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Fire lookout · Clarion County, Pennsylvania

Strattanville Tower Site

Clarion County, PA steel lookout built in 1928 and removed in 1964; a 2012 survey recovery note confirms the tower is gone. No source describes the site today.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Removed in 1964 per the register and Forest Lookouts; a 2012 recovery note on the survey record says the lookout tower has been removed

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 towerGalvanized steel tower with a watchman's cabin; about 90 ft total height (1928 report); the register calls it a steel Aermotor towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
1928
Height
90 ft (27.4 m)
Elevation
1,503 ft (458 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters (maintained the tower, per the 1930 report)
Land
Unknown
Location
Clarion County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.18590, −79.34643 sources disagree
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-strattanville

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 3.4 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. 1928 BuiltCompleted in 1928 and officially designated the Strattonville Fire Tower, per the November 1928 report; register gives 1928Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1930 AlteredRotating beacon of 2,000,000 candle power placed on top, per the June 1930 reportSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. No record between 1930 and 1964
  4. 1964 RemovedRegister and Forest Lookouts both give 1964Sources: firetower.org, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  5. No record between 1964 and 2008
  6. 2008 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered September 16, 2008Source: firetower.org
  7. 2012 EventSurvey recovery note credited to Geocaching 2012 says the lookout tower has been removedSource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  8. 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 Strattanville fire tower stood on a hill just west of the borough of Strattanville, in Clarion County, Pennsylvania.1,2 A November 1928 newspaper report called it the Strattonville Fire Tower.2 It was built on a one-acre tract that the Commonwealth had bought from the Eureka Mining Company.2

The tower was galvanized steel, with a cabin on top for a watchman. The cabin floor sat about 80 feet above the ground, and the whole structure was about 90 feet tall.2 The register gives the type as an Aermotor design in steel, and dates it to 1928.1

Sources differ on how high the hill was. The 1928 report gave 1,600 feet, a 1930 report gave 1,700 feet, and the register lists the site at 1,503 feet (458 meters).1,2

In June 1930 a rotating beacon of two million candlepower was placed on top. The U.S. Department of Commerce and the Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters arranged it through joint action, and the state department, the report said, maintained the tower.2 The same report said the tower would no longer be open to public inspection, because of dangers from high-voltage wires.2

The tower was removed in 1964.1,2 A federal survey description from 1958 placed the survey station about a mile west of Strattanville and half a mile south of U.S. Highway 322.2 A 2012 recovery note on the survey record says the lookout tower had been removed.2

We found no source that describes what, if anything, is left at the site today, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Strattanville Tower Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/pa/strattanville-tower-site/ (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩
  2. Strattenville, Forest Lookouts, reproducing the November 1928 and June 1930 newspaper reports and a National Geodetic Survey datasheet, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/strattenville.html (accessed 2026-10-10). ↩

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 location by 1.8 km (1.1 mi).

    • FFLOS: 41.18590, −79.34643
    • FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com): 41.20110, −79.33980

    The map uses the position from FFLOS.

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: 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, 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.