

Stony Mountain "Moon" Lookout

Also known as Stony Mountain Tower Site

Standing 100-ft steel Moon Tower on State Game Lands 211, Dauphin County; NHLR dates it 1922, while other sources give 1923 for an older tower and 1967 for the standing one.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Open to the public. On State Game Lands No. 211; reached on foot from a game land gate on Ellendale Road. The Stony Valley history site says climbing is not advisable.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
No, you have to hike
Trail
Park at the pulloff by the game land gate and walk about two miles up Rattling Run Road / Horse-Shoe Trail, then about 0.5 miles to the tower. NHLR describes a four-hour hike and Stony Valley gives distances; the two measure the walk differently.
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing sources disagree
Type
Cab on a towerSteel tower with a wrap-around catwalk, unusual for Pennsylvania; Willhite identifies the standing structure as a Caldwell Model Tower.The design: Blaw-Knox
Built of
Steel
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
1,633 ft (498 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
40.43370, −76.77580
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-stony-mountain-moon

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 3.2 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. 1922 BuiltNHLR gives 1922 for the standing lookout, built by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company as a 100-foot steel tower.Source: nhlr.org
  2. 1923 BuiltA 60-foot Blaw-Knox tower built by company fire wardens at the original site, about 2 miles northeast along the Appalachian Trail.Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  3. No record between 1923 and 1967
  4. 1967 Replaced by a new structureFFLOS says the Blaw-Knox tower was replaced in 1967; Willhite says the present Caldwell tower was built in 1967 further down the ridge.Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com
  5. No record between 1967 and 2008
  6. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterListed on the Former Fire Lookout Sites register as US 498, the former tower site.Source: firetower.org
  7. 2018 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterListed on NHLR as US 1262, registered January 15, 2018.Source: nhlr.org
  8. 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 Stony Mountain "Moon" Lookout stands on a ridge in Dauphin County, and its history depends a little on which tower you mean.1 The National Historic Lookout Register dates the standing lookout to 1922, when the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company built it as a 100-foot steel tower.2 Other sources put the first tower on the mountain at 1923, a 60-foot Blaw-Knox built about two miles northeast along the Appalachian Trail, and say the tower standing today went up in 1967 further down the ridge.3,1

The early tower was put up and staffed by fire wardens working for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company.1 The Stony Valley history site says those wardens first protected the area, and that by the mid-1900s it needed some extra help.4

The first tower did not stay on its site.4 The Stony Valley history site says it was taken down by the 1970s. A replacement went up further down the mountain, which the site suggests gives the better outlook.4 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register lists the older site and says its tower was replaced in 1967.3 Today a small campsite sits at the old location, with space for around three tents.1

The standing tower is administered by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, and the Register added it on January 15, 2018.2 It sits in State Game Lands No. 211, where the Stony Valley site calls it the tallest structure.4 Reaching it means walking.4 From a game land gate on Ellendale Road, the Stony Valley site has visitors walk about two miles up Rattling Run Road and the Horse-Shoe Trail, then roughly half a mile more.4 The Register puts the hike at four hours and says people commonly gather there and camp.2 The two sources measure the walk differently, one by time and one by distance, so its length is unclear.2,4

Stony Valley says it is not advisable to climb the tower.4 Willhite reports that people climb it regardless of requests not to.1

  1. Stony Mountain Fire Lookout, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/appalachian_trail/fire_lookouts/stony_mountain/tower_133.htm (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Stony Mountain "Moon" Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/stony-mountain-moon-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Stony Mountain Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register, Forest Fire Lookout Association, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/stony-mountain-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Top Ten Historic Sites in Stony Valley & Surrounds, No. 8: Stony Mountain Fire Tower, StonyValley.com, http://www.stonyvalley.com/firetower.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Stony Mountain "Moon" Lookout
Photo: Brandon Spaulding, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Stony Mountain
Stony MountainPhoto: Shawn Lesitsky -- PA Fire Towers StoryMap (Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps) · source

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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 whether it still stands.

    • NHLR: Standing
    • FFLOS: Gone
    • Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): Standing

    NHLR lists lookouts that were standing when registered.

  • Sources disagree on the year it was built.

    • NHLR: 1922
    • Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky): 1967

    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, type, what it is built of, 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. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: 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
  3. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (ArcGIS StoryMap, Shawn Lesitsky) Gave us: height, ownership, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, 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

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