FirefinderFire lookouts of the US

Fire lookout · Forest County, Pennsylvania

Tionesta Fire Tower

Aermotor LS-40 tower in Forest County, PA, administered by the Bureau of Forestry; built 1928 per the register, 1929 per the storymap; no visiting notes.

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

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a towerAermotor LS-40 towerThe design: Aermotor LS-40
Built of
SteelGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1928
Height
80 ft (24.4 m)
Elevation
1,746 ft (532 m)
Agency
Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry
Land
State land
Location
Forest County, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
41.57167, −79.50518
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-pa-tionesta

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 3.3 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. 1928 BuiltRegister's build year. The storymap gives 1929.Sources: nhlr.org, arcgis.com
  2. 1937 StaffedFourth annual picnic of the Tionesta Fire Tower crew, held at the tower west of Tionesta (Titusville Herald item)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1947 StaffedTowerman at the Tionesta tower also spotted a column of smoke (Titusville Herald item)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1947 and 1968
  5. 1968 EventPainting crew of four Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters employees; a black bear came less than 40 feet from one of them (News-Herald item)Source: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  6. No record between 1968 and 2017
  7. 2017 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered December 6, 2017Source: 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 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

The Tionesta Fire Tower stands in Forest County, in northwestern Pennsylvania.1,2 The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry administers it, and the register describes an 80-foot Aermotor LS-40 tower.1

The register dates the tower to 1928 and says it has protected the county's northwest corner since then.1 The storymap of the state's fire towers gives 1929 instead, and places the tower in Cornplanter State Forest.2 The two sources differ by a year, and we found no third source to settle it.

Newspaper items reprinted on the Eastern U.S. Lookouts page show the tower in use.3 An August 1937 Titusville Herald piece describes the fourth annual picnic of the Tionesta Fire Tower crew, held at the tower west of Tionesta.3 An April 1947 item from the same paper says the towerman at the Tionesta tower also spotted the smoke, and that a call from the airport made a crew trip unnecessary.3 In June 1968 a painting crew worked on the tower, which a News-Herald item places just off the Neiltown-Tionesta road. The item says a black bear came less than 40 feet from one of the four Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters employees on the job, and that a fire warden's dwelling stood nearby.3

The register added the tower on December 6, 2017, with a photo by Ron Stafford.1 We found no source saying it has been moved, rebuilt or removed.

We also found no public visiting or climbing information. Check with the Bureau of Forestry before you go, and do not climb the tower without permission.

  1. Tionesta Fire Tower, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/pa/tionesta-fire-tower/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Fire Towers of Pennsylvania (StoryMap data, Shawn Lesitsky), Esri ArcGIS, https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/ed47c97ebe7246868ce8ef3e7139a0b4/data (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Tionesta - Forest Lookouts (reprinted newspaper items), Eastern U.S. Lookouts, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/tionesta.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Tionesta Fire Tower
Photo: Ron Stafford, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Tionesta Tower
Tionesta 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.

Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, 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: what it is built of, design, height, ownership, photos, links Pennsylvania fire towers StoryMap (ArcGIS) · No licence stated; facts only (county, agency, built year, height, builder). · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  3. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, agency, 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.